Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. Hill College's initiative is to follow those guidelines in an effort to make Web content more user friendly for all users.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) summarizes web accessibility nicely in their Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG). WCAG 2.0 is organized into the following four key concepts:

• Web content must be perceivable
• Web content must be operable
• Web content must be understandable
• Web content must be robust

WCAG 2.1 is just an extension of WCAG 2.0 to include a new set of guidelines and additional success criteria that address the advances in user needs and technology. Keep in mind, if you follow WCAG 2.1, you will also be WCAG 2.0 compliant.

As with WCAG 2.0, following the WCAG 2.1 guidelines will make content more accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities and also make websites more usable for all users.

Twelve new success criteria have been added for levels A and AA, and five new success criteria have been added for level AAA.

Most of the new WCAG 2.1 success criteria are related to:

• Mobile
• Cognition
• Low vision

To learn more visit "What's New in WCAG 2.1" on the Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C) website.

Section 508 standards were developed by the Access Board, a federal agency, as required by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as amended in 1998. The law requires accessibility of electronic and information technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by the federal government. The standards were published in the Federal Register in 2001 in order to provide guidance to federal agencies when developing or procuring IT. 

However, as the standards were published in 2001, they are outdated by today’s standards. The Access Board is currently reviewing and amending the standards to reflect changes in technology. To date, they have issued two drafts, the most recent of which was aligned with WCAG 2.0 at Level AA.

For more up to date progresses and developments, please view the Access Board's Section 508 Homepage.