WAI Resources

Page Contents

Introducing Web Accessibility
Guidelines & Techniques
Managing Accessibility
Evaluating Web Accessibility
WAI Working Groups and Interest Groups
About WAI

This page lists the primary resources from WAI. For a complete list, see the WAI Site Map.

Introducing Web Accessibility

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops strategies, guidelines, and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities. The following WAI resources are intended to provide basic information for people who are new to Web accessibility.

Introduction to Web Accessibility: Briefly introduces Web accessibility and links to additional resources.
Essential Components of Web Accessibility: Shows how Web accessibility depends on several components of Web development and interaction working together and shows the relationship between the WAI guidelines: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG), and User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG).
Quick Tips to Make Accessible Web Sites: Lists the 10 quick tips, includes an order form for the business-card-sized reference card, and lists translations.

Guidelines and Techniques

WAI develops a series of accessibility standards and guidelines that are introduced in Essential Components of Web Accessibility and listed below:

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview, WCAG 1.0 WCAG 2 FAQ, How to Meet WCAG 2.0 (Quick Reference): Addresses the information in a Web site, including text, images, forms, sounds, and such.
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) Suite Overview: Addresses dynamic Web content and Web applications developed with Ajax, DHTML, and other Web technologies.
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) Overview, ATAG 1.0: Addresses software that creates Web sites.
User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) Overview, UAAG 1.0: Addresses Web browsers and media players, and relates to assistive technologies.
Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) Overview: Addresses the expression of Web site evaluation test results in a platform independent format.
Accessibility Information for Specific Technologies: Links to information about accessibility of XML, SVG, SMIL, and other specific technologies.
How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process: Milestones and Opportunities to Contribute: Introduces how WAI works through a process designed to ensure broad community input and encourage consensus development.

Managing Accessibility

Policy Resources

Links to:

Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization

Presents benefits and costs of Web accessibility and includes guidance on incorporating these aspects into a specific organization's business case. Includes separate pages for Social Factors, Technical Factors, Financial Factors, and Legal & Policy Factors.

Implementation Plan for Web Accessibility

Outlines considerations for planning a process for implementing accessibility. Links to:

Developing Web Accessibility Training and Presentations

Provides resources to help develop Web accessibility training and presentations.

Technical Papers

Links to WAI technical papers and and proceedings from research and development events:

Evaluating Web Accessibility

"Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility" is a multi-page resource suite that outlines different approaches for evaluating Web sites for accessibility. While it does not provide checkpoint-by-checkpoint testing techniques, it does provide general procedures and tips for evaluation in different situations, from evaluation during Web site development to ongoing monitoring of existing sites. The approaches in these pages are intended to supplement other content management and quality assurance procedures.

The "Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility" resource suite includes the following documents:

Preliminary Review of Web Sites for Accessibility: Describes an approach to quickly identify some potential accessibility problems on a Web site.
Conformance Evaluation of Web Sites for Accessibility: Describes an approach for determining if a Web site meets accessibility standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Evaluation Approaches for Specific Contexts: Describes evaluation during the development process, ongoing monitoring, evaluation of legacy sites, and evaluation of dynamically generated Web pages.
Involving Users in Web Accessibility Evaluation: Provides guidance on including people with disabilities ("users") in accessibility evaluation throughout Web development.
Selecting Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools: Provides guidance on choosing which Web accessibility evaluation tools to use to help evaluate Web accessibility.
Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List Search: Provides a comprehensive list of Web accessibility evaluation tools that is searchable and sortable.
Using Combined Expertise to Evaluate Web Accessibility: Describes the composition, training, and operation of teams of reviewers evaluating accessibility of Web sites.
Template for Accessibility Evaluation Reports: Presents a format for communicating results of a Web accessibility evaluation.

WAI Working Groups and Interest Groups

Authoring Tools Working Group (AUWG): AUWG develops guidelines, techniques, and supporting resources for Web "authoring tools" - which are software that creates Web sites.
Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG): EOWG develops awareness and training materials and education resources on Web accessibility solutions .
Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG): ERT WG develops techniques and tools for evaluating accessibility of Web sites, and for retrofitting Web sites to be more accessible.
Protocols & Formats Working Group (PFWG): PFWG reviews all W3C technologies for accessibility.
Research and Development Interest Group (RDIG): RDIG facilitates discussion and discovery of the accessibility aspects of research and development of future Web technologies.
User Agent Working Group (UAWG): UAWG develops guidelines, techniques, and supporting resources for Web "user agents" - which includes Web browsers and media players.
WAI Interest Group (WAI IG): WAI IG is a public group with a mailing list for general discussion on Web accessibility.
Web Content Working Group (WCAG WG): WCAG WG develops guidelines, techniques, and supporting resources for Web "content" - which is the information in a Web site, including text, images, forms, sounds, and such.
W3C Member-only access groups: WAI Coordination Group (member only) coordinates among WAI working groups and WAI interest groups.

About WAI

WAI works with organizations around the world to develop guidelines and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities.

Mission and Organization: Introduces the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) mission and organizational structure.
WAI Online Overview: Introduces Web accessibility and Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in HTML slides.
Participating in WAI: Describes participation opportunities ranging from volunteering to implement, promote, and review guidelines, to occasional participation in an interest group, to dedicated participation in a working group.
Sponsoring WAI: Lists current sponsors and provides the contact for information on becoming a WAI sponsor.
Translating WAI Documents: Provides information on the W3C translation policy, how to coordinate with W3C and WAI when translating documents, priorities for translations of WAI documents, and links to existing translations.
Contacting WAI: Lists contact information for press; technical, implementation, and other support questions; WAI Working Group contacts; postal mail address; and links to directions to the offices.
WAI Projects: Links to information on WAI-AGE and other WAI projects.
WAI Press Releases and Document Release Notices: Lists WAI press releases and announcements previously on the WAI home page.
WAI Events: Lists previous WAI face-to-face meetings and other events previously on the WAI home page.

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