How to Save Web Accessibility from Itself

As is now quite widely known among indie developers and virtually unknown everywhere else, websites are properly created in accordance with published accessibility standards. The chief source for those standards is the set of “recommendations” by the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative (the W3C WAI). These Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) were last officially updated in 1999.

A new revision of the guidelines, WCAG 2.0, is being written. The development process is going slowly and is in danger of recapitulating many of the errors of WCAG 1.0 — unrealistic guidelines divorced from real-world web development that are at once too vague and too specific.

But you, the indie developer, can help prevent this tragedy by investing a small period of time in one of a few limited areas that may interest you. Instead of working on the entire WCAG, we need you to focus on topics in which you may have expertise or experience. By participating in this limited way, you can help save web accessibility from itself.

by Joe Clark