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AccessibilityCraft conventionFoundational

WCAG in Practice

What the standard is, which version applies, and how the levels translate into design decisions.

Definition

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are the international standard for accessible digital content, organised under four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. WCAG 2.2 is the current recommendation; WCAG 3 is an early draft and is not yet a compliance target.

Craft convention. True because the industry converged on it. Breaking it costs familiarity, not correctness.

On this page
  1. Definition
  2. Conformance levels
  3. What WCAG 2.2 added
  4. Sources
  5. Continue from here

Conformance levels

LevelMeaningTypical use
AMinimum. Failing these excludes people outright.The floor. Never the target.
AAThe common legal and contractual requirement.The standard target for almost every product.
AAAEnhanced. Not achievable for all content.Applied selectively, not as a blanket target.

What WCAG 2.2 added

  • 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured, so sticky headers cannot hide the focused element.
  • 2.4.13 Focus Appearance, setting size and contrast requirements for the focus indicator.
  • 2.5.7 Dragging Movements, requiring a single-pointer alternative to any drag operation.
  • 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum), 24 by 24 CSS pixels with spacing exceptions.
  • 3.2.6 Consistent Help, keeping help mechanisms in the same relative place.
  • 3.3.7 Redundant Entry, not asking for the same information twice in one process.
  • 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication, not requiring a cognitive test such as transcribing a code.

Sources

Where a source establishes something narrower than the popular reading of it, the note says so.

Continue from here

Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.

Relied on by

Entries that assume this is already in place.

  • AuthenticationPattern

    Accessible authentication is a WCAG 2.2 requirement, not a nice-to-have.

Often used with

These usually appear in the same screen or the same decision.

Check your work

Review passes that test whether this was done properly.

Short definition

The one-paragraph version, for when that is all you need.

Related concept

Connected closely enough to change how you apply this.