W3C published web content accessibility guidelines
Considered to be a "technical standard"
508 Compliance standards set by Section 508 of Rehabilitation Act
Generally stricter; only required for govt agencies
How does this relate to ADA?
ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) identified high level standards for accessible design
ADA compliance is achieved through following WCAG identified guidelines
But what's the law?
Currently actively in flux / a bit murky
Not meeting ADA compliance standards is potentially considered a violation of Title III
Enforced by the Department of Justice
Proposed amendments will most likely be passed in 2018
But I'm not a lawyer?
Exactly.
NEVER, EVER, EVER (ESPECIALLY IN WRITING FORM) GUARANTEE ADA COMPLIANCE
Couch everything. Use phrases like "work towards compliance", "achieve success criterion for certain guidelines", etc.
All SOWs should include language explicitly stating compliance can not be guaranteed.
Who completes the work?
UX/UI
Some guidelines are centered around UX/UI-related items
Navigation, copy, use of color
A good portion of these are related to redundancy
Developer
Many guidelines require code updates
Some are simple as adding markup attributes; others more complicated (keyboard, language XML tags)
Client
CMS updates may be required
What's the process?
First step is completing audits to identify points of failure and resolution steps
Templates created for the Met Opera can be reused
Essentially the "discovery/design" portion
Provide the client with documentation / proof for legal use
Development estimates provided only after audits
Initial estimates can be given on the Principle level
WCAG Guidelines
Split into 4 principles
Perceivable
Operable
Understandable
Robust
Each principle has multiple guidelines
Each guideline has sub guidelines that are level A, AA, or AAA
A is considered required; AAA is highest level
Principle 1 - Perceivable
Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
Provide text alternatives, provide media descriptions / captions, semantic / structurally accurate markup, ensure color is not only means of distinguishing and element, provide appropriate controls
Principle 2 - Operable
User interface components and navigation must be operable.
All functionality should be keyboard accessible, users should be able to adjust timers and pause/stop animations, flashes that cause seizures should not be used, redundant navigation should be provided (bypass blocks), links should include attributes to indicate purpose, focus order should make sense, page titles / headings & labels should be meaningful
Principle 3 - Understandable
Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.
Default page language should be set, phrases / content need XML language settings, user should be advised of a change in context, navigation / components should behave consistently, appropriate errors, labels, and confirmation information should be provided
Principle 4 - Robust
Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.
Markup should be able to be parsed (pass HTML validation), name, role, value, and states of custom user components must be able to be programatically determined through markup settings / ARIA tags