Requirements for WCAG 3.0

WCAG 3.0 builds on the WCAG 2.0 Requirements of 2006. The WCAG 2.0 requirements are:

1. Ensure that requirements may be applied across technologies.
2. Ensure that the conformance requirements are clear.
3. Design deliverables with ease of use in mind.
4. Write to a more diverse audience.
5. Clearly identify who benefits from accessible content.
6. Ensure that the revision is "backwards and forward compatible".

WCAG 3.0 wishes to advance the WCAG 2.0 Requirements of:

• applied across technologies,
• clear conformance,
• ease of use,
• diverse audience, and
• identify who benefits.

WCAG 3.0 does not want to advance the WCAG 2.0 requirement: "Ensure that the revision is 'backwards and forward compatible'" . The intention is to include WCAG 2.x content, but migrate it to a different structure and conformance model.

The WCAG 2.1 Requirements are very specific to WCAG 2.1 and will not be advanced by WCAG 3.0. WCAG 3.0 plans to migrate the content of WCAG 2.1 to WCAG 3.0, but the WCAG 2.1 Requirements document referred to structural requirements which are specific to WCAG 2.x.

The WCAG 2.1 Requirements are:

1. Define a clear conformance model for WCAG 2.1/dot.x releases.
2. Ensure the conformance structure utilizes the WCAG 2.0 A / AA / AAA model.

WCAG 3.0 will have a broader scope than WCAG 2.x. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are scoped to Web and to Content. WCAG 3.0 is being designed to be able to include:

• Disability Needs: An improved measurement and conformance structure that includes guidance for a broad range of disabilities. This includes particular attention to the needs of low vision and cognitive accessibility, whose needs don't tend to fit the true/false statement success criteria of WCAG 2.x.
• Emerging Technologies: Flexibility to include emerging technologies, such as augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR/XR) and voice assistants
• Support for the Technologies that Impact Accessibility: Advice for all levels of the accessibility technology stack who wish to support the WCAG 3.0 core Guidelines including:
  • digital content, including guidance currently addressed by WCAG 2.x;
  • authoring tools, such as content management systems;
  • user agents, such as browsers and media players;
  • assistive technologies, such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, and assistants for memory, organization, or simplification;
  • software and web applications, including mobile apps; and
  • operating systems and other platforms who may want advice for features to better support people with disabilities.

The current project design does not intend to write separate specifications or normative requirements for the technology stack beyond digital content. The goal is to provide information that technology vendors can choose to use to improve the accessibility of their products to support the guidelines.

The research done in 2017-2018 by the Silver Task Force, the Silver Community Group, and the research partners was used to identify the key problem statements related to the current accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.x, ATAG 2.0 and UAAG 2.0). See the Silver Research Summary slides for more detailed information. These problem statements were used to identify the opportunities for WCAG 3.0 to address that will improve accessibility guidance.

A recurring theme identified in the year of WCAG 3.0 research was the popularity and quality of the WCAG 2.0 guidance. Most of the opportunities identified in the research were improvements in the structure and presentation of accessibility guidance to improve usability, support more disability needs, and improve maintenance.

In addition to the above research, an issue was raised about how to apply accessibility evaluation and conformance to large and dynamic web sites which are updated frequently. This led to development of Challenges with Accessibility Guidelines Conformance and Testing, and Approaches for Mitigating Them. Suggestions in that document are an additional source of input to these requirements.

This document has two sections: a Design Principles section and a Requirements section. Requirements need to be measured or clearly demonstrated. They are used at the W3C phase of Candidate Recommendation, where the Candidate Recommendation Transition Request reports that the requirements were met. Design Principles are important statements that are less measurable, but are used to guide, shape and steer decision-making during the development process of WCAG 3.0. Both are essential in guiding the development of the WCAG 3.0 project.

• Readable: When guidelines are easier to read and understand, users – especially people in the development cycle who are less technical – are more likely to implement accessibility. When all audiences are considered in the language and terminology used in the guidelines, the likelihood increases that they will:
  • reach a larger audience,
  • be better understood,
  • be easier to translate, and
  • be interpreted as easier to implement.
• On-ramp for Beginners: When beginning users can develop understanding and mastery of the accessibility guidance, this leads to faster and greater acceptance of accessibility. This also creates the opportunity to convince developers and project managers to include accessibility at the beginning of a project instead of the end.
• Current and Future Technology Oriented: Eliminating underlying assumptions and structure that are oriented toward the historic static web and improving guidance for modern web applications can increase acceptance by developers and provide greater accessibility of web and native applications.
• Advocacy Tool: Usability oriented toward a broad audience for WCAG 3.0 can help improve the general advocacy of digital accessibility. Improving the reach of WCAG 3.0 can help improve the awareness of accessibility considerations. Compelling information that is contextually relevant to the standards may also aid in convincing audiences of any type.

