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Re: Conforming alternate version

for

From: Mark Magennis
Date: Jan 12, 2022 3:45AM


Has this website arrived from the 1990's via a time machine? You just don't see this approach any more, though back in the day the accessible alternative was widely promoted as a good idea.

It's great that you're getting to test it with users. Nice to see that and good luck to you.

Aside from the compliance issue (which I know is what you asked about), there were (or are) a number of problems with 'accessible versions' that caused them to go away. I hope the owners of this website are aware of these problems and are taking measures to prevent them:

- The 'accessible version' was often specifically aimed at screen reader users (typically removing all images for example) and offered a worse experience in some ways for some other users with disabilities, e.g. sighted keyboard users and magnification users. Those users therefore had a choice between two versions, neither of which met their needs.
- It required the user to understand what 'accessible' means and that "it applies to my needs" (I originally got into accessibility when my web dev company misunderstood a client's request for a website that was "accessible". We thought it meant "easy to find").
- In practice, the accessible version often had issues that were not noticed by the admins or were given a lower priority for fixing and therefore persisted for a longer time than they would have on the 'standard' version.
- In practice, the 'standard' version often had content and functionality that was not included in the accessible version.
- It was seen by many users as a form of ghetoisation. A special place for people with disabilities. Better than just having one inaccessible website, but still a subtle form of exclusion.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Zsolt Edelényi
Sent: 12 January 2022 09:51
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [WebAIM] Conforming alternate version

Hello,

WCAG 2.1 allows conforming alternate versions. There is a website :
_https://www.kmmk.hu/ <https://www.kmmk.hu/>_, which has a accessible
clone: _https://am.kmmk.hu/ <https://am.kmmk.hu/>_.

I wonder if this is allowed in WCAG 2.1? The main website has links are presented the same as text in all pages. But the first item is an accessible button, which leads to the accessible clone, where links are underlined and there are other accessibility

Some of my testers, which permanently us AT says that this perfect for them. They use the conforming alternate version all the time.

But there are testers, who are not using AT, and they hardly find the links, and others are see the low-contrast letters on the main website.
They don't go to the accessible version, because they never use it and they don't think that this is usable for them.

And all testers has a little bit of annoying, that  accessible clone is are the same than the original.

I studied WCAG: conforming alternate version <https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#dfn-conforming-alternate-version>, and also found SCR38 Creating a conforming alternate version for a web page designed with progressive enhancement <https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/SCR38.html>
_<https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/SCR38.html>_but this is not the case.

What do you think, this solution is conforming WCAG 2.1? (Let's suppose that the accissible clone is WCAG-conform)



I would very appreciate your thoughts.

--
Zsolt Edelényi
Web Accessibility Specialist
Mobile: +36205617144
email: <EMAIL REMOVED>