The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0: An Analysis of Industry Self-regulation

While national and international disability-discrimination provisions lay down a duty to design accessible websites, the actual standards by which accessibility is gauged is an area in which self-regulation and the lack of a definitive international standard prevails. This article presents an analysis of a key self-regulatory standardisation body, the World Wide Web Consortium, in order to determine how its composition, processes and standards themselves impact upon this international, technical arena. This analysis is placed in the context of increased calls for the participation of disabled people in the creation of provisions and the difficulty in reaching a consensus in areas such as access to technology for people with cognitive difficulties.