Linking research & learning technologies through standards

With Australian interest in the release of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0 (WCAG 2.0), web accessibility has emerged as a hot topic for 2009/2010. The Link Affiliates team are planning a series of blog posts from a range of interested parties on the topic of web accessibility to find out what’s happening in Australian education.

This series kicks off with a brief overview of the WCAG 2.0 specification and Australian government web accessibility requirements from Kristena Gladman. Kristena works at e-Works where she has coordinated an investigation into the impact of WCAG 2.0 on the Vocational Education and Training Sector. She has also previously worked on the Curriculum Corporation’s “The Learning Federation” project.

Accessibility can be loosely defined as the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is readily available to all users. Accessible web design should ensure that all users can access the content regardless of their location, experience or type of computer technology – particularly users with disabilities.  Web content designed without consideration of accessibility will often have access issues for people with disabilities or technological limitations.  Whilst accessibility of web content is often aligned with catering to disabled users there are significant benefits for the majority of users if content is accessible.

The need for web accessibility is recognised internationally in United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In Australia the provision of accessible web content, like equitable access to buildings, education, employment, public transport and goods and services, is covered by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) which is administered by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).

In practice, these provisions mean that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a requirement, particularly for publicly funded web content.

The first version of WCAG, WCAG 1.0 was released in 1999 and remained in force for almost 10 years. That’s a long time in the online world, and recognition of limitations of WCAG 1.0 resulted in an extensive review and user consultation process, resulting in the release of WCAG 2.0 in December 2008. The wait is on to see what level of conformance is mandated for Australia, what transition period is recommended and whether this will result in modifications to the DDA.

Currently there are some differences in the conformance requirements advocated by AHRC and the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO). These differences will need to be addressed before any announcement of Australian adoption of WCAG 2.0 can be made. In the interim the national legal standard remains WCAG 1.0 and content creators need to build to the applicable interpretation:

• content developed for, funded or owned by the Australian government is required to as minimum adhere to meet WCAG 1.0 Level A (Level A = all Priority 1 checkpoints)
• content developed for funded or owned for state or territory governments should work within the state or territory’s specific requirements – some of which are higher than Level A
• content developed for the Australian market or Australian companies is recommended to meet a minimum of WCAG 1.0 Level AA (Level “AA” = all Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints) as per the AHRC DDA advisory note of March 31, 2009.

If WCAG 2.0 lives up to its aims to allow use of more advanced technologies, be more precisely testable and to be easier to use and understand, there are potentially a number of benefits for education users and content creators but to see those benefits, deficits in content creator time and knowledge still need to be overcome.