RAWeb 1: Changelog

RAWeb 1 is the first Luxembourg accessibility framework to cover all the requirements of the European standard EN 301 549 v3.2.1 currently in force.

For all WCAG-compatible criteria, RAWeb 1 is based on the RGAA 4.1.2. The RGAA is published by DINUM on the website accessibilite.numerique.gouv.fr and the sources are available on this GitHub repository. The RGAA 4.1.2 has its own revision notes.

All the other criteria are new and transcribe, in the form of operational tests, the criteria from European standard EN 301 549 v3.2.1 which are not based on WCAG. These are the following criteria and themes:

The glossary entries corresponding to these new criteria have been added:

Changes to content resulting from RGAA 4.1.2

This update also includes changes to content from RGAA 4.1.2.

Introduction of the non-interference principle

A new section "Non-interference principle" has been introduced into the "Requirements" page in order to comply fully with standard EN 301 549.

In addition, each criterion included in the non-interference principle is identified in the technical framework by the words "This criterion is subject to the non-interference principle".

Modification of the sample description for the audit of a website

The section "Website audit sample" on the "Requirements" page has been modified to take account of changes to the RAWeb criteria, in particular by introducing the obligation to assess the documentation for the website or the support service.

Details of the compliance rate and general methodology

In the section "Testing pages or screens" of the "Requirements" page, a note has been added on the possible ways of managing content common to several pages in a sample:

Some criteria or themes are applicable to the whole site and not to a particular page, so it is not necessary to evaluate them on all the pages in the sample. In this case, they may, for example, be evaluated on a single page in the sample and considered not applicable to all the other pages. This methodology for reporting the results of the evaluation of these criteria is, of course, optional. Whatever methodology is chosen, there will be no impact on the site's overall compliance rate. This is particularly the case for the following criteria and themes:
  • Criterion 12.3 Is the "site map" page relevant?
  • Theme 14. Documentation and accessibility features
  • Theme 16. Support services

In the section "Compliance rate with the standard" on the "Requirements" page, all references to the "average rate" have been removed and only the "overall rate" is referred to as the reference rate, in particular for drawing up the accessibility statement.

Modification of the computer test environment

The Computer test environment has been modified to bring it into line with changes in browsers:

These choices are also supported by usage data, in particular

As a result, there is now just one Computer test environment with 3 combinations.

Removal of WCAG criteria from syntax analysis

The WCAG working group published an update to WCAG 2.1 on 21 September 2023 indicating that success criterion 4.1.1 Parsing should henceforth always be considered compliant.

As the RAWeb is a transposition of WCAG 2.1, this choice is applied to the corresponding criteria in the RAWeb. Therefore, criteria 8.1 and 8.2 of the RAWeb no longer need to be tested and must always be considered compliant.

The criteria have been retained in the framework (to preserve the numbering of the "Mandatory elements" criteria) and are accompanied by a note.

Removal of references to the longdesc attribute

The longdesc attribute as a compliant method for criteria 1.6 and 1.7 is deleted. The longdesc attribute has been declared obsolete in the HTML5 specification. In addition, support for the attribute is inadequate for the test environment, with no support in particular for mobile environments (Safari/iOS and Chrome/Talkback).

In test 1.6.1, the following condition is removed: There is a longdesc attribute that gives the address (URL) of a page or location on the page containing the detailed description. The test methodology is adapted accordingly.

In the technical note for criterion 1.6, the passage concerning the longdesc attribute is deleted:

The longdesc attribute, which is one of the conditions of test 1.6.1 (and whose relevance is verified with test 1.7.1), is now considered obsolete by the current HTML specification. Verification of this attribute will therefore only be required for versions of the HTML specification prior to HTML 5.

In test 1.7.1, the following condition is removed: The detailed description via the address referenced in the longdesc attribute is relevant. The test methodology has been adapted accordingly.

In the glossary, the entry "Detailed description (image)" has been modified. The item A longdesc attribute that contains the address of a page or location on the page containing the detailed description has been removed.

Modification to test 4.4.1

The test 4.4.1 has been rewritten to specify the test elements, which were deemed to be too implicit.

Test 4.4.1 in the RGAA 4.1.2

Test 4.4.1: For each pre-recorded time-synchronised media with captions, are these captions relevant?

It has been rewritten in RAWeb 1 to introduce 3 test conditions to be verified:

  • Captions are in the language of the video;
  • Captions are relevant;
  • Captions are correctly synchronised.

Removal of references to obsolete technologies

References to Flash, Silverlight and Java have been removed from the criteria, glossary and methodologies due to the disappearance of these technologies.

The framework elements affected are as follows:

New WCAG techniques and failures have been added for certain RAWeb criteria.

Other techniques and failures have been deleted.