W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, which technology could I use?

Question

Hi,

I've a project where one of the requirements is fullfil the "W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0)".

I'm now considering wich technology could I use to acomplish it, but I'm a little bit confused.

Silverlight would be the easiest way, but I cannot find conclusive information about if silverlight is or isn't compilant.

I've seen controls pack done in javascript that looks very nice, like DHTMLX, but again the same problem, I don't know for sure. Besides, I've always read that a website should work wihthout javascript, and use it just for improve the user experience.

Thanks.

Answer 1

WCAG 2.0 have been there for 18 months now, it seems strange you still have to consider the 10 year old version. WCAG 2.0 are meant to be technologically agnostic and published at a time where Youtube/Dailymotion, GMail, podcasts, RIA are heavily used and can potentially cause problems to disabled users.

You can't rely on a plugin : it can be absent from any browser (for example mine only has Flash, no QT or SL and contrary to 75% of blind users who surf with JS, I used NoScript for years) so you've to provide an alternative to it.
This alternative can rely on another plugin which must have an alternative that can rely ... and at the end an accessible alternative should be provided : the text transcript of a video interview for example. This last example is good for search engines too.
One exception is closed environments (an intranet used with computers managed by IT and a list of accessible plugins).
You should take a look at the definition of accessibility supported (WCAG 2.0 glossary)

EDIT: WCAG Overview is a good start

Besides, I've always read that a website should work wihthout javascript, and use it just for improve the user experience.

Ditto