An overview of the accessibility guidelines

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines became a W3C recommendation in 1999. The purpose of the guidelines is to explain the accessible use of web technologies for those who create websites. This is achieved through 14 guidelines, with a total of 60 checkpoints, that you must follow to make sure a site is accessible.

Here are the fourteen guidelines:

Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content
Don't rely on colour alone
Use markup and style sheets and do so properly
Clarify the usage of natural language
Create tables that transform gracefully
Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully
Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes
Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces
Design for device-independence
Use interim solutions
Use W3C technologies and guidelines
Provide context and orientation information
Provide clear navigation mechanisms
Ensure that documents are clear and simple

The checkpoints are broken down into three different priority levels:

• Priority 1. You must satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it impossible to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint is a basic requirement for some groups to be able to use web pages
• Priority 2. You should satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will remove significant barriers to accessing web pages
• Priority 3. You may address this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it somewhat difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will improve access to web pages

If your site conforms to one of the three levels, you may then display a logo, linked to the appropriate W3C explanation of the claim. Alternatively, you can specify conformance through a text explanation.

The W3C's site has links to FAQs, official recommendations, and techniques to create accessible sites. Try these links:

• Refer to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines for the official recommendations
• The W3C's Fact Sheet is a good introduction to the W3C Accessibility Guidelines, why they matter, how to implement them and where to find more information
• The Techniques for Web Content Accessibility is a key section to help you learn how to implement the Accessibility Guidelines. It summarises the guidelines and gives references to more detailed information about the individual guidelines
• The Core Techniques describe how to separate structure from content, alternative pages, validation, and browser support
• The CSS Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines describe how to use CSS effectively to help accessibility
• The HTML Techniques sections help you to create accessible HTML. This section includes how to work with frames, audio, forms, scripts, lists, and more