The WAI at the W3C are currently working on a second version of the WCAG known as the WCAG 2.0 accessibility standard. There are many reasons why the new guidelines are being produced.
Many of the guidelines in the WCAG 1.0 accessibility standard contain the “until user agents support” clause. However many of these guidelines are now obsolete because the user agent (web browser) support for accessibility has greatly improved since the WCAG 1.0 accessibility standard was originally written and user agents are now able to support these accessibility features.
The WCAG 2.0 accessibility standard attempts to merge many of the WCAG 1.0 guidelines into a single guideline, so that a web developer does not have as many guidelines to meet. To see how the WCAG 2.0 guidelines map to the WCAG 1.0 guidelines see WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0 mappings. The guidelines in the WCAG 2.0 accessibility standard have not yet been allocated priorities as yet, but I feel that this will happen later in their development.
The WCAG 2.0 accessibility standard is not widely used at the moment as it is still at the working draft stage, therefore is not yet an official document. However the WCAG 2.0 accessibility standard will eventually replace the WCAG 1.0 accessibility standard that many websites currently follow.
A list of guidelines in the current draft of the WCAG 1.0 standard is shown below. Priorities for each of these guidelines have not yet been decided.
| Guideline |
|---|
| 1.1 Provide text alternatives for all non-text content. |
| 1.2 Provide synchronized alternatives for multimedia. |
| 1.3 Ensure that information, functionality, and structure are separable from presentation. |
| 1.4 Make it easy to distinguish foreground information from background images or sounds. |
| 2.1 Make all functionality operable via a keyboard or a keyboard interface. |
| 2.2 Allow users to control time limits on their reading or interaction. |
| 2.3 Allow users to avoid content that could cause photosensitive epileptic seizures. |
| 2.4 Provide mechanisms to help users find content, orient themselves within it, and navigate through it. |
| 2.5 Help users avoid mistakes and make it easy to correct them. |
| 3.1 Ensure that the meaning of content can be determined. |
| 3.2 Organize content consistently from "page to page" and make interactive components behave in predictable ways. |
| 4.1 Use technologies according to specification. |
| 4.2 Ensure that user interfaces are accessible or provide an accessible alternative(s). |
The latest working draft of the WCAG 2.0 standard can be found on the World Wide Web Consortiums WCAG 2.0 page.