There are several areas for exploration in how conformance can work. These opportunities may or may not be incorporated. They need to work together, and that interplay will be governed by the design principles.

• Measurable Guidance: Certain accessibility guidance is best expressed as a true/false statement. Others far less so. There are needs of people with disabilities, especially cognitive and low vision disabilities, that are better captured by a different type of measurement. WCAG 3.0 can include guidance (guidelines) that use different means of evaluation beyond just true/false performance or outcome statements, allowing for the inclusion of more accessibility guidance.
• Scope Options: WCAG 3.0 conformance could include web pages, web sites, page sections, individual components, and conformance based on a set of tasks as defined by the author of the site or application. A task-based assessment would allow flexibility for conformance of complex applications that go beyond component/tag assessment or full-page assessment.
• Accessibility Supported: As the technologies advance, the lines between content, user agents, and assistive technology will continue to shift and blur. Interoperability may be affected by any number of factors outside of the control of the author and publisher of digital content. WCAG 3.0 can include advice to user agents and assistive technology developers. WCAG 3 does not intend to make authors responsible for interoperability problems beyond a reasonable effort.

• Flexibility: A flexible structure enables greater scaling of new methods to meet guidelines. It also allows for the expiration of outdated methods to meet guidelines. A flexible process of updating methods enables the overall guidance to keep pace with technology. Flexible participation – particularly of people with disabilities – empowers a community and enables more inclusive insights.
• Scaling: We intend WCAG 3.0 to apply to multiple contexts and multiple use cases. WCAG 3.0 intends to be iterative, future-friendly, and user-centric.
• Evolving Technology: WCAG 3.0 needs a flexible design that can be updated as new technologies emerge, assistive technologies improve, and changing technologies produce new barriers for people with disabilities. Accessibility guidance and all supporting documentation should anticipate common scenarios like new technology and the introduction of new modalities like surface reaction and ultrahaptics. As content technology evolves, it must be re-evaluated against assistive technology for compatibility. Likewise, as assistive technology evolves or emerges, it must be evaluated against the backward compatibility of various content technology.
• Governance: Utilize tools that allow interested parties to predict when issues important to them are being discussed. Maintain a backlog that reflects issues along with their status.
• Backwards compatibility The WCAG 3 guidelines will take a cautious approach to backwards compatibility to early versions of WCAG 3. After the first publication of WCAG 3 guidance and conformance model the guidelines aim to be backwards compatible. However, it will not be bound to backwards compatibility if a substantially more accessible outcome can be achieved. Where there are backwards-incompatible changes, the changes will be highlighted in the supplementary materials so that users of the guidelines know exactly what has changed.

WCAG 3 guidance has a structure, tests, and/or approach that allows for requirements that are not available in WCAG 2.x, such as (but not limited to) additional needs of people with cognitive and learning disabilities, intersectional disabilities, and limited vision.

The informative documentation uses a process that is easy to update and maintain. The process of developing the guidance includes experts who review the guidelines to check they will work for emerging technologies and interactions.

The Guidelines can be presented in different accessible and usable ways or formats, to address the needs of different audiences.

Guidance is expressed in technology-neutral terms so that it can be met using different platforms or technologies. The intent of technology-neutral wording is to provide the opportunity to apply the core guidelines to current and emerging technology, even if specific technical advice doesn't yet exist.

WCAG 3 is written using the plain language guidance from WCAG 3. The goal is for the widest possible audience to understand WCAG 3.

Requirements are written to facilitate adoption into law, regulation, or policy, since this has been shown to have major impact on practice. This includes:

• making the need and purpose for the requirement clear, and
• a clear definition of when requirements are met.

The Guidelines motivate organizations to go beyond minimal accessibility requirements with a conformance model that shows which organizations demonstrate a greater effort to improve accessibility

WCAG 3 will provide guidance and a conformance model suitable for people and organizations that produce digital assets and technology of varying size and complexity. This includes large, dynamic, and complex websites. The scope of the associated informative materials will include guidance for a diverse group of stakeholders including content creators, browsers, authoring tools, assistive technologies, and more.

The WCAG 3 guidelines document shall meet its own requirements where relevant. (Some requirements may apply to organizations or scenarios not relevant to the development of a standard.)