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Navigating WCAG 1.0 Guidelines and Techniques Documents

WCAG 2.0 was published in December 2008, and is recommended over WCAG 1.0. See Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview.

This document shows how the WCAG 1.0 guidelines, checkpoints, and techniques are linked. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview provides additional information about WCAG documents.

Overview

The WCAG 1.0 document includes links to the Techniques for WCAG 1.0 document, which is called the "Techniques Gateway" because it provides links to relevant specific techniques documents:

• Core Techniques for WCAG 1.0
• HTML Techniques for WCAG 1.0
• CSS Techniques for WCAG 1.0

Most of the links do not go to the top of the documents; rather, they go to the relevant sections within the documents, as shown in the examples below.

Example

WCAG 1.0 has 14 guidelines that are general principles of accessible design. Each guideline has one or more checkpoints that explain how the guideline applies in a specific area. The How the Guidelines are Organized section of WCAG 1.0 lists the format of guidelines and checkpoints.

For example, guideline 2 has checkpoints 2.1 and 2.2.

Each checkpoint has techniques link.

For example, Techniques for checkpoint 2.1.

The techniques link brings up the Techniques Gateway document (titled Techniques for WCAG 1.0), at the point within the document that lists techniques for that checkpoint.

In the Techniques Gateway, the checkpoint is repeated and under it is a list of links to specific techniques: Core Techniques, CSS Techniques, and HTML Techniques. These specific techniques documents provide implementation guidance, including explanations, strategies, and detailed markup examples. They are organized by topic; for example, HTML Techniques includes sections on forms, images, lists, links, tables, etc.

For example, the "Techniques for checkpoint 2.1" link in the WCAG 1.0 document brings up the Techniques Gateway document at the point that addresses checkpoint 2.1. Under the checkpoint 2.1 text are links to Core Techniques and CSS Techniques.

The specific techniques links bring up the specific Techniques document (Core Techniques, CSS Techniques, or HTML Techniques), at the point within the document that lists techniques for that checkpoint.

For example, the "Ensuring information is not in color alone" link in the Techniques Gateway document brings up the CSS Techniques document at the point that addresses this topic. It lists the relevant checkpoint followed by implementation guidance.

Document Information

Version: 1.0 (up-to-date as of July 2005)
Editor: Shawn Lawton Henry. Developed with the Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG).

[Contacting WAI] Feedback welcome to wai-eo-editors@w3.org (a publicly archived list).

File (not content) last updated on $Date: 2025/04/22 16:25:03 $ by $Author: shawn $