Today W3C announced a new standard that will help Web designers and developers create sites that better meet the needs of users with disabilities and older users. Drawing on extensive experience and community feedback, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 improve upon W3C's groundbreaking initial standard for accessible Web content, apply to more advanced technologies, and are more precisely testable.It's taken nearly 8 years, but we finally have a follow-up to the groundbreaking but desperately outdated first version of the international guidelines for creating accessible websites.
I've previously been in contact with the Central Office of Information to find out how quickly they'll be recommending that public sector organisations start adopting the new guidelines. Now that WCAG 2.0 is finalised, we'll hopefully see the Delivering Inclusive Websites document updated by mid-2009, but there's nothing stopping organisations preempting this and indeed I'd hope most will already be doing just that.
We can now look forward to designers across the globe rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck into the new standards, and I'm sure the collaboration that will come from this will make it a smooth transition. A starter for ten can be found in the WCAG 2.0 resources over at the Web Standards Project.
Good luck!
Other excited people
- Jack Pickard (The Pickards) - WCAG 2.0 Breaking News
- Roger Johansson (456 Berea Street ) - WCAG 2.0 finally a W3C Recommendation
- Jared Smith (WebAIM)- WCAG 2.0 Finalized
- Joe Dolson - WCAG 2 Reaches Recommendation Status
- Steve Faulkner (Paciello Group Blog) - Goodbye WCAG 1.0, Hello WCAG 2.0
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