Confusion over WCAG 1 and 2 in Australia

I have attended several meetings recently where clients have stated that they need their sites to comply with WCAG 2.0 – “as this is now the current guideline”. For Australian websites, this is NOT correct. At present, all Australian websites must meet WCAG 1.0 guidelines. As the Australian Human Rights Commission website states:

We are continuing to engage in a process of broad-based consultation, and at this stage we have not finalised a view on any specific aspect of WCAG2.0. Our plan at this stage is to develop a draft revision of our Web Advisory Note that can be circulated initially to governments throughout Australia, and then to the community for a period of public comment that will inform the production of a final revision.

Until we are in a position to make comprehensive recommendations for the implementation of WCAG2.0, our referenced benchmark for website accessibility continues to be WCAG1.0, with Level AA of WCAG1.0 being the minimum conformance level that we recommend.

World Wide Web Access: Disability Discrimination Act Advisory Notes – Version 3.3.1 – March 31 2009

Date: 19 June 2009
Author: Russ Weakley
Category: Accessibility, News, Web, Web standards
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Comments so far

  1. Mark Stanton says:
    June 19, 2009 at 7:52 am

    Hi Russ

    Any word out of AGIMO? They are still pointing at WCAG 1.0 (http://webpublishing.agimo.gov.au/Accessibility), but I had a conversation with another governement department a couple of months ago and they said WCAG 2.0 was very much on the table and AGIMO were going to provide updated advice soon.

    Cheers
    Mark

  2. Daniel Cheong-See - Digital Blog » Confusion over WCAG 1 and 2 in Australia says:
    June 19, 2009 at 10:54 am

    [...] From http://www.maxdesign.com.au/2009/06/19/wcag1-or-2/ [...]

  3. Russ says:
    June 19, 2009 at 1:28 pm

    Hey Mark, no, there is no official word from AGIMO. But yes, WCAG2 is definitely “on the table” :)