Skip to main content
Log in

W3C user agent accessibility guidelines 1.0 for graphical Web browsers

  • Long paper
  • Published:
Universal Access in the Information Society Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Web browsers and multimedia players play a critical role in making Web content accessible to people with disabilities. Access to Web content requires that Web browsers provide users with final control over the styling of rendered content, the type of content rendered and the execution of automated behaviors. The features available in Web browsers determine the extent to which users can orient themselves and navigate the structure of Web resources. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) User Agent Guidelines are part of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, the guidelines provide a comprehensive resource to Web browser and multimedia developers on the features needed to render Web content more accessibly to people with disabilities. UAAG 1.0 was developed over a period of four years and included extensive reviews to demonstrate that the proposed requirements can be implemented.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Architectural and Transportation Barrier Compliance Board (2000) Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards, United States Federal Register, 26 CFR Part 1194. http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/508standards.htm. Cited 2000

  2. Berners-Lee T, Cailliau R, Groff J, Pollermann B (1992) World Wide Web: the information universe. Elect Netw 2(1): 52–58

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bos B, Lie H, Lilley C, Jacobs I (1998) Cascading style sheets, level 2. http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/. Cited 1999

  4. Chisholm W, Vanderheiden G, Jacobs I (eds) (1999) W3C Web content accessibility guidelines. URL: http://www/w3/org/TR/WCAG10. Cited 1999

  5. Cowan J, Tobin R (eds) (2001) XML information set. http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xml-infoset-20011024/. Cited 2001

  6. Dubinko M, Klotz L, Merrick R, Raman TV (eds) (2002) XForms 1.0. http://www.w3.org/TR/xforms/. Cited 2002

  7. Gunderson J, Jacobs I, May M, Koteles C (eds) (2002) User agent accessibility guidelines working group test suites. http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/TS. Cited 2002

  8. Gunderson J, Jacobs I, May M (eds) (2002) Summary implementation report for UAAG 1.0. http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/impl-pr2/. Cited 2002

  9. Jacobs I, Gunderson J, Hansen E (eds) (2002) W3C user agent accessibility guidelines recommendation. http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG10. Cited 2002

  10. Le Hors A, Le Hégaret P, Wood L, Nicol G, Robie J, Champion M, Byrne S (eds) (2000) Document object model (DOM) level 2 core specification. http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Core-20001113/. Cited 2000

  11. Lie H, Bos B (1996, revised 1999) Cascading style sheets, level 1. http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS1. Cited 1999

  12. McCarron S, Axelsson J, Epperson B, Navarro A, Pemberton S (eds) (2002) XHTML 2.0 (Third public working draft). http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2. Cited 2002

  13. Pernice Coyne K, Nielsen J (2001) Beyond ALT text: making the Web easy to use for users with disabilities. Report from the Nielsen Norman group. http://www.NNgroup.com/reports/accessibility. Cited 2001

  14. Schatz B, Hardin J (1994) NCSA Mosaic and the World Wide Web: global hypermedia protocols for the Internet. Science 265:895–901

    Google Scholar 

  15. Treviranus J, McCathie-Nevile C, Jacobs I, Richards J (eds) (2000) W3C authoring tools accessibility guidelines. http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG10. Cited 2000

Download references

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the members of the User Agent Working Group for all their hard work and dedication to the development of these guidelines, the developers and people with disabilities who reviewed and commented on working drafts of the guidelines, and the W3C staff, especially Ian Jacobs, for their work in editing and support in the process of making UAAG 1.0 a W3C recommendation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jon Gunderson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gunderson, J. W3C user agent accessibility guidelines 1.0 for graphical Web browsers. Univ Access Inf Soc 3, 38–47 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-003-0078-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-003-0078-2

Keywords

Navigation