Supplemental guidance UX&IA analysis

STATUS: Draft in progress…

Use Cases

I want to make my site as accessible as possible to all users, and I have to meet WCAG Level AA. I want to get all the guidance I can, yet I need to know what is a requirement for WCAG versus a best practice that I don't have to do.
- Developer: Just tell me specifically what to do. (techniques)
- Others: I want to understand the fundamental issues.
Our primary audience is [people with cognitive disabilities | students with learning disabilities | older people | others?]. We want to create a highly accessible user experience for these specific users.
- Developer: Just tell me specifically what to do. (techniques)
- Others: I want to understand the fundamental issues.
Policy makers:
- We're looking for mobile accessibility standards/guidelines.
- Is cognitive accessibility covered in WCAG? What is W3C WAI doing around cognitive and learning disabilities?
…

@@ lots coming . . .

Situation: People were/are looking for mobile accessibility guidelines/standards (and tempted to write their own).
Primary message: You don't need separate guidelines/standards because it's (mostly) covered by WCAG (and some UAAG, which will be covered in Silver).
- Additional message: WAI is continuing to work on:
  - "Supplemental Guidance" to go along with WCAG [is this true?]
  - Potential additional requirements (success criteria) in future versions of WCAG 2
  - Input into future accessibility guidelines (Sliver)
Resource: Mobile Accessibility at W3C is overview page that conveys that primary message. (Mobile Requirements Analysis) (URI used to be w3.org/wai/mobile and we might want to go back to that.)

Situation: People were developing their own guidance for older users.
Primary message: WCAG 2 covers what you need!
Resources:
- Older Users and Web Accessibility: Meeting the Needs of Ageing Web Users is overview page that conveys that primary message.
- Developing Websites for Older People: How Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Applies provides specific SCs and Techniques that particularly address older users' needs – both as evidence for the primary message and as a tool for designers, developers, etc. (In the WAI website IA, this is currently a sub-page under Accessibility Fundamentals > Older Users, yet it probably would be better under "Design & Develop".)
- Summary of Impact and Prevalence is data to help the business case for why it's important to address older user needs. (fyi, was in a presentation in old site, and we temporarily moved to Lit Rev overview since presentations are not in the new site yet.)

Situation: Many of the good practices for COGA do not fit into WCAG SCs.
Message: Many COGA user needs are addressed in WCAG; some are not. (WAI has been working on COGA issues for XX years.) WAI is currently focusing that work on providing:
- "Supplemental Guidance" to go along with WCAG
- Potential additional requirements (success criteria) in future versions of WCAG 2
- Input into future accessibility guidelines (Sliver)
Resource: Cognitive Accessibility at W3C latest draft , (COGA Requirements Analysis), point-to-able URI: https://www.w3.org/WAI/cognitive/

Situation: Different from COGA & older users & mobile.
- Lots is already covered in WCAG 2;
  lots needs to be done at user agent level and so will never fit in WCAG;
  some content-level info is better as "supplemental guidance" (&/or advisory techniques) rather than trying to squeeze into WCAG SCs.
- Whereas a significant number of people are looking for mobile accessibility and cognitive accessibility information, not sure that people are looking for specific information on low vision accessibility more than other specific types of disabilities (blindness, Deaf, motor, etc.).
Straw proposal:
- Not have a Low Vision Accessibility Overview page in the main WAI site. (TF does plan to develop supplemental guidance, to expand Accessibility Requirements for People with Low Vision to show how each is addressed (or not) in WCAG 2.x., and to contribute to Silver.)