Role-based analysis of the eight new WCAG 2.2 proposed success criteria confirm the increasing need for – and the ability of – accessibility to “shift left.” Learn how the new requirements mean content authors, user experience and visual designers must learn more to conform to the new standard now and the future. Presented at CSUN ATC 2022, Friday, March 18, 2022

1. CSUN ATC 2022, March 18, 2022
Bill Tyler
Slides: http://bit.ly.com/xxxxxx
Role-based
analysis update:
WCAG 2.2

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Introductions and agenda
Bill Tyler
Principal Digital Accessibility Engineer
Optum
Twitter: @billtyler
e-mail: btyler@optum.com
Topic Duration
Welcome and introduction <2 minutes
Role-based analysis background 10 minutes
Who? Success criteria ownership roles 5 minutes
When? Software design lifecycle entry points 5 minutes
What? Underlying knowledge required 5 minutes
Examples, trends and conclusions 10 minutes
Q & A 5 minutes

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WCAG 2.2 still
not official
Analysis presented based upon latest editor’s drafts.

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Role-based analysis
background

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Role-based analysis history
2017 to now
My previous CSUN role-based presentations
• 2017 WCAG 2.0
• 2019 WCAG 2.1
W3C EOWG Accessibility Roles & Responsibilities Mapping (ARRM)
• 2020 CSUN, AccessU
• 2021 axe-con, AccessU
• 2022 A11y Talks
ARRM resource links coming later in this presentation.

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Typical development lifecycle (by role)
QA / A11y testers
Developers
Content author
Visual designer
UX designer
Business owner
Add a11y Here

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There’s something very wrong with this
QA / A11y testers
Developers
Content author
Visual designer
UX designer
Business owner
Add A11y Here

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The assumption

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The assumption is…
Developers
are the owners
Code
is entry point
Accessibility
is magical guild secrets

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Question the assumption
Who?
If not developers?
When?
If not code?
What?
If not accessibility?

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Finding the answers
Who?
Which roles?
When?
Which deliverables?
What?
Which knowledge?

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Who?
Roles that own accessibility

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Who owns accessibility?
Identify the roles making the decisions that affect accessibility
Business owner
• Standard agile role
• Focused on
business outcomes
• Project initiator
• Requirement
definer
• Result approver
UX designer
• Business liaison
• Requirement author
• Wireframe creator
• UX/usability expert
• User research
Visual designer
• Presentation owner
• Style expert
• Layout creator
• Design enforcer
• Style guide author
• Design comp artist
• Image file producer
Content author
• Author of all text
“large (section) and
small (words)”
• Content proofreader
• Time-based media
creator
• Script writer
• Audio and video file
producer
Developer
• Front-end developer
• Last stop before testing
• Recipient of all defects

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What about QA and a11y?
Too little, too late
• Testing is not design
• Testing is at end
• Design is (much) earlier
• We must shift left
QA / A11y testers
Developers
Content author
Visual designer
UX designer
Business owner

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Who: To what level is a role involved?
Primary
The owner ultimately
responsible for the decision
Always (and only) one
Secondary
Actively works with primary
owner to make the decision
Zero or more
Contributor
Provides input, but not
involved in making decision
Zero or more

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Is it the developers?

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No, it’s not likely to be the developers
WCAG 2.2 success criteria (Level A and AA) primary ownership
New WCAG 2.2 success criteria
Primary owner Increase
UX designer +6
Visual designer +2
Content author 0
Developer 0
Business owner 0
All WCAG 2.2 success criteria
Primary owner % #
UX designer 48% 28
Visual designer 19% 11
Content author 17% 10
Developer 14% 8
Business owner 2% 1
UX designer
Visual designer
Content author
UX designer
Visual designer
Business owner
Developer

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Trending away from developers
WCAG success criteria primary ownership (version 2.0 through 2.2)
+100%
UX designer (since 2.0)
Visual designer +83%
Developer unchanged
WCAG Version 2.0 2.1 2.2
UX Designer 14 22 28
Visual Designer 6 9 11
Content Author 9 10 10
Developer 8 8 8
Business Owner 1 1 1
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1.0 2.0 3.0
Content author
UX designer
Visual designer
Business owner
Developer

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When?
Deliverables that impact accessibility

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When is accessibility impacted in the project lifecycle?
Identify deliverables that define the decisions. Which is first?
User stories and requirements
Core specifications and functionality
Wireframes
Structure of page, interface, interactions
Style guides
Site presentation, branding, colors,
logos, layout
Design comps
Page or feature final presentation
Content
Text, terminology, including video and audio
Code
Front-end development:
HTML, CSS, JavaScript

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Is it code?

