ABSTRACT
Web accessibility standards, the guidelines by which the web and related technologies are made usable by people with disabilities, are not neutral. This chapter traces the processes of negotiation that characterized the development of WCAG 1.0, the US Section 508 standards, WCAG 2.0 and recent related updates. Using policy documents, web archives and interviews, this chapter describes accessibility standards as an infrastructure of possibilities. This is possible only because increased standardization—sameness—at the level of technical policies (“harmonization”) has streamlined standards in order to allow for a variety of practical interpretations.
