Web Accessibility Guidelines

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) was created in October 1994 to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is a working group within the W3C set up to pursue making Web content accessible to people with disabilities and to define target levels of accessibility.

The WAI have created a checklist to assist companies and web developers meet these minimum requirements. The guidelines are split into 3 priorities:

• Priority 1 -  All these checkpoints must be satisfied
• Priority 2 -  All these checkpoints should be satisfied
• Priority 3 -  All these checkpoints may be addressed

A compliance rating can then be applied to your site based on the level of Priority checkpoints addressed. This is a global recognition of how accessible your website is. The three levels of compliance rating are:

• Single A Compliance – All Priority 1 checkpoints satisfied
• Double AA Compliance – All Priority 1 & 2 checkpoints satisfied
• Triple AAA Compliance – All Priority 1, 2 & 3 checkpoints satisfied

For more information on what the W3C and WAI are currently doing, please visit their website at http://www.w3.org/WAI/ .