Finally, WCAG 2.0 for Australia!
Today, the Minister for Finance and Deregulation Lindsay Tanner and Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities Bill Shorten said the Rudd Government had endorsed new website accessibility standards, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. The new standard replaces WCAG 1.0, which has been in operation since 2000.
“This is an important step in making democracy more open, accessible and accountable for all Australians.”
Information about the guidelines and upcoming National Transition Strategy is available on the Web Publishing Guide.
Government agencies will transition to WCAG 2.0 over a four year period, reaching level Single A within two years, and Double A within four years. A Transition Strategy will outline the process for implementation, and will address scope and inclusion issues. The Transition Strategy will be made available on the Web Publishing Guide in July 2010.
Agencies are reminded that it is still a requirement to publish an alternative to all PDF documents (preference for HTML or RTF). Advice on the accessibility support of PDF documents will be made available at the conclusion of the PDF Accessibility Review Project, due early 2010.
Date: 24 February 2010
Author: Russ Weakley
Category: News, Web, Web standards
Tags: , Accessibility, wcag2
[...] Nothing stays still is an old adage that has found new meaning in the IT industry. Accessibility standards are no different. Russ Weakley, a leading expert in accessibility and design meniions how the Federal Australian government is adoting WCAG 2.0 after requiring WCAG 1.0 since 2000. Read Russ’s comments. [...]
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The press release says that “these new standards will ensure government information will be easier to access.”
I beg to differ.
These new standards cannot ensure government departments meet the new requirements.
Standards are ignorable. It seems even Laws are ignorable – the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 for example…
The Australian government didn’t manage to reach WCAG 1.0 Priority 1 compliance as a whole. It was impossible, as the resources and time were never given to developers – Accessibility was seen as the bit you fit in at the end if there was time and money left over…
Leaving it up to departments to meet the new requirements without giving them time and funds, will just lead to the current sorry state of affairs being repeated again…
Unless, that is, the government can recognise this issue early and provide funding, and staff, to help drive the transition – I really hope that this is part of the Transition Strategy.
I’ll be hoping for details regarding the provision of cross-agency expert advice, creation a whole-of-government pattern library, a whole-of-government application development environment, and strengthened powers for AGIMO.
A whole of government approach to this issue might just get us over the line…
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