IT Professionals Forum
Web Accessibility Update: WCAG 2.0, IITAA 2.0 and FAE 2.0

Web Accessibility Update: WCAG 2.0, IITAA 2.0 and FAE 2.0

Jon Gunderson, Disability Resources and Education Services

Nicholas Hoyt, Disability Resources and Education Services and Illinois IT Accessibility Initiative

Illinois IT Accessibility Initiative

Illinois IT Access Initiative

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

Major New Features of WCAG 2.0

• Accessible error reporting for invalid form controls
• Accessible scripting
• Updated color contrast requirements
• Extensive requirements for media captions and audio descriptions, dependent on:
• Prerecorded or live
• Video, audio or both
• Link accessibility requirements
• Use of headers and landmarks
• Single-A and Double-A Success criteria are the basis for changes in Section 508 requirements

Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act 2.0 Update

• The act required review of requirements every 3 years
• Harmonization with new Section 508 Requirements

Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act 2.0 Update

Functional Accessibility Evaluator 1.1

• Over a million web pages analyzed
• Over 3,000 registered users
• Supports the analysis of dynamically generated content (onload events and inline script)
• Updated table rules
• Added XML results data export feature

Illinois Functional Accessibility Evaluator 1.1

OpenAjax Alliance and Open Source Web Accessibility Rules

• Open source javascript based rules for implementation of WCAG 2.0 success criteria
• Support for W3C Accessible Rich Internet Application (ARIA) markup and HTML5
• Provide common rules for web accessibility evaluation tools
• Industry consortium (100+ companies including IBM and Google)

OpenAjax Alliance Accessibility Task Force

Functional Accessibility Evaluator 2.0

• Auditing tool for measuring compliance
• Support IITAA, WCAG 2.0 and Section 508 report organization
• Use of OpenAjax rules and ruleset for accessibility evaluation
• Archive and manage reports
• Generate periodic (i.e monthly) reports automatically
• Generate trend information
• Export reports for use by other analysis and archiving tools
• Potentially open source

Accessibility Inspectors for Firefox and Firebug

• Replace current Accessibility Evaluator for Firefox
• Provide accessibility information during development and testing
• Use of OpenAjax rules and rulesets
• Visualization support similar to WAVE toolbar
• Inspector support like current Accessibility Evaluator for Firefox
• Support ARIA and HTML5 markup inspection
• Provide views of information to improve manual checking for accessibility, for example:
  • Headings and landmarks
  • Form controls and widgets
  • Links
  • Images
  • Colour contrast
  • Data table headers

 Accessibility Inspector for Firefox

Accessibility Inspector for Firefox

Accessibility Inspector for Firebug

Accessibility Inspector for Firebug

Support Accessible Web Production

• HTML and Javascript developers
• Web/Graphic designers
• Content providers and editors
• Compliance monitors

How Can You Help?

• Participating in testing and evaluation of new tools
• Participating in testing OpenAjax rules
• Participating in the Web Accessibility Best Practices group