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The future of WCAG – maximising its strengths not its weaknesses

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From: Dr Jonathan Hassell
Date: Jan 8, 2013 3:00AM

2012 was a year of real ups and downs for the de-facto Standard for accessibility, WCAG 2.0.

It’s finally become ratified as an international Standard. It’s been included in legislation in Europe, Canada and the USA.


At the same time it’s also had its value questioned by academic research, and the achievability of its AAA level questioned by some voices in the accessibility community. Calls for it to be updated are becoming louder and louder. And frameworks like BS 8878, in which WCAG 2.0 can be more successfully integrated with the practicalities of real-world web product development, are gaining support in the commercial and academic worlds.


So, with the growing movement for WCAG 2.0 to replace national standards and thus harmonise accessibility standards globally, it's a good time to summarise WCAG 2.0's strengths and weaknesses, what strengths other national standards have that it may lack, and what will be needed to make it a much better 'harmonised Standard' for the future.

Read my blog at http://www.hassellinclusion.com/2013/01/wcag-future/

And please let me know (on the blog, or here on the webaim list) what you think...

Is WCAG overdue an update? Or is it more important to have a stable standard than keeping it up with the latest web trends?

Best regards

Jonathan

Prof Jonathan Hassell
Director, Hassell Inclusion

Blog: http://hassellinclusion.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jonhassell