Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

WCAG is an internationally recognized set of technical standards for making web content accessible to people with disabilities, published by the W3C.

What is WCAG?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are technical standards for making websites usable by people with disabilities. Published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), WCAG covers visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive needs. It is the global benchmark that laws and regulations point to when they say a website must be "accessible."^[1]

How is WCAG organized?

WCAG is built on four principles known as POUR:

Perceivable — Users must be able to see or hear the content. For example, images need text descriptions and videos need captions.
Operable — Users must be able to navigate and use controls. This includes full keyboard navigation.
Understandable — Text must be readable and forms must behave in a predictable way.
Robust — Content must work with different browsers and assistive technology like screen readers.

Every rule in WCAG maps to one of these four principles. This structure helps content teams, developers, and auditors find the rules that apply to their work.

What are WCAG conformance levels?

WCAG has three levels. Each level builds on the one before it:

Level A — The bare minimum. Failing these rules makes a site unusable for many people. Example: every image must have a text alternative.
Level AA — The standard most laws require. It adds rules like a minimum color contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for text and the ability to resize text to 200%.
Level AAA — The highest bar. Not all content can meet every AAA rule, so regulators do not require it across an entire site.

Most accessibility laws in the EU, UK, and US point to Level AA. If your organization runs a public-facing website, Level AA is almost certainly your target.

Which version of WCAG applies today?

WCAG has gone through several updates:

WCAG 2.0 (2008) — Set the POUR framework. Still the baseline referenced by US Section 508.
WCAG 2.1 (2018) — Added 17 rules for mobile, low vision, and cognitive needs. Referenced by the EU standard EN 301 549.
WCAG 2.2 (October 2023) — The current version, with 9 new rules on top of 2.1.^[3] Key additions include visible keyboard focus indicators, alternatives to drag interactions, and simpler login flows.

Each version is backward compatible. A site that meets 2.2 AA also meets 2.1 AA and 2.0 AA. Organizations already at 2.1 AA usually need to fix only a handful of items to reach 2.2 AA.

A future version, WCAG 3.0, is in development. It will use a new scoring model, but it is not yet an official standard.

Why does WCAG matter for legal compliance?

WCAG is not just a best practice. It is written into law across multiple regions:

European Accessibility Act (EAA) — Enforceable from June 2025, the EAA requires products and services in the EU to meet accessibility standards. The technical standard EN 301 549 references WCAG 2.1 AA.^[2]
UK Equality Act 2010 — Courts and regulators use WCAG as the benchmark for what counts as an accessible website, even though the law does not name it directly.
US Section 508 — Requires federal agencies and their vendors to meet WCAG 2.0 AA for web content.

For organizations in banking, insurance, healthcare, government, or education, non-compliance carries real risk. Legal teams should track which WCAG version their jurisdiction requires. IT teams need to build testing into their release process. And content teams must learn the rules that affect everyday publishing, like alt text and heading structure.

How many websites meet WCAG today?

According to a 2024 WebAIM study of the top one million home pages, 95.9% had at least one detectable WCAG failure.^[1] The most common issues were low contrast text, missing alt text, and empty links. Automated tools can catch roughly 30-40% of all possible issues. The rest require manual testing with real assistive technology.

How Askem Helps

For large organizations where new content is published daily, a one-time accessibility audit is not enough. Continuous monitoring tools check every page against WCAG 2.2 AA on a regular schedule. Tools like Askem scan websites, portals, and PDFs — including login-gated sections — and produce shareable reports showing exactly which pages have failures. This gives legal teams an up-to-date compliance picture they can rely on, rather than a snapshot that ages the moment the audit ends.

Sources

W3C — Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/
European Commission — European Accessibility Act: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1202
W3C — What's New in WCAG 2.2: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/new-in-22/