The UB leads the translation into Catalan of the WCAG 2.1 international guidelines for an accessible website
The Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Barcelona will lead the translation into Catalan of the WCAG 2.1, the set of guidelines and advice for making web content more accessible to all people, especially those with some kind of disability or learning disability. The task, which represents the translation from English in a fairly specialised language, will be carried out with the support of the UB's ADAPTABIT teaching innovation group, the UB Language Services and Termcat.
The Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Barcelona will lead the translation into Catalan of the WCAG 2.1, the set of guidelines and advice for making web content more accessible to all people, especially those with some kind of disability or learning disability. The task, which represents the translation from English in a fairly specialised language, will be carried out with the support of the UB's ADAPTABIT teaching innovation group, the UB Language Services and Termcat.
The project has required the approval of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and its working group Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), authors of the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. The W3C guidelines, like those that will be translated into Catalan in the initiative of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, will subsequently be adopted as technical standards or as state legislation. Along these lines, WCAG 2.1 provides a framework for the application of the Royal Decree 1112/2018, on the accessibility of public sector websites and applications for mobile devices. This regulation is mandatory for all public administration portals, as well as those of private companies with more than 100 employees or a turnover of more than 6 million euros. The University of Barcelona also carried out the translation of the previous version of these guidelines, the WCAG 2.0.
The new translation project has been made possible thanks to the commitment of a number of civil society organisations, including representatives of the interests of various groups of people with disabilities, who will review and approve the translation. Specifically, the following entities have joined the initiative: Associació Discapacitat Visual B1+B2+B3 (Association for Visual Impairment), the Association for Human-Computer Interaction (AIPO), Fundació Desenvolupament Comunitari (Community Development Foundation), the SIDAR Foundation, the Catalan Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (COCARMI), the Unit for Augmentative Communication Techniques (UTAC), the "We Are Not Invisible" foundation, the Institut Guttmann Foundation, Salut Mental Catalunya, the Scientific Association for the Evaluation and Measurement of Human Values (AEVA), the Veus Federation, the Federation of Deaf People of Catalonia (FESOCA), the Barcelona City Council - Municipal Institute for People with Disabilities, the ACAPPS Federation and Aprenem Autisme.
The team led by the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the UB is interdisciplinary. It is coordinated by Mireia Ribera Turró (Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science and ADAPTABIT), with the participation of Jordi Barea Colomer, Marc Soler Bages (Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science), Rubén Alcaraz Martínez and Marina Salse Rovira (Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media and ADAPTABIT), Rosa M. Satorras Fioretti (Faculty of Law and ADAPTABIT), Mercè Costa Cuberta (Faculty of Economics and Business and ADAPTABIT), Lluc Massaguer Busqueta (UOC Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences and ADAPTABIT) and Silvia A. Cristian Ladaga (Faculty of Education).