The researcher from GRIHO was part of the team that translated the WCAG 2.2, which served as the basis for the Royal Decree on web accessibility.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a series of protocols, advice, and recommendations that describe how to make online content accessible. These guidelines are designed to guarantee universal access to websites, regardless of the user’s needs.
At the same time, the WCAG are the guidelines that provide the basis for the Royal Decree 1112/2018, of 7 September, on the accessibility of websites and mobile applications in the public sector. This royal decree is mandatory for public administration websites and private companies with over one hundred employees or whose annual revenue exceeds six million euros. That is, the WCAG served as the national guide to establish the mandatory requirements (among others) for web accessibility.
Afra Pascual Almenara, researcher in the Network and member of the research group GRIHO (UdL), joined the team tasked with translating the newest version of the WCAG, WCAG 2.2, to Catalan. Specifically, Pascual Almenara performed the final validation to ensure compliance with HTML grammar, meet quality filters, and thus guarantee that the document would be accepted and published.
The team was led by the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Barcelona, and was coordinated by Mireia Ribera (who has also led previous translations of WCAG to Catalan since version 2.0). The team also included other experts in different fields: Rubén Alcaraz, Mercè Costa, Anna Grau, Àngels Egea, Xavier Albons, Language Services of the University of Barcelona and TERMCAT (Terminology Centre). Beyond the work of the researchers, the final published version was supervised by dozens of entities tasked with representing the interests and rights of persons with disabilities. Thus, amendments were made until a consensus text was reached and unanimously approved.
Following WCAG 2.2 is currently a W3C recommendation. Nevertheless, current regulations only require compliance with WCAG 2.1. Still, as the researcher from GRIHO points out, “we expect the law to be updated soon to comply with WCAG 2.2.”
