Today I received an email from the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) that they had just published the First Public Working Draft of WCAG 3.0 (opens in new window) and I wanted to write a short summary here.
Major improvements towards understanding
WCAG 3 will be easier to understand and much more flexible that WCAG 2 is – as it will be more technology agnostic and covering much more than just the web and mobile – like wearable devices, web of things / internet of things (IoT) and virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) . It will also address people with disabilities and even organizations on the matter.
The guidelines will also address other web related tools – browsers, assistive technologies and other user agents and also authoring tools, content management systems (CMS) and even testing tools.
A lot will be changed also in scope, structure and even conformance model will be renewed.
Needs of users with cognitive and learning disabilities will also be taken into concern.
WCAG 3 will still include most of success criteria from WCAG 2 but also UAAG and ATAG
We’ll have to wait for the final document of course, but it is reassuring that WCAG 2 will still be relevant in the new version. This is a good indicator about the current accessibility efforts still being relevant in the future.
It is important to notice that WCAG 3 will also include and extend parts of User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) and Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG). This is a major difference as for now those are treated separately.
WCAG 2 conformance will still remain
When reaching conformance to WCAG 2 it will still remain even when WCAG 3 will be current. It is therefore important to notice that conformance will remain but on that level alone.
Goals of WCAG 3
Goals for version 3 of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are:
- it will be easier to understand and easier to use, also for not technical people,
- it will cover more user needs, including people with cognitive disabilities,
- it will be more flexible and address different types of content, apps, tools and organizations,
- account for different impacts of real-world user issues,
- minor bugs that do not have big impact on the user experience will not invalidate conformance to WCAG
Timelines and other info
The development schedule goes into year 2023 but there will be lots of opportunities for comments and discussions along the way. WCAG 3 introduction page (opens in new window) have the latest info about the details and possibilities for you to comment.
This is again an exiting news for accessibility and I am looking forward to read the whole draft and maybe even contribute where I find it is needed.
