With the arrival of the so-called European Union “Accessibility
Directive”, there has been a lot talk lately about the accessibility of
the modern web. The public sector is hustling to comply with the
requirements to meet the directive as soon as 2020. Most common
guidelines to comply with the requirements of the directive are the Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.
The guidelines, while extremely useful and comprehensive, aren’t the
Holy Grail of accessibility. G-Works undertook a large project with the
national centre for accessible literature and publishing in Finland,
Celia, to create a new user interface for Celia’s library system. The
criteria was to push the boundaries of accessibility not only to create
a accessible service but to take it to the next level. While doing this,
we noticed that the WCAG is not perfect – and has, in fact, some
contradictions.
The topic will focus on telling about accessibility in general, effects
of the directive, what to take into account while designing accessible
web services and some tips for the coders as well.