Web Accessibility Guidelines 2.0: Better Than a Poke in the Eye With a Stick?

"The World Wide Web Consortium is planning to implement a new version of the Web accessibility guidelines this year" says Bill Weye of the Notes on Design blog in his article entitled 'Web accessibility Guidelines 2.0: Better than a poke in the eye with a stick' . "People smarter than I think the project is confusing, long overdue, and that the process of revision is broken," he continues. It would seem that even the people trying to improve the guidelines and make them less confusing are having trouble which begs the question what hope is there for the rest of us?

Wanting to investigate the other side of the story, however, I went to have a peek on the W3C website to peruse the version 2.0 guidelines for myself. Personally, I didn't have too much of a problem with the version 1.0 guidelines but things move on and they needed a refresh. Also from discussions in the forum for H810 it would seem that some of the terms were a bit ambiguous or confusing, particularly if taken out of context from the rest of the document. My first impression is that actually, they might be improved on version 1.0. The language is more technical but it also seems more encompassing, taking into account the advancement in technology since the original guidelines were compiled. These guidelines are not for everyone, they are specifically aimed at web professionals and not the casual hobbyist. They may need a watering down for the non-technical web content publisher. Something in the style of Educause's '7 Things You Should Know About ...' series would be useful.

The formatting of the page containing the guidelines on the W3C website however, is truly and deeply horrible! Really difficult to read in my opinion and in a nasty bullet point format. My verdict? Nice try, could do better.