Understanding WCAG Conformance and Digital Accessibility

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an essential resource for individuals and organizations aiming to create and maintain accessible digital content. Just like the definition states, WCAG is a detailed set of technical guidelines explaining what’s required to make your website, app, or other digital property accessible to people with disabilities.

The guidelines pinpoint accessibility barriers to consider when designing or reviewing digital content. Most importantly, WCAG conformance—sometimes inaccurately referred to as “WCAG compliance”—means your business is meeting WCAG standards, which have been adopted by U.S. and international anti-discrimination and accessibility legislation. And while WCAG itself is not a law, it is the universally accepted benchmark for web accessibility around the world.

WCAG compliance vs. conformance

Compliance is an important term in the world of web accessibility. Many laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in the U.S., the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) in Canada, and the European Accessibility Act (EAA) in Europe, require digital accessibility for compliance. For this reason, many people also wonder how to achieve WCAG compliance.

But there’s a crucial difference between WCAG and laws regulating digital accessibility. WCAG itself is not a piece of legislation, so there is technically no such thing as WCAG compliance. Instead, WCAG success criteria aim to help website owners meet the accessibility requirements of laws like the ADA and Section 508. Put simply, WCAG conformance is the global gold standard for web accessibility and is a best practice for compliance.

What are the WCAG requirements?

WCAG offers an extensive list of requirements for making web content more accessible to a wider range of people, including people with disabilities. When these guidelines are not followed, a site or app may include barriers that prevent people from accessing content or communicating effectively. If these barriers don’t directly affect you, you might not know they exist. That’s where WCAG comes in.

The guidelines include a list of success criteria, which outline best practices for making a digital experience accessible (and, by extension, complying with anti-discrimination legislation). Here are just a few examples of what WCAG covers:

• Pre-recorded and live video with audio content must have captions for those who are Deaf or Hard-of–Hearing (HoH), or who process information better by reading.

• Pre-recorded audio content files need to be accompanied by a written transcript. This doesn’t just help people with disabilities—along with captions, a transcript also allows those who are in a noisy environment or can’t turn on their sound to understand the content of an audio file.

• Non-decorative images, including those used for an image button or link, need descriptive alternative text (alt text) so screen reader users have an appropriate description of the image. Alt text can also help anyone with slow internet better understand the contents of an image.

• Web-page text should be resizable without cutting off or removing page elements.

• All timed functions must exist with no time limitations or have extended extra time limits for those who require more time to perform functions like filling out forms.

• Items contained in numerous web pages must be positioned consistently site-wide, so end users always know where to locate them. For example, your sidebar can’t change from left to right depending on the page. The navigation can’t go from being anchored to the top to appearing on the bottom.

• Your website must be navigable by keyboard only—visitors shouldn’t need to use a mouse. This is important for screen reader users, people with motor disabilities, and many other individuals, including someone who may be dealing with an injury to their dominant arm or hand.

• All web pages need the appropriate heading-level formatting, so those using screen readers can easily understand how each page is organized.

Web designers, developers, and content authors need to keep these guidelines, and the barriers they prevent, in mind when creating digital experiences.

Universally accepted standards

What’s special about WCAG is that it’s developed by a working group of stakeholders, including experts, regulators, academics, and businesspeople worldwide. The international community that collaborates on WCAG is called the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C. This group of staff, member organizations, and public members from all over the globe combine their expertise and energy to create these and other important standards for the web.

How many WCAG versions exist?

If you’re aiming to achieve WCAG conformance (not to be confused with the misnomer, “WCAG compliance”) you may be wondering which version to conform with. WCAG exists in four versions: 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2, which are regularly updated to keep pace with changes in technology.

• WCAG 1.0: This version was released in 1999 and is no longer recommended for use.

• WCAG 2.0: Released in 2008, WCAG 2.0 was the most up-to-date and most universally accepted set of web accessibility guidelines available for ten years.

• WCAG 2.1: Released in June 2018, this version builds on the 2.0 guidelines, with information regarding newer technologies, and covers a wider spectrum of accessibility needs.

• WCAG 2.2: Released in October of 2023, WCAG 2.2 is the most up-to-date version of WCAG.

Why has so much changed since WCAG 1.0 Programmers were developing websites in new ways upon its release. But that’s just one reason for the update; version 2.0 examines more advanced technologies that WCAG 1.0 doesn’t. WCAG 2.0 was created in a technology-agnostic way that allows authors to meet the standards using different techniques, allowing for flexibility.

