To quote Ron Mace, the man who is said to come up with the term Universal Design:
"Universal design is design that’s usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design."
Universal Design is not only a requirement in terms of functionality, but also a legal requirement. With it comes a set of rules which are to be followed when designing an application.
WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are guidelines which state that soft- ware should be accessible to all people. In this context, all people include those who struggle on a daily basis with different disabilities (Visual impairment, deaf, etc.) that may or may not influence their life. WCAG 2.0 has a certain struc- ture which in short can be condensed into these points: Principles
There are four quite simple concepts which describe the principles of the WCAG:
- Possible to perceive
- Possible to operate
- Understandable
- robus
Guidelines
The next level contain the guidelines of the WCAG. These are general guidelines which each developer should strive towards achieving when developing software.
Success criteria
Success criteria determine whether software complies to the WCAG guidelines or not. This allows WCAG 2.0 to be used where it is necessary, such as regulation, purchasing, design or contract agreements. Three levels of such are provided to account for different situations: A (lowest), AA and AAA (Highest). Requirements get more complicated the higher the level.
