Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
WCAG is the global standard in digital accessibility guidelines. It enables all organizations to measure the accessibility of content, sites, and apps against documented requirements for all people, including those with disabilities.
What is WCAG and why does it matter?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG – often pronounced “wuh-cag”) are developed and maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and are widely accepted as the go-to standard for digital accessibility. They serve as the basis of most global accessibility regulations and are applicable across all current and future digital technologies.
Adherence to WCAG guidelines (called “conformance”) is an essential part of achieving digital accessibility compliance.
The WCAG guidelines are designed to be technology-agnostic; they apply to web-based technologies such as HTML, web apps, PDFs, audio, video, video players, and more. They can also apply to native mobile apps, software, kiosks, ATMs, emails, digital documents (text, presentations, spreadsheets) social media posts, and more.
Read on to learn more about WCAG compliance and how you can put these guidelines into practice.
The POUR principles: WCAG’s conceptual foundation
Perceivable
Information and the user interface must be presented to users in ways they can perceive.
Operable
User interface components and navigation must be operable.
Understandable
Information and operation of the user interface must be understandable.
Robust
Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably, including while using assistive technology.
WCAG levels A, AA, and AAA: How conformance is measured
Level A is the most basic level of accessibility conformance. There are 30 success criteria in WCAG 2.1 A.
Level AA is the second level of conformance. There are 20 success criteria in WCAG 2.1 AA. The ADA and Section 508 require both Level A (30 success criteria) and Level AA (20 success criteria). Europe’s EN 301 549 cites WCAG 2.1 AA.
Level AAA is the third and most advanced level of conformance. There are 31 success criteria in WCAG 2.1 AAA. It is not generally recommended as a requirement, because it is not possible to satisfy all criteria for some types of content.
Breaking down WCAG compliance testing further
There are a total of 13 guidelines beneath the four main POUR principles, with each guideline coming with its own set of success criteria. Each success criteria contains specific testing requirements.
Level A
Level AA
Level AAA
Six key focus areas to make rapid progress with automation
Our testing coverage studies indicate that the majority of issues (by volume) are easy to find using automation. This frees your experts to focus only on the complex issues. You can find and fix these quickly and easily.
1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
Ensure the contrast between the foreground and background colors meet contrast ratio thresholds.
4.1.2 Name, role, value
Add proper labels, function types, and states to your buttons, checkboxes, and other UI elements.
1.3.1 Info and relationships
Use proper semantic markup for headings, lists, tables, and forms.
2.4.1 Bypass blocks
Add a “Skip to main content” link, and ARIA landmarks to help define page sections.
1.1.1 Non-text content
Alt text. Informative images should have alt text describing the information they convey.
3.1.1 Language of page
Ensure that the default human language of each page can be programmatically determined.
How to take action and conform to WCAG
Perform an audit
Have a complete accessibility audit performed on your site and apps to determine your current level of accessibility.
Prioritize severe issues
Determine which parts of your site or app need to be prioritized based on usage and the severity of the accessibility barriers.
Commit to the practice
Train your dev teams and empower them with tools to prevent new accessibility barriers from entering your products.
Get started with WCAG testing
Contact UsFrequently asked questions
What are the benefits of adhering to WCAG guidelines and maintaining digital accessibility compliance?
There are many reasons to pursue digital accessibility in alignment with WCAG. These include:
Serving a wider audience. Accessible content will widen your available target audience and open new revenue opportunities.
Decreased legal risk. Organizations that actively pursue accessibility excellence are better positioned to address claims and avoid costly violations.
Increased Search Presence. Providing page titles, semantic heading structure, and alt text for images and transcripts for audio-visual files makes your content more discoverable by search engines.
Better overall user experience. Studies show that optimizations made in UI/UX for accessibility also benefit people without disabilities.
Is it possible to meet 100% of the WCAG success criteria?
Although the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are not enforceable requirements by themselves, there are many accessibility regulations worldwide that do require conformance with WCAG success criteria.
While WCAG 2.0 A and AA criteria is currently the most widely adopted requirement, we are already seeing the shift to WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2 A and AA in legal settlements worldwide as well as adoption in laws in some countries.
For example, Section 508, AODA, CVAA, and the Australian DDA are currently still based on WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA success criteria. Most legal settlements and U.S. Department of Justice Consent Decrees are already referencing WCAG 2.1 A/AA. The EU Accessibility Directive uses WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA and is expected to move to WCAG 2.2 in 2026.
How do I pronounce WCAG?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG is most often pronounced “wuh-cag.” Some people do opt to spell it out each time as W-C-A-G, while others say “double-you-cag.”
What happens during a WCAG audit?
Testing for WCAG conformance is a multi-step process. The process begins with defining the scope of the test; determining how many pages will be evaluated, and selecting representative pages to evaluate against your chosen WCAG level. Next, an automated page scan is run. To catch issues that automated scans cannot, a manual testing audit follows. Manual audits often consist of code inspection, keyboard-only navigation tests, screen reader testing, and no-sound testing. Finally, all findings are documented in an accessibility report format. Bringing all the findings together into a comprehensive, usable format allows stakeholders to remediate the issues identified based on the recommendations.
What is the difference between WCAG version 2.0 and 2.2?
In June 2018, the W3C released WCAG 2.1—the first major update to WCAG requirements in a decade. This update introduced 17 new success criteria, improving WCAG coverage for cognitive disabilities, low vision disabilities, and mobile accessibility.
The dot releases are focused on filling the gaps by building on previous releases. WCAG 2.2 released in October, 2023, includes 9 new success criteria.
What is the difference between compliance and conformance?
Compliance and conformance are different but related terms. Strictly speaking, compliance refers to adhering to a legal requirement, whereas compliance refers to adhering to a voluntary recommendation or standard. For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act is a law that you must comply with. WCAG is a standard that you should conform to. However, it can be more complicated than that, as certain laws may mandate conformance to a standard.
Understanding these distinctions is essential when it comes to testing, reporting, and demonstrating that your organization has met its digital accessibility obligations.
Consider the example of the European Accessibility Act (EAA): The EAA is a directive that gets transposed into national law. Compliance with the law requires conformance with the standard established by the law. Conformance is assessed and achieved via testing. Conformance is demonstrated through reporting. By documenting conformance (and providing reports when requested), you are compliant with the law. By being compliant with the law, you are in alignment with the EAA.
