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Re: WCAG - Fail or not to - Static text tab-focusable in tables

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From: Steve Green
Date: Jan 2, 2021 1:49PM

" Yet another reason to avoid performing "WCAG audits". I believe they're hurtful, and clients who want to only stick to it are cheaper served by any fly-by-night "a11y experts"."

I don't often disagree with you, but that's absolute nonsense. The reality is that the vast majority of organisations are only interested in legal compliance. That can mean different things in different countries. For US organisations that are covered by Section 508, it means conformance with WCAG 2.0 rather than 2.1. In the UK, all public sector organisations must meet WCAG 2.1, but there are exceptions for certain types of content.

In what possible way is it hurtful to achieve AA conformance? If you're suggesting that level AA isn't enough, then where do you draw the line and why? It's always possible to do more, so any line is arbitrary and it's a matter of diminishing returns after that.

And the idea that there are "fly-by-night a11y experts" who can competently test for WCAG conformance is wishful thinking. In the UK there are probably no more than 10 testing companies and a handful of freelancers who can conduct a WCAG audit competently. It's really, really difficult and takes many thousands of hours of study and experience. Most of the test reports I have seen from other organisations and freelancers are very poor. Of course there are some notable exceptions in this forum.

Steve