A short presentation for Head London on standards and introduction to BS 8878 - the new Accessibility Standard.

1. Standards & BS 8878
John Knight
9th March 2011

2. Quick overview
•Examples of standards
•Some problems with standards
•Web standards and accessibility
•Why accessibility is important
•Overview of BS 8878

3. Standards make it easier to compare stuff

4. Standards support quality assurance

5. Standards make the world safer

6. Standards make sure things work together

7. Standards define - they embody design decisions

8. Competing standards are not a good thing

9. Multiple standards make things work together

10. Standards in the digital world are messy
accessibility standards
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) BS
WAI-TIES Project Reference Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
ISO/IEC DTR 29138-1
ETSI Guide EG 202 116
Web
Web Content
EG 202 Report Language (EARL) Overview ICT products and services;
116 Guidelines for Initiative:
Evaluation and Web Accessibility
'Design 975 All'
ES 202 for Harmonized Relay
ISO/TS 16071:2003 CEN-CENELEC Guide 6
Training, Implementation,
CEN
Web
Service Userof human-system interaction --(UAAG)
Ergonomics Agent Accessibility Guidelines
Education, Support services
TR 102 974 Telecommunication relay
accessibility
Guidance on accessibility for human- Overview
ETSI
TR 102 612
computer interfaces WAI-AGE Project (IST 035015)
essibility
European accessibility requirements for public IEC
Web Accessibility the ICT
Initiative:
standards
WAI-ARIA Overview
procurement of products and services in
Web Content AccessibilityAgeing Education and
Guidelines (WCAG)
domain (European Commission Mandate M 376, ISO
Three 1) New Accessibility and Web Design Overview
Harmonisation (WAI-AGE)
andards
Phase
ES 202 076 User Interfaces; Generic spoken
Standards ISO 9241 Parts 20, 151 and Project,
European Commission 171
command vocabulary for ICT devices and W3C
CEN-CENELEC Guide 6 6th Framework, IST 035015
services

11. Technical standards dominate web accessibility
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for
making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content accessible to
a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing
loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities,
photosensitivity and combinations of these. Following these guidelines will also often make your
Web content more usable to users in general.
WCAG 2.0 success criteria are written as testable statements that are not technology-specific.
Guidance about satisfying the success criteria in specific technologies, as well as general
information about interpreting the success criteria, is provided in separate documents. See Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview for an introduction and links to WCAG
technical and educational material.

12. What and why of accessibility
Web accessibility refers to the inclusive practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities
and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal
access to information and functionality.
• Social Factors addresses the role of Web accessibility in providing equal opportunity for people with
disabilities; the overlap with digital divide issues; and benefits to people without disabilities, including
older people, people with low literacy and people not fluent in the language, people with low
bandwidth connections to the Internet, people using older technologies, and new and infrequent web
users.
• Technical Factors addresses interoperability, quality, reducing site development and maintenance
time, reducing server load, enabling content on different configurations, and being prepared for
advanced web technologies.
• Financial Factors addresses the financial benefits of increased website use, for example, from
engine optimization (SEO); direct cost savings; considerations for initial costs and on-going costs; and
ways to decrease costs.
• Legal and Policy Factors addresses requirements for Web accessibility from governments and other
organizations in the form of laws, policies, regulations, standards, guidelines, directives,
communications, orders, or other types of documents.

13. BS 8878:2010
Web accessibility. Code of practice
•Process-based standard
•Based on UCD methodology
•Pragmatic and holistic in scope
•Embodies “reasonable” approach of DRC

14. BS 8878:2010
Web accessibility. Code of practice
•Organisational Web accessibility policy
•Product accessibility policy
•Product accessibility statement

15. Love 8878