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I am having trouble finding clear information regarding WCAG 2.1 compliance and user-generated content. Would a site fail compliance if the end users of the site created or uploaded content that would fail to conform to requirements?

Some examples could be the user uploading video content without captions or subtitles, or gifs that contain flashing content, or using a page editor to create different levels of html heading tags throughout the page for their personal preference but could interfere with screen reading technology etc...

What do you do about content which you cannot control?

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2 Answers

1
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You have two options - force users to upload WCAG compliant content (which is near impossible, but you can improve things by insisting on alt text, .srv or similar format caption files for videos etc. and explaining why it is important) or you use a statement of partial compliance on the site, of which their are two versions.

Statement of Partial Conformance - Third Party Content

The W3C recognises that you cannot control third party content, including user uploaded and user linked (embedded) content.

Now here you do have two realistic options, depending on your available resources.

Option 1 - maintain the pages

If the content is uploaded to your website then you have the option to "repair" it. You can put a system in place to monitor newly added content and add / adjust the markup, alt attributes etc. to make the page compliant.

You would still add a statement of partial compliance but would also state that pages will get updated and maintained to provide full compliance within 2 business days.

Due to the heavy resource requirements on busy sites this may or may not be an option.

However this would be the preference if you are able to do this (to reduce costs you can combine this with any mediation / approval processes you have in place. For content that cannot be made accessible, for example your scenario of flashing content, you can have a simple warning box that can be used to explain the problems with the content.)

Option 2 - accept that user content is not compliant

A "statement of partial conformance" may be made that the page does not conform, but could conform if certain parts were removed.

You detail which pages / page types are not compliant, but explain which parts are compliant and which parts need to be removed in order to make the page compliant.

I would put a warning before any content that explains that it is user generated content and link this to your partial compliance statement. It could have a positive effect where a few people take the time to learn about accessibility.

0
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It must be noted that third-party implementation and third-party content are two distinct things:

  • Using a page editor that generate bad heading tags is on the author's control.

  • Permitting third-party users to add content to the website is not (but can be) on the author's control,

For instance, integrating a twitter feed written by your social media manager is on your control : appropriate image alternative and text can be made, and using the API instead of the iframe integration can provide sufficient accessibility.

If you let people upload a video without giving them the ability to provide captions, then it's on your responsibility. If they can choose their own provider (like Youtube) but do not provide captions, then it's their responsability.

See Partial conformance claims due to third party content

When an author makes a decision to use a third party implementation, they should choose products that meet WCAG requirements. [...] However, if the page does not conform to WCAG only for reasons that are legitimately outside the author's control then the author can make a claim of partial conformance. It is important to recognize that this is a statement of non-conformance