1.2 Current guidelines for internet accessibility
The WAI, founded in 1996 by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) in 1998. The guides are presented in a checklist format, which highlight three levels of priority in building accessible Web sites (Loiacono & McCoy, 2004). WCAG version 1.0 is in the process of being amended to version 2.0. This will cover the new technologies emerging for the internet. In the WCAG key issues are outlined for all known problems related to accessibility and instruction is given on how to implement the techniques. Within the document a key principle is put forward to
“separate structure from presentation” (Chisholm, Vanderheiden, & Jacobs, 1999).
The guidelines state how to describe non-text content such as audio, video and image. This allows accessibility tools such as screen readers to describe the content. Descriptive attributes and properly structured xHTML creates an accessible method to read the information on the page without any styling preventing the software from understanding the information.
The guidelines address more than just visually impaired users but also those who have impaired mobility or hearing impairments.
These guidelines have been around since 1999 but have been poorly implemented into Web authoring tools (Sliwa, 2006). The lack of implementation of WCAG into the tools used to make many websites is an added contribution to the lack of accessibility on the internet.