ACT composite rules

Accessibility standards and real websites can be complex. There are often several different valid ways to meet a single Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) requirement. Some select Web Governancechecks now use the Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules framework. There are two basic types of ACT rules:

• Atomic Rule: Tests one specific situation or technique.
• Composite Rule: Combines the outcomes of several atomic rules to give a single, clear result for a guideline. This new feature introduces Composite rules. These allow Web Governance to consider multiple ways that you can achieve accessibility, and groups them into one check. This ensures that users receive more meaningful results that reflect true conformance, rather than just technical patterns.

What is changing

Four key composite rules will streamline and replace older, narrower, or less accurate checks. 

The new composite rules provide coverage for the following:

• Audio content that provides transcripts
• Visual-only video content that provides a transcript or audio description
• Videos with audio content that provide descriptions of important visual information
• A method that enables users to skip repeated blocks of content (like navigation)

Deprecated checks:

• Sound file must have a text transcript
• Links to multimedia require a text transcript
• <code>area</code> link to sound file must have text transcript
• <code>object</code> to multimedia file require alternative for time-based media or audio description

ACT accessibility checking with Web Governance