International accessibility roundup
At ALHAUS we believe that everyone should have equal access to all the great quality online.
In order to support this effort, we like to keep you informed on the latest efforts of the international community to improve accessibility by providing a news roundup of all the latest developments in the industry. Here are the most important accessibility updates for this month:
EC Web Accessibility Directive Expert Group (WADEX)
Shadi Abou-Zahra
Recently the European Commission launched WADEX, to advise on the developments in web accessibility. The group will focus on creating methodologies for monitoring and reporting, technical specifications, user experience, and informing the public. WADEX will help European and other countries implement the new web accessibility standards defined by the new W3C guidelines.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 first public working draft published
Global Accessibility News
The first public draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 has been officially published. This is the first update since WCAG 2.0 and will help websites better meet the needs of internet users. WCAG 2.1 contains 28 different criteria to help ensure proper implementation of accessibility.
WCAG Accessibility Conforming Testing (ACT)
Shadi Abou-Zahra
With the first public working draft of WCAG 2.12 being published, ACT has also been implemented. ACT will help users put the new accessibility guidelines in place and test to ensure that the meet the new standards. ACT will also help crowd source information for testing WCAG so that the new system can be fully implemented.
92% of top federal websites fail to meet accessibility standards globally
Global Accessibility News
A recent study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) found that 92% of all federal websites globally do not pass accessibility standards. This is a large problem because these websites are used by citizens to interact with their government and if not all people have access, then the needs of entire groups of people are not being met. The study also found that federal governments failed to speed tests, were not mobile optimised, and a range of other issues.