WCAG: The International Standard for Compliance
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are used as compliance guidelines for numerous accessibility laws, including the ADA. Courts and compliance teams worldwide use these standards to evaluate whether your digital products are accessible. In this chapter, you’ll learn which WCAG standards are used to measure compliance, what specific guidelines you need to meet, and how to prioritize them.
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WCAG’s Role in Accessibility Laws
WCAG is considered the international standard for accessibility. Although originally created as technical guidance by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), WCAG guidelines are used by courts, regulators, and legal teams to determine if websites and other digital content are accessible to people with disabilities.
Which Laws Use WCAG?
Multiple accessibility laws use WCAG guidelines to determine compliance, including:
Section 508
Applies to U.S. Federal Agencies and requires WCAG 2.0 Level AA conformance
Americans with Disabilities Act
U.S. courts consistently apply WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the compliance standard.
European Accessibility Act
The EAA enforces the POUR principles, similar to WCAG guidelines, which requires content to be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)
The Canadian law requires public and private organizations to meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA conformance requirements.
Disability Discrimination Act
Australian courts reference WCAG when evaluating lawsuits and determining compliance.
Most courts use WCAG guidelines because they provide objective, testable criteria for measuring digital accessibility. Rather than subjective interpretations, WCAG offers specific success criteria that can be evaluated consistently across different cases and jurisdictions.
What Does WCAG Conformance Mean in Legal Terms?
Conformance with WCAG guidelines usually means meeting the success criteria included in WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Most courts focus on whether people with disabilities can effectively access and use digital content, rather than perfect technical adherence to every guideline. Organizations must demonstrate good faith efforts to remove substantial barriers to access.
What laws use WCAG to measure compliance?
Hint: Remember, one law uses the POUR principles over WCAG to determine compliance.
Which WCAG conformance level do most accessibility laws require for compliance?
Hint: Think about the "goldilocks" approach to accessibility; what's just the right amount?
Want more information on the basics of WCAG?
Check out Chapter 3 of our Accessibility 101 Course.
WCAG Checklist
WCAG 2.1 includes 78 success criteria that detail how to make digital content accessible and compliant. The checklist below breaks each of them down by level; we recommend prioritizing the success criteria included in Level A and AA as these are used to measure compliance with most accessibility laws.
WCAG Checklist Level A
WCAG Checklist Level AA
WCAG Checklist Level AAA
What Content Needs to Conform with WCAG Guidelines?
The scope of content that needs to conform to WCAG guidelines ultimately depends on your organization’s legal obligations (e.g., organization type, funding and contracts, geographic location, etc.), but here are the general categories:
Always required:
Main website pages, including homepages, product/service pages, and contact information.
Online applications and forms, like registration, checkout, and contract forms.
Mobile applications that provide the same services as your website.
Customer-facing portals, such as account dashboards or self-service tools.
Digital documents linked from your website (PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoints, etc.)
Usually required:
Employee-facing systems and intranets as required by employment accessibility laws.
Marketing emails and digital communications.
Social media control you control/post directly.
Video and audio content that requires captions, transcripts, or audio descriptions.
Third-party integrations, such as chatbots, payment systems, or other embedded content.
May be exempt or have modified requirements:
Archived content that’s no longer updated (courts typically allow reasonable timelines surrounding this type of content).
Pre-existing documents; however, these may require accessible alternatives rather than full remediation.
Live streaming content has different requirements than pre-recorded content.
The bottom line: If users need content to access your goods, services, or employment opportunities, it likely needs to be accessible. Best practice is to err on the side of accessibility and inclusion rather than exclusion.
Which type of content is typically exempt from WCAG guidelines?
Hint: Think about content that's likely not used by many individuals.
What’s the key principle for determining if content needs to conform with WCAG?
Hint: Remember that under WCAG, all digital content is required to be accessible.
Keep Learning
Move to the next chapter: United States Accessibility Laws