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Re: Difference Between MAS & WCAG

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Dec 3, 2019 5:48AM

Without knowing much about MAS, the general diffeence between WCAG and
platform standards is that WCAG is technology agnostic (well, it is
somewhat web based, but it tries to be technology agnostic) whereas
platform standards are more focused on the exact implementation.
In other words, WCAG describes the goal, platform standards often
describe how to achieve that goal.

For instance, WCAG 1.1.1 says all informational images must hvae a
text alternative.
In HTML you use an alt attribute on an <img> element
In SVG you use the <title> element
For unicode images and emoticons you use role="img" and the aria-label attribute
On iOS you use the image trait and accessiblityLabel
On Android you use contentDescription and so on.

So providing text alternative for images is the goal, the goal is set
by WCAG, achieving that goal depends on the platfrom and technology
you are using, that's typically where platform standards come into
play.
Sometimes platform standards either do not address all of WCAG or go
beyond WCAG and make additional requirements.
That's where accessibility experts need to understand the standard,
understand WCAG and make a judgment call on how to deal with the
inconsistencies.



On 12/3/19, John Hicks < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hello James
> I don't know the details of MAS nor am I sure that I understand your
> question (are you asking about what they cover differently or are you
> asking about what is their origin?).
>
> I reckon that the starting point is to contemplate the difference between
> Microsoft and the W3C. The purpose of each entity is totally different.
>
> Then there is the origin of their "standards" which in the case of the W3C
> come from committed but generally unpaid people contributing to working
> groups and building a consensual (mostly) series of recommendations.
>
> I am interested to know more about MAS ... and would be curious as to
> whether or not EDGE on Windows 10 was "MAS conformant"
> (it certainly wasn't accessible).
>
> John
>
> Le mar. 3 déc. 2019 à 09:26, james mathu < <EMAIL REMOVED> > a
> écrit :
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I have a little bit of confusion between MAS (Microsoft Accessibility
>> Standards) & WCAG. What is the difference between these two and how MAS
>> different from WCAG?
>>
>> Can anybody please help me with the clarification.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> James
>> >> >> >> >>
> > > > >


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