27 Association of Research Libraries Research Library Issues 302 2021 7. Looking towards the Future It is important to stay aware of new developments in the area of digital accessibility. Right now, there are major changes underway with the WCAG. While the current version of WCAG is version 2.1, the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is already working on the development of WCAG versions 2.2 and 3.0. WCAG 2.2 is a minor extension of WCAG 2.1, using the same structure and format, with a focus on additional success criteria to meet the needs of “users with cognitive or learning disabilities, users with low vision, and users with disabilities on mobile devices.”23 To do so, WCAG 2.2 includes nine new success criteria, related to Accessible Authentication (level A), Dragging Movements (level AA), Consistent Help (level A), Page Break Navigation (level A), Focus Appearance (Minimum) (level AA), Focus Appearance (Enhanced) (level AAA), Visible Controls (level AA), Target Size (Minimum) (level AA), and Redundant Entry (level AA). In addition, Focus Visible, a success criteria already in WCAG 2.1, has moved from level AA to level A.24 Beyond WCAG 2.2, there’s another effort underway: WCAG 3. Note that as people have been using WCAG to understand accessibility beyond just web content, WAI is currently planning to rename WCAG to mean “W3C Accessibility Guidelines” instead of the “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.” While the WCAG 3.0 document is currently in draft format, and is still subject to change, the current draft of WCAG 3.0 describes “additional tests and different scoring mechanisms.”25 Future guidelines may also enhance accessibility for people with cognitive, language, and learning disabilities. It’s also important to note that W3C recently published a working draft of EPUB 3.3.26 And in PDF accessibility, the long-neglected format is finally garnering attention in the area of accessibility. Two parallel efforts may provide future benefits in making it much easier to remediate PDF documents for accessibility. The Trace Research and Development Center at the University of Maryland (the nation’s oldest research center on technology and disability) is collaborating with
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