WCAG 2.1, built on 2.0, addresses how web content is consumed on touchscreen devices, different-sized and orientation screens, and devices with sensors (like a mobile device). WCAG 2.2 contains additional guidelines for mobile content accessibility.

Here are a few of the other key differences between the versions:

• WCAG versions 2.0 and onward aim to unify web accessibility standards already established worldwide.

• WCAG versions 2.0 and onward improve understanding. For example, they include concrete examples to illustrate how the guidelines apply in the wild, such as supporting techniques and typical accessibility errors that web designers make, along with other resources and supporting materials.

• WCAG 2.1 expands the guidance provided in 2.0 to include more provisions for people with low vision and cognitive and learning disabilities. These 17 new requirements can help organizations advance inclusion and serve a broader user base.

• WCAG 2.2 introduces nine additional success criteria. Many of these aim to further improve accessibility for people with low vision and cognitive disabilities and enhance experiences for those with motor disabilities.

It’s important to note that content that conforms to WCAG 2.2 also conforms to WCAG 2.1, and content that conforms to WCAG 2.1 also conforms to WCAG 2.0. (In other words, each version is “backward compatible”). Therefore, a website that meets WCAG 2.2 or WCAG 2.1 also meets the requirements of policies that reference WCAG 2.0.

To put it another way: to conform with WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1, you can use the 2.2 resources. The W3C recommends using WCAG’s most recent version when developing or updating content or accessibility protocols.

What are the WCAG conformance levels?

WCAG has three conformance levels: A, AA, and AAA. These form a pyramid structure, with each building on the previous level. If you conform with Level AA, you also meet all Level A requirements. If you conform with Level AAA, you also meet all Level AA requirements.

• WCAG Level A: This is the base level of conformance, providing essential benefits that apply to the broadest group of users. However, conforming to Level A doesn’t eliminate all barriers that may impact users’ experience.

• WCAG Level AA: As the most commonly targeted WCAG conformance level, Level AA is widely adopted by regulations and referenced in legal settlement negotiations. Meeting this benchmark will make your website accessible to more users than simply satisfying the Level A criteria will.

• WCAG Level AAA: This is the highest achievable level, encompassing the criteria for all three levels. However, Level AAA conformance isn’t applicable or realistic in all scenarios.

What is WCAG testing?

WCAG testing refers to the practice of evaluating your digital content to determine if it conforms with WCAG. This testing—which can be done manually, using automated tools, or through a combination of both methods—can help you understand the accessibility of various digital touchpoints, including web pages, mobile apps, and PDFs. It will also help you identify any WCAG violations, such as missing alt text or insufficient color contrast, that need to be remediated. Many website owners use both manual and automatic testing for a thorough assessment.

What a difference WCAG makes

When your organization’s website conforms to WCAG standards, you help ensure that all people, including individuals with disabilities, can fully and independently use your site.

Take, for example, the experience of someone who is blind and uses a screen reader to navigate web content. Imagine that this user lands on a hotel home page that instantly starts playing a video tour with loud audio, preventing them from hearing the screen reader’s speech output. And turning down the computer’s volume also lowers the screen reader’s volume, which doesn’t help.

Giving the user the flexibility to control video and audio that plays automatically, a WCAG requirement, not only allows the screen reader user to review the site with text-to-speech but also allows all users more control over their experience. That means a more comfortable, efficient user experience for the individual web user, and an engaged potential customer for the hotel.

Similarly, satisfying WCAG’s requirement that all links communicate their purpose means users don’t have to open a new page that may or may not be relevant before they know where the link leads.

And by providing transcripts and captions, organizations allow more users—including those who are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing (HoH)—to access and enjoy content like videos or podcasts.

These are just a few of the many accessibility considerations that WCAG outlines for web content owners. So, how do organizations conform to these criteria? Keep reading to learn more.

Conforming to WCAG criteria

Understanding the importance of WCAG is the first step to creating a more accessible online experience for all. The next step is taking actions to ensure your web content conforms to the latest version of WCAG. This begins with an accessibility audit that will reveal your organization’s current state of accessibility. From there, an organization can use the insights from its audit to make improvements in line with WCAG criteria that enhance usability and accessibility for everyone.

Performing an accessibility audit can be complex. While automated tools can help, they provide an incomplete picture of a website’s accessibility. The best approach is to use a combination of automated and manual testing. If this task seems overwhelming, an experienced accessibility solution provider can offer clarity and support. Not only can they equip you with advanced testing tools and services, but they can also provide technology and guidance to help you implement the changes that will bring your web content into conformance with WCAG.

Find out how our unified platform and expert services can help you ensure WCAG conformance and put you on the path to compliance by connecting with our team today.