WCAG 2.0 for dummies?

[spf00]

Hello,

We would like to implement WCAG 2.0 on our web site but the official guidelines are very long to read. The official ones are located at: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/

Is there a condensed, simplified version somewhere? I'm simply looking to know what the most common ones are, and what needs to be done (in a general sense) to implement them.

Thanks!

[xhtmlcoder]

It all depends upon what you are producing regarding a website and technologies used and the content it contains. However, if you want to focus on certain custom aspects: http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/ might help you narrow down though there are no short-cuts.

[Stomme poes]

It might be kinda backwards, but you could try starting at the WebAIM checklist http://webaim.org/standards/wcag/checklist which kinda grabs what they figure are the most important points of WCAG2 and gives you those point to check against your own sites. You could start there and then in places where you maybe aren't really meeting that checklist, check that section of the actual WCAG2 for deeping information.

If you have a good document structure, use text where you mean people to read stuff, use decent contrast for that text and users can keyboard over the whole page and reach all the same information, you've covered most of the main points. I'd say the checklist helps you find where you're lacking and then dive into the longer guidelines themselves. The WebAIM checklist also links to the specific sections of WCAG2 as well which is nice... but when you click those, I'd go Foreward and Back to explore the related sections too.

[xhtmlcoder]

Perhaps looking at the main points in old WCAG 1.0 might also help since it was a lot less complex but nicely covered a lot of core concepts.

[rguy84]

It might be kinda backwards, but you could try starting at the WebAIM checklist http://webaim.org/standards/wcag/checklist which kinda grabs what they figure are the most important points of WCAG2 and gives you those point to check against your own sites. You could start there and then in places where you maybe aren't really meeting that checklist, check that section of the actual WCAG2 for deeping information.

I disagree. Starting with the checklist will be a good idea if you are new to things. I have gotten e-mails from people struggling with Section 508 (think of it as WCAGs brother), I give them a 508 checklist and their stress goes from a 10 to about a 3.

[Stomme poes]

I'm confused about where you disagree, actually : )

[TomH]

One of my favourite articles covering WCAG 2.0 for form design, and with plenty of examples, is http://www.usability.com.au/resources/wcag2/. It even contains a series of videos that demonstrate how the examples are interpreted by screen readers. I'd recommend this and the W3C Quick Reference that Robert linked to as your starting points.

[rguy84]

I'm confused about where you disagree, actually : )

I would say starting with the checklist isn't backwards