Joe Clark, one of the all-time experts in web accessibility – he’s wonderfully down-to-earth and he lives in the real-world, as compared to the metaphysical one of many so-called “experts” – have just published his review of the final draft for WCAG2, called To Hell with WCAG 2 ;
The proposed new WCAG 2.0 is the result of five long years’ work by a Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) committee that never quite got its act together. In an effort to be all things to all web content, the fundamentals of WCAG 2 are nearly impossible for a working standards-compliant developer to understand. WCAG 2 backtracks on basics of responsible web development that are well accepted by standardistas. WCAG 2 is not enough of an improvement and was not worth the wait.
I’ve had my struggles through the years trying to be a good WGAC1 citizen, which for levels 1 and 2 was achievable, but these new WCAG2 guidelines are just plain out-of-this-world and wrong. Let’s hope the grassroots movement – in which a lot of real disabled people live – can help overcome this one.