Key Accessibility Principles
Creating accessible digital experiences starts with a clear set of guidelines. In this chapter, you’ll explore the foundational principles behind WCAG, understand what these guidelines look like in action, and learn how accessibility is a team effort.
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WCAG and the POUR Principles
To maintain globally accepted accessibility practices, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), an international standard that explains how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities.
Versions of WCAG
There are three published versions of WCAG: 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2. Each version builds on the last, and they are backward compatible. Different versions are used as referenced standards in various global legislation. For example, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in the US refers to WCAG 2.0, while the European Accessibility Act (EAA) references EN 301 549, which incorporates WCAG 2.1. Other laws refer to the “latest version of WCAG” to perpetually stay up to date. The latest version is WCAG 2.2.
Who created WCAG?
Hint: Consider how WCAG is used globally
POUR Principles
WCAG 2.2 includes 86 success criteria organized into four principles, which lay the foundation necessary for anyone to access and use web content. They are commonly referred to using the acronym POUR. POUR stands for Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. For each principle, there are supporting guidelines, and in each of those are various success criteria that are used to validate that content conforms to the WCAG.
Perceivable
The Perceivable principle states that information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways that they can perceive. Put another way, if any part of a website is completely invisible to a user, the site fails the perceivability test. For website content to be perceivable, provide scalable text, good color contrast in content, and text alternatives for non-text content.
Operable
The Operable principle states that user interface components and navigation must be operable by all users. Website content is considered operable if all users can interact with it and navigate through all elements. When designing content, consider providing “skip to main content” links, landmarks, menus, and keyboard navigation.
Understandable
The Understandable principle states that all information and methods of operation on the user interface must be easily understandable. If a user cannot grasp how a website works or what the information means, it fails the understandability test. To ensure content is understandable, add clear link context, define the language of the page, provide access to help, include error prevention methods, and data validation.
Robust
The Robust principle states that content must be robust enough to be widely used with various user agents, including different browsers and screen readers, or devices like laptops and phones.
What is an example of the perceivable principle in POUR?
Hint: Different users require different means of perceiving information
What does the ‘R’ in POUR stand for, and what does it require?
Hint: Think about the variety of users' needs
WCAG Conformance Levels
Each principle has associated guidelines that address each principle’s general content requirements, e.g., “Make all functionality available from a keyboard.” Each guideline includes specific success criteria that outline what needs to be accomplished to meet WCAG standards. Each success criterion is framed as a statement that can be evaluated as either true or false when specific web content is tested. Additionally, these success criteria are designed to be technology-neutral.
All success criteria are organized into three conformance levels labeled A, AA, and AAA.
Level A is the most basic level of accessibility and has a high impact on a broad array of user populations. More simply, Level A includes success criteria that remove accessibility barriers that affect a wide range of users.
Level AA is considered the standard level of accessibility and removes additional accessibility barriers for users. This conformance level greatly assists specific user populations and establishes a level of accessibility that works for most devices and assistive technologies, including screen readers.
Level AAA is the strictest level of conformance. This level contains additional success criteria that focus on creating the highest possible level of website accessibility. Level AAA also includes improvements for limited user populations. They are usually reserved for websites with specific audiences.
From a legal perspective, conformance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA is standard. Level AA includes all the success criteria for Level A and Level AA.
WCAG can initially seem a bit overwhelming, especially if you aren't familiar with the guidelines. To help understand WCAG success criteria, refer to W3C's Understanding documents(opens in a new tab), which link to the techniques and failures for each applicable success criterion. These documents will guide your team to conformance and towards more accessible content.
What WCAG conformance level is considered the standard for accessibility?
Hint: Consider the legal conformance minimums
Responsibility/Role for Accessibility
Creating accessible online content is not a one-person job. All content creators, including writers, designers, and developers, are responsible for different aspects of digital accessibility.
To avoid defects and rework, define each role's accessibility responsibilities at the beginning of projects in order to conform to standards. For example:
Product owners must include accessibility in the project requirements or the definition of done.
Designers must create accessible designs that follow best practices, including scalable layouts, clear navigation patterns, and color stories with sufficient contrast.
Writers should create text content, define headings, link text, and alternatives for non-text content. Inclusive language should be used wherever possible.
Developers should implement semantic interface code that supports assistive technology, alternative input, and output, and test interface operability before checking in code. Additionally, ARIA should only be used where necessary.
Functional testers must validate interfaces against the WCAG success criteria. Then, user testing is conducted by daily users of various assistive technologies.
Accessibility should not be considered a checkbox. Instead, it should be a mindset adopted organization-wide. That requires shifting perspectives to ‘access-first’ thinking and building with accessibility in mind from the start, rather than retrofitting it later. Waiting until the end to “fix” accessibility often leads to higher costs, missed opportunities, and less effective outcomes.
How can product owners ensure accessibility in their role?
Hint: Think of the frequency and use case of considering accessibility.
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