List of Checkpoints for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Abstract

This document is an appendix to the W3C "User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0". It provides a list of all checkpoints from the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, organized by concept, as a checklist for user agent developers. Please refer to the Guidelines document for introductory information, information about related documents, a glossary of terms, and more.

This list may be used to review a tool or set of tools for accessibility. For each checkpoint, indicate whether the checkpoint has been satisfied, has not been satisfied, or is not applicable.

A tabular version of the list of checkpoints is also available (e.g., for printing).

Status of this document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. The latest status of this document series is maintained at the W3C.

This document is an appendix to a Proposed Recommendation. It is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use W3C Proposed Recommendations as reference material or to cite them as other than "work in progress". This is work in progress and does not imply endorsement by, or the consensus of, W3C Members.

Please send comments about this document to the public mailing list: w3c-wai-ua@w3.org.

This document has been produced as part of the Web Accessibility Initiative. The goal of the WAI User Agent Guidelines Working Group is discussed in the Working Group charter.

A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR.

Priorities

Each checkpoint in this document is assigned a priority that indicates its importance for users with disabilities.

[Priority 1]

This checkpoint must be satisfied by user agents, otherwise one or more groups of users with disabilities will find it impossible to access the Web. Satisfying this checkpoint is a basic requirement for enabling some people to access the Web.

[Priority 2]

This checkpoint should be satisfied by user agents, otherwise one or more groups of users with disabilities will find it difficult to access the Web. Satisfying this checkpoint will remove significant barriers to Web access for some people.

[Priority 3]

This checkpoint may be satisfied by user agents to make it easier for one or more groups of users with disabilities to access information. Satisfying this checkpoint will improve access to the Web for some people.

Priority 1 checkpoints

In General (Priority 1)

• Checkpoint 2.1 Ensure that the user has access to all content, including equivalent alternatives for content. (Techniques for 2.1)
• Checkpoint 6.1 Implement the accessibility features of supported specifications (markup languages, style sheet languages, metadata languages, graphics formats, etc.). (Techniques for 6.1)
• Checkpoint 7.3 Allow the user to navigate all active elements. (Techniques for 7.3)
• Checkpoint 8.1 Make available to the user the author-specified purpose of each table and the relationships among the table cells and headers. (Techniques for 8.1)
• Checkpoint 11.1 Provide a version of the product documentation that conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [[WCAG10]]. (Techniques for 11.1)
• Checkpoint 11.2 Document all user agent features that promote accessibility. (Techniques for 11.2)
• Checkpoint 11.3 Document the default input configuration (e.g., default keyboard bindings). (Techniques for 11.3)

Control of style (Priority 1)

• Checkpoint 2.2 For presentations that require user input within a specified time interval, allow the user to configure the time interval (e.g., to extend it or to cause the user agent to pause the presentation automatically and await user input before proceeding). (Techniques for 2.2)
• Checkpoint 2.6 Allow the user to specify that text transcripts, collated text transcripts, captions, and auditory descriptions be rendered at the same time as the associated auditory and visual tracks. Respect author-supplied synchronization cues during rendering. (Techniques for 2.6)
• Checkpoint 3.1 Allow the user to turn on and off rendering of background images. (Techniques for 3.1)
• Checkpoint 3.2 Allow the user to turn on and off rendering of background audio. (Techniques for 3.2)
• Checkpoint 3.3 Allow the user to turn on and off rendering of video. (Techniques for 3.3)
• Checkpoint 3.4 Allow the user to turn on and off rendering of audio. (Techniques for 3.4)
• Checkpoint 3.5 Allow the user to turn on and off animated or blinking text. (Techniques for 3.5)
• Checkpoint 3.6 Allow the user to turn on and off animations and blinking images. (Techniques for 3.6)
• Checkpoint 3.7 Allow the user to turn on and off support for scripts and applets. (Techniques for 3.7)
• Checkpoint 4.1 Allow the user to configure the size of text. (Techniques for 4.1)
• Checkpoint 4.2 Allow the user to configure font family. (Techniques for 4.2)
• Checkpoint 4.3 Allow the user to configure foreground color. (Techniques for 4.3)
• Checkpoint 4.4 Allow the user to configure background color. (Techniques for 4.4)
• Checkpoint 4.5 Allow the user to slow the presentation rate of audio, video, and animations. (Techniques for 4.5)
• Checkpoint 4.6 Allow the user to start, stop, pause, advance, and rewind audio, video, and animations. (Techniques for 4.6)
• Checkpoint 4.7 Allow the user to configure the position of text transcripts, collated text transcripts, and captions on graphical displays. (Techniques for 4.7)
• Checkpoint 4.9 Allow the user to configure synthesized speech playback rate. (Techniques for 4.9)
• Checkpoint 4.10 Allow the user to configure synthesized speech volume. (Techniques for 4.10)
• Checkpoint 4.12 Allow the user to select from available author and user style sheets or to ignore them. (Techniques for 4.12)

