By CFA Australia CEO Dr. Scott Hollier. Scott is a W3C WAI Invited Expert and Co-convenor for the Research Questions Task Force (RQTF).
After the release of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 in October last year, you could be mistaken for thinking that this year would be a calmer progression of standards work. However, with updates to the WCAG 3.0 draft and a series of other W3C advisory Notes and standards continuing to be developed, 2024 has represented an important year of progress in the work of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
Arguably the biggest update has been the ongoing development of the WCAG 3.0 draft. Although the standard is unlikely to be published soon, the work has included important updates such as – A focus on user-centred outcomes and requirements, improved guidelines for image alternatives, keyboard focus appearance, and clear meaning.
There are also new techniques highlighting the specific applicability of the guidelines to user agents such as web browser and assistive technologies. The updated standard will also refine how web content issues are assessed for severity. As WCAG 3.0 is poised to replace WCAG 2.x entirely, the ongoing draft development is expected to generate significant interest in 2025.
It’s also been exciting to see the draft of the updated WAI-ARIA 1.3. The importance of Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) in providing additional information to assistive technologies such as screen readers including navigation, location and live data has become integral in recent years to website development, and the new version represents further improvements for this engagement.
Internationalisation is always a critical part of W3C WAI work, and it’s been great to see several language translations after the WCAG 2.2 release last year. Official translations include Dutch and Catalan. Given the technical nature of the standard, it can be difficult to use automated language translations so official translations make a big difference.
One piece of work that has seen an update after a long period of time is WCAG2ICT that looks at how WCAG can apply to other types of content such as software. This has provided great guidance now that it has been finalised.
One of the exciting pieces of work I’ve personally been involved in with the RQTF is the development of the Collaboration Tools Accessibility User Requirements (CTAUR). The purpose of the CTAUR is to identify accessibility-related user needs and requirements for web-based collaboration tools, covering both synchronous and asynchronous tools, based on various collaborative engagement scenarios. These tools typically include one or more specific collaborative features such as content editing by multiple authors, support for comments annotations, and revision control in real-time synchronous sessions, or asynchronously. Asynchronous tools are more commonly known as revision control systems rather than collaboration tools though their functionality is otherwise very similar. The Cloud-based office application suites from Google and Microsoft are well-known examples of synchronous, real-time collaboration tools, though they also support asynchronous collaboration. Web tools built on Git are well-known examples of asynchronous collaboration tools. Accessibility in tools designed to mirror in a web browser the equivalent functionality of a desktop application can be challenging, and this advice will help to ensure that accessibility is addressed in the process of collaboration within the web interface. Although this Note is currently in draft, it is close to completion and likely to be published early next year.
As the year draws to a close, I’d like to thank my colleagues in W3C WAI that continue to undertake this work, in most cases as volunteers, to continuing to support the needs of people with disability and their independence in accessing the web.