WCAG 3 Introduction

Introduction

W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3 is currently an incomplete draft. WCAG 3 is intended to develop into a W3C Standard in a few years. The current standard, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2), is introduced in the WCAG 2 Overview.

The WCAG 3 documents will explain how to make the web more accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG 3 applies to web content, apps, tools, publishing, and emerging technologies on the web.

We will update this page regularly as work on the WCAG 3 Draft progresses.

Status: In-progress drafts

In December 2024, we published updated drafts:

• Requirements for WCAG 3 describes the key principles and requirements that will help shape how WCAG 3 develops and how to determine when it is successfully complete.
• Explainer for WCAG 3 provides background information and describes the structure of the December 2024 WCAG 3 Draft. We suggest reading the Explainer before reading WCAG 3.
• WCAG 3 Working Draft includes potential guidelines and requirements that we are exploring. The final requirements in WCAG 3 will be different from this draft. Guidelines and requirements will be edited, added, combined, and removed.

Summary of changes

• Explanatory content is moved to the Explainer.
• The term ‘outcome’ is changed. The current draft has ‘guidelines’ that are written as user-centered outcomes and ‘requirements’ that support the guideline.
• Requirements are indicated as ‘foundational’ or ‘supplemental’, as described in the Explainer.
• Accessibility support is changed in 3.1.1 Only accessibility-supported ways of using technologies.

Section status

Each normative section has a status that indicates how far along in the development process this section is, how ready it is for experimental adoption, and what kind of feedback we are looking for.

• Placeholder
• Exploratory
• Developing
• Refining
• Mature

For more information on these status indicators, see the Explainer section Current Process for Creating WCAG 3.0.

For your review

In this WCAG 3 Working Draft, there are four updated sections that we would particularly like feedback on. The first three sections are guidelines:

1. Image alternatives guideline
2. Keyboard focus appearance guideline
3. Clear meaning guideline

For these sections, does the information under ‘Which foundational requirements apply?’ make the guidelines easier to understand and use?

The other section we would like feedback on is:

• Conformance

This section explains the conformance approach we are considering for WCAG 3. There are still many details to be worked out. Do you have constructive comments about this proposed conformance approach for WCAG 3?

Research needed

Some of the guidelines and requirements are marked with “Needs additional research”. We are particularly interested in assistance identifying or conducting research to support or refute them.

Comments

To provide input, please open an issue in the WCAG 3 GitHub repository. Or, if you are unable to use GitHub, email [email protected].

Please create separate GitHub issues or email messages for each topic, rather than putting multiple topics in a single issue or email.

WCAG 3 Draft approach

Some similar, some different

Goals for WCAG 3 include:

• be easier to understand
• cover more user needs, including more needs of people with cognitive disabilities
• be flexible to address different types of web content, apps, tools, and organizations

WCAG 3 is similar to previous versions in some ways. It has similar:

• goal of providing guidance on making web content and apps accessible to people with disabilities
• fundamental and specific accessibility requirements

WCAG 3 is very different from previous versions in some ways. It has:

• different structure
• different conformance model
• broader scope, beyond just web content

WCAG 3 name

The name of WCAG 3 is different from WCAG 2:

• WCAG 3 is W3C Accessibility Guidelines
• WCAG 2 is Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

“W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0” was chosen:

• because of wide-spread familiarity with the “WCAG” acronym
• to encompass the broader scope beyond “content”

Structure

For a description of the structure of the December 2024 WCAG 3 Working Draft, see the Explainer section WCAG 3.0 Structure.

Conformance approach

The conformance model is the way to determine and communicate how well content, a website, an app, etc. meets WCAG.

The conformance model in WCAG 3 will be very different from WCAG 2. It is intended to:

• be more flexible for organizations (that is, owners and developers of websites, apps, tools, etc.)
• encourage more accessible user experiences

Developing and vetting the conformance model is a large portion of the work AG needs to complete over the next few years.

The December 2024 publications have updated information in:

• Explainer section Conformance approach
• WCAG 3 Working Draft section Conformance

Development

Timeline

WCAG 3 is not expected to be a completed W3C standard for a few more years.

WCAG 3 will not supersede WCAG 2 and WCAG 2 will not be deprecated for at least several years after WCAG 3 is finalized.

The Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AG WG) has created an initial set of guidelines. In the first part of 2025, AG WG will focus on developing two or three guidelines to Refining or Mature status. We will use that experience to develop a projected timeline for WCAG 3. We expect the timeline to be available by September 2025.

For information on current timelines and activities, see WCAG 3 Publication Plan.

We will update this section with more specific timeline information as it is available.

Who develops WCAG 3

The WCAG technical documents are developed by the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AG WG) (previously under the Silver Task Force) with the Silver Community Group. These Groups are part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). You can learn about the development process from How WAI Develops Accessibility Standards through the W3C Process: Milestones and Opportunities to Contribute.

We welcome your comments on WCAG 3 Working Drafts. The best way to provide feedback is by opening new GitHub issues. Alternatively, e-mail [email protected]

Opportunities for contributing more directly to WCAG and other WAI work are introduced in Participating in WAI.