User Interface (Priority 1)

• Checkpoint 2.5 If more than one equivalent alternative is available for content, allow the user to choose from among the alternatives. This includes the choice of viewing no alternatives. (Techniques for 2.5)
• Checkpoint 4.13 Allow the user to configure how the selection is highlighted (e.g., foreground and background color). (Techniques for 4.13)
• Checkpoint 4.14 Allow the user to configure how the content focus is highlighted (e.g., foreground and background color). (Techniques for 4.14)
• Checkpoint 5.6 Implement selection, content focus, and user interface focus mechanisms. (Techniques for 5.6)
• Checkpoint 7.1 Allow the user to navigate viewports (including frames). (Techniques for 7.1)
• Checkpoint 7.2 For user agents that offer a browsing history mechanism, when the user returns to a previous viewport, restore the point of regard in the viewport. (Techniques for 7.2)
• Checkpoint 8.5 Provide a mechanism for highlighting and identifying (through a standard interface where available) the current viewport, selection, and content focus. (Techniques for 8.5)

For Keyboard and other Input Devices (Priority 1)

• Checkpoint 1.4 Ensure that every functionality available through the user interface is also available through the standard keyboard API. (Techniques for 1.4)
• Checkpoint 10.2 Avoid default input configurations that interfere with operating system accessibility conventions. (Techniques for 10.2)

For Communication (Priority 1)

• Checkpoint 1.1 Ensure that every functionality available through the user interface is also available through every input device API supported by the user agent. Excluded from this requirement are functionalities that are part of the input device API itself (e.g., text input for the keyboard API, pointer motion for the pointer API, etc.) (Techniques for 1.1)
• Checkpoint 1.2 Use the standard input and output device APIs of the operating system. (Techniques for 1.2)
• Checkpoint 1.3 Ensure that the user can interact with all active elements in a device-independent manner. (Techniques for 1.3)
• Checkpoint 1.5 Ensure every non-text message (e.g., prompt, alert, etc.) available through the user interface also has a text equivalent in the user interface. (Techniques for 1.5)
• Checkpoint 5.1 Provide programmatic read access to HTML and XML content by conforming to the W3C Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core and HTML modules and exporting the interfaces they define. (Techniques for 5.1)
• Checkpoint 5.2 If the user can modify HTML and XML content through the user interface, provide the same functionality programmatically by conforming to the W3C Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core and HTML modules and exporting the interfaces they define. (Techniques for 5.2)
• Checkpoint 5.3 For markup languages other than HTML and XML, provide programmatic access to content using standard APIs (e.g., platform-independent APIs and standard APIs for the operating system). (Techniques for 5.3)
• Checkpoint 5.3 For markup languages other than HTML and XML, provide programmatic access to content using standard APIs (e.g., platform-independent APIs and standard APIs for the operating system). (Techniques for 5.3)
• Checkpoint 5.5 Provide programmatic read and write access to user agent user interface controls using standard APIs (e.g., platform-independent APIs such as the W3C DOM, standard APIs for the operating system, and conventions for programming languages, plug-ins, virtual machine environments, etc.) (Techniques for 5.5)
• Checkpoint 5.7 Provide programmatic notification of changes to content and user interface controls (including selection, content focus, and user interface focus). (Techniques for 5.7)
• Checkpoint 10.1 Provide information to the user about current user preferences for input configurations (e.g., keyboard or voice bindings). (Techniques for 10.1)

Priority 2 checkpoints

In General (Priority 2)

• Checkpoint 2.3 When the author has not supplied a text equivalent for content as required by the markup language, make available other author-supplied information about the content (e.g., object type, file name, etc.). (Techniques for 2.3)
• Checkpoint 5.9 Follow operating system conventions and accessibility settings. In particular, follow conventions for user interface design, default keyboard configuration, product installation, and documentation. (Techniques for 5.9)
• Checkpoint 6.2 Use and conform to W3C Recommendations when they are available and appropriate for a task. (Techniques for 6.2)
• Checkpoint 7.4 Allow the user to choose to navigate only active elements. (Techniques for 7.4)
• Checkpoint 7.5 Allow the user to search for rendered text content, including rendered text equivalents. (Techniques for 7.5)
• Checkpoint 7.6 Allow the user to navigate according to structure. (Techniques for 7.6)
• Checkpoint 8.2 Indicate to the user whether a link has been visited. (Techniques for 8.2)
• Checkpoint 8.3 Indicate to the user whether a link has been marked up to indicate that following it will involve a fee. (Techniques for 8.3)
• Checkpoint 8.7 Provide a mechanism for highlighting and identifying active elements (through a standard interface where available). (Techniques for 8.7)
• Checkpoint 10.7 For the configuration requirements of this document, allow the user to save user preferences in a profile. (Techniques for 10.7)
• Checkpoint 11.4 In a dedicated section of the documentation, describe all features of the user agent that promote accessibility. (Techniques for 11.4)
• Checkpoint 11.5 Document changes between software releases. (Techniques for 11.5)