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No, it’s not going to be code
WCAG 2.2 success criteria (Level A and AA) first entry points
New WCAG 2.2 success criteria
First entry point Increase
Wireframes +2
User Stories +3
Style Guides +3
Content 0
Code 0
Design Comps 0
All WCAG 2.2 success criteria
Primary entry point % #
Wireframes 36% 21
User Stories 34% 20
Style Guides 22% 13
Content 3% 2
Code 3% 2
Design Comps 0% 0
Style Guides
User Stories
User Stories
Wireframes
Style Guides
Content
Code
Wireframes

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Trending away from code
WCAG success criteria first deliverable entry points (version 2.0 through 2.2)
+122%
User stories (since 2.0)
Style guide nearly doubled
Code unchanged
WCAG Version 2.0 2.1 2.2
Wireframes 19 19 21
User Stories 9 17 20
Style Guide 7 10 13
Content 1 2 2
Code 2 2 2
Design Comps 0 0 0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1.0 2.0 3.0
User stories
Wireframes
Style guides
Content
Code

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What?
Knowledge needed to ensure accessibility

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What type of knowledge is needed to make the decisions?
Identify the fundamental background needed to define accessible results
Accessibility-specific knowledge
Not generally known outside of
accessibility
Additional training, often minor, will be
needed for roles
Best practices
Already known by ownership roles
Minor adjustments needed to apply them
Standard features
Common approaches “everybody” knows
Requires little or no additional change

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Is it accessibility-specific?

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No, it’s still more about best practices
WCAG 2.2 success criteria (Level A and AA) primary knowledge type required
New WCAG 2.2 success criteria
Knowledge type Increase
Best Practices +5
Accessibility +3
Standard Features +0
All WCAG 2.2 success criteria
Knowledge type % #
Best Practices 55% 32
Accessibility 40% 23
Standard Features 5% 3
Best Practices
Accessibility Best Practices
Accessibility
Standard Features

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Trending away from accessibility
WCAG success criteria primary knowledge type required (version 2.0 through 2.2)
+4
Increase best practices over
accessibility (since 2.0)
Total now 9 more than a11y
WCAG Version 2.0 2.1 2.2
Best Practices 20 27 32
Accessibility 15 20 23
Standard Features 3 3 3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1.0 2.0 3.0
Best Practices
Accessibility
Standard Features

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Role-based applied
WCAG 2.2 examples

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SC2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) (Level AA)
The size of the target for pointer inputs is at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, except where:
• Spacing: The target offset is at least 24 CSS pixels to every adjacent target;
• Inline: The target is in a sentence or block of text;
• Necessary: A particular presentation of the target is essential or is legally required for the
information being conveyed;
• Legal: A particular presentation of the target is legally required.
Primary owner
• Visual designer
Secondary
• UX designer?
Contributor
• none
First deliverable
• Style guide
Knowledge type
• Best practice

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SC2.4.13 Page Break Navigation (Level A)
For web content with page break locators, a mechanism is available to navigate to each locator.
Primary owner
• UX designer
Secondary
• Content author
Contributor
• Developer
First deliverable
• Wireframes
Knowledge type
• Best practice

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​SC3.3.7 Accessible Authentication (Level AA)
For each step in an authentication process that relies on a cognitive function test, at least one
other authentication method is available that does not rely on a cognitive function test, or a
mechanism is available to assist the user in completing the cognitive function test.
Exception: When the cognitive function test is to recognize common objects or content the user
provided to the website.
Primary owner
• UX designer
Secondary
• Business owner
• Developer
Contributor
• none
First deliverable
• User stories
Knowledge type
• Accessibility

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Shift left
…applying role-based analysis

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Shift left: Existing products
Direct issues to the original, primary decision maker
QA / A11y testers
Developers
Content author
Visual designer
UX designer
Business owner
Direct
A11y here

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Shift left: New projects
Make accessible decisions at the start
QA / A11y testers
Developers
Content author
Visual designer
UX designer
Business owner
Add
a11y
here

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Shift left: Training and deliverables
Make accessible decisions at the start
Distribute accessibility across roles
• Identify the roles in the product lifecycle for your teams
• Review success criteria or checkpoints for ownership levels
Supplemental role-based training
• Training focused on criteria and issues owned by each role
• Leverage existing knowledge and best practices
• Supplement with accessibility requirements
Review deliverable
• Perform accessibility “testing” of requirements and deliverable
• Include sign-off by accessibility staff

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DIY role-based analysis using ARRM resources
Do try this at home work
Role-based decision tree for all 3 ownership levels
• https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/Role-Based_Decision_Tree
Role-specific templates
• UX designer: bit.ly/arrm-uxdesign
• Visual designer: bit.ly/arrm-uidesign
• Content author: bit.ly/arrm-content
• Developer: bit.ly/arrm-developers
Accessibility Checkpoint List
• https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/Accessibility_Checkpoint_Master_List

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Conclusions
Role-based analysis and trends

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WCAG 2.2 analysis and trends
Based upon latest editor’s draft
Developers are #4, not #1 in ownership
• Other roles make and own the decisions that impact accessibility
Code is first entry point < 5% of the time
• Design deliverables are overwhelmingly the first source of accessibility decisions
Over half of success criteria knowledge is not specific to accessibility
• Ownership roles should already know a lot required to make accessible decision
All trends are moving away from “the assumption”
• Developer ownership and code as entry point relatively unchanged
• Accessibility requirement increasing at slower rate than best practices
Shifting left is not only possible but necessary for efficiency
• Identify owners, provide supplementary training, design and document early and often

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Q&A

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Thank you.

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are the property of their respective owners. Because we are continuously improving our products and services,
Optum reserves the right to change specifications without prior notice. Optum is an equal opportunity employer.
© 2022 Optum, Inc. All rights reserved.