The website accessibility checklist: 44 checks you can do yourself
44 plain-English WCAG 2.2 AA checks for structure, keyboard, forms, color and media.
The standard · Updated October 2026
WCAG 2.2 explained in plain English
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are the technical standard behind the ADA rules, Section 508 and the European Accessibility Act. Here is what they ask for, without the jargon.
A short history
| Version | Published | Status |
|---|---|---|
| WCAG 2.0 | December 2008 | Referenced by Section 508 |
| WCAG 2.1 | June 2018 | Referenced by the ADA Title II rule, HHS Section 504 rule and EN 301 549 |
| WCAG 2.2 | October 2023 | Current W3C Recommendation |
| WCAG 3.0 | Working draft | Not a standard yet |
Each version is backward compatible: content that meets WCAG 2.2 AA also meets 2.1 AA and 2.0 AA.
The four principles: POUR
Every WCAG success criterion sits under one of four principles. If you remember nothing else, remember these.
Perceivable — people must be able to perceive the content with at least one sense. Images need text alternatives, video needs captions, text needs enough contrast, and content must survive zooming and reflowing.
Operable — people must be able to use the interface. Everything works with a keyboard, nothing traps focus, there is enough time, nothing flashes dangerously, and navigation is predictable.
Understandable — content and behavior must make sense. The page language is declared, labels and instructions are clear, errors are explained, and controls behave consistently.
Robust — content must work with current and future assistive technologies. Interactive elements expose their name, role and state, and status messages are announced.
Conformance levels
- Level A — the minimum. Failing these blocks people entirely (for example, an image button with no label).
- Level AA — the legal standard almost everywhere. WCAG 2.2 has 55 criteria at Levels A and AA combined.
- Level AAA — the highest level, applied selectively.
To claim conformance at a level, a full page — and every page in a process like checkout — must meet every criterion at that level and below.
What’s new in WCAG 2.2
WCAG 2.2 added nine success criteria and removed one obsolete one (4.1.1 Parsing).
| Criterion | Level | In plain English |
|---|---|---|
| 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) | AA | When an element gets keyboard focus, it isn’t completely hidden behind sticky headers, cookie banners or chat widgets. |
| 2.4.12 Focus Not Obscured (Enhanced) | AAA | No part of the focused element is hidden. |
| 2.4.13 Focus Appearance | AAA | The focus indicator is large and high-contrast enough to see. |
| 2.5.7 Dragging Movements | AA | Anything you can do by dragging, you can also do with single clicks or taps. |
| 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) | AA | Clickable targets are at least 24 × 24 CSS pixels, or spaced so they don’t overlap. |
| 3.2.6 Consistent Help | A | Help options (contact details, chat, FAQ) appear in the same place across pages. |
| 3.3.7 Redundant Entry | A | Don’t make people re-type information they already gave you in the same process. |
| 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) | AA | Logging in doesn’t require a cognitive test like memorizing or transcribing a code, unless there’s an alternative such as paste support or a password manager. |
| 3.3.9 Accessible Authentication (Enhanced) | AAA | No object or image recognition tests either. |
The criteria that fail most often
Year after year, large-scale studies such as WebAIM’s annual analysis of the top million home pages find the same handful of problems on the vast majority of sites:
- Low-contrast text (1.4.3)
- Missing alternative text for images (1.1.1)
- Empty links and buttons — icons with no accessible name (2.4.4, 4.1.2)
- Form fields without labels (1.3.1, 3.3.2)
- Missing document language (3.1.1)
All five are cheap to fix. See our website accessibility checklist for how.
WCAG for documents
WCAG applies to PDFs and other documents, too: the W3C publishes guidance on applying WCAG to non-web documents, and the ADA Title II rule applies WCAG 2.1 AA to PDFs, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. For PDFs, the companion technical standard is PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1). Read PDF/UA vs WCAG for how the two fit together.
Frequently asked questions
Is WCAG a law?
No. WCAG is a technical standard published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It becomes legally binding when a law or regulation adopts it — like the ADA Title II rule (WCAG 2.1 AA), Section 508 (WCAG 2.0 AA) and the EU’s EN 301 549 (WCAG 2.1 AA).
Should we target Level AAA?
Not as a whole. W3C itself says AAA conformance isn’t recommended as a general policy for entire sites because some criteria can’t be met for all content. Adopt individual AAA criteria where they help your users — for example, enhanced contrast for body text.
What about WCAG 3.0?
WCAG 3.0 is an early-stage W3C working draft with a different structure and scoring model. It is years away from becoming a standard, and no law references it. WCAG 2.2 is the version to work to now.
Find out where you stand, in writing.
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