Control of style (Priority 2)

• Checkpoint 3.8 For automatic content changes specified by the author (e.g., redirection and content refresh), allow the user to slow the rate of change. (Techniques for 3.8)
• Checkpoint 4.8 Allow the user to configure the audio volume. (Techniques for 4.8)
• Checkpoint 4.11 Allow the user to configure synthesized speech pitch, gender, and other articulation characteristics. (Techniques for 4.11)

User Interface (Priority 2)

• Checkpoint 4.15 Allow the user to configure how the focus changes. (Techniques for 4.15)
• Checkpoint 4.16 For those viewports, prompts, and windows that open without an explicit request from the user, allow the user to configure how they open. (Techniques for 4.16)
• Checkpoint 8.6 Make available to the user an "outline" view of content, built from structural elements (e.g., frames, headers, lists, forms, tables, etc.). (Techniques for 8.6)
• Checkpoint 9.1 Ensure that when the selection or content focus changes, it is in a viewport after the change. (Techniques for 9.1)
• Checkpoint 9.2 Prompt the user to confirm any form submission triggered indirectly, that is by any means other than the user activating an explicit form submit control. (Techniques for 9.2)

For Keyboard and other Input Devices (Priority 2)

• Checkpoint 10.4 Allow the user to change the input configuration. (Techniques for 10.4)
• Checkpoint 10.5 Allow the user to configure the user agent so that the user's preferred one-step operations may be activated with a single input command (e.g., key stroke, voice command, etc.). (Techniques for 10.5)
• Checkpoint 10.6 Follow operating system conventions to indicate the input configuration. (Techniques for 10.6)

For Communication (Priority 2)

• Checkpoint 5.8 Ensure that programmatic exchanges proceed in a timely manner. (Techniques for 5.8)
• Checkpoint 10.3 Provide information to the user about current author-specified input configurations (e.g., keyboard bindings specified in content HTML with the "accesskey" attribute). (Techniques for 10.3)

Priority 3 checkpoints

In General (Priority 3)

• Checkpoint 2.4 When a text equivalent for content is explicitly empty (i.e., an empty string), render nothing. (Techniques for 2.4)
• Checkpoint 2.7 For author-identified but unsupported natural languages, allow the user to request notification of language changes in content. (Techniques for 2.7)
• Checkpoint 7.7 Allow the user to configure structured navigation. (Techniques for 7.7)
• Checkpoint 8.4 To help the user decide whether to follow a link, make available link information supplied by the author and computed by the user agent. (Techniques for 8.4)
• Checkpoint 9.4 When loading content (e.g., document, image, audio, video, etc.) indicate what proportion of the content has loaded and whether loading has stalled. (Techniques for 9.4)
• Checkpoint 9.5 Indicate the relative position of the viewport in rendered content (e.g., the percentage of an audio or video clip that has been played, the percentage of a Web page that has been viewed, etc.). (Techniques for 9.5)

Control of style (Priority 3)

• Checkpoint 3.9 Allow the user to turn on and off rendering of images. (Techniques for 3.9)

User Interface (Priority 3)

• Checkpoint 8.8 Allow the user to configure the outline view. (Techniques for 8.8)
• Checkpoint 8.9 Allow the user to configure what information about links to present. (Techniques for 8.9)
• Checkpoint 9.3 Allow the user to configure notification preferences for common types of content and viewport changes. (Techniques for 9.3)
• Checkpoint 10.9 Allow the user to configure the arrangement of graphical user agent user interface controls. (Techniques for 10.9)

For Keyboard and other Input Devices (Priority 3)

• Checkpoint 10.8 Ensure that frequently used functionalities are easily activated in the default input configuration. (Techniques for 10.8)

For Communication (Priority 3)

• Checkpoint 5.4 Provide programmatic access to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) by conforming to the W3C Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 CSS module and exporting the interfaces it defines. (Techniques for 5.4)