Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a set of international standards published by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) for making web content accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG covers a wide range of recommendations across four principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust), with conformance levels A, AA, and AAA. WCAG 2.2 (ISO/IEC 40500:2025) is the current standard, while WCAG 3.0 is in active development targeting broader coverage of websites, mobile apps, VR environments, and digital documents.
URL: Visit APIs.json URL
Run: Capabilities Using Naftiko
- Accessibility, W3C, WCAG, Web Standards, Disability, Inclusive Design
- Created: 2025
- Modified: 2026-05-03
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2, the current stable version and ISO/IEC 40500:2025 standard. Introduces 9 new success criteria beyond WCAG 2.1, including focus appearance, dragging movements, and consistent help. Organized into four POUR principles.
Human URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/
- WCAG 2.2, Accessibility, Web Standards, ISO
- WCAG 2.2 Specification
- WCAG 2.2 Quick Reference
- WCAG GitHub Repository
- Success Criterion Schema
- Conformance Claim Schema
- Success Criterion Structure
- Conformance Claim Structure
W3C Accessibility Guidelines 3.0 working draft, expanding scope to cover mobile apps, VR, authoring tools, and digital documents. Introduces outcome-based testing and a new scoring model. Working Draft published January 2026.
Human URL: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/wcag3-intro/
- WCAG 3.0, Accessibility, Web Standards, Working Draft
Accessible Rich Internet Applications 1.2 specification providing semantic roles, states, and properties for accessible user interface components.
Human URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/
- WAI-ARIA, Accessibility, Semantic Web, User Interface
Machine-executable rules for testing WCAG 2.x conformance, enabling consistent automated accessibility evaluation.
Human URL: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/act/
- ACT Rules, Accessibility Testing, Automated Testing, WCAG
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
- W3C Accessibility Standards Overview
- W3C GitHub Organization
- Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List
- WCAG-EM Report Tool
- WCAG Vocabulary
- WCAG JSON-LD Context
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Four Accessibility Principles (POUR) | Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust — the organizing framework for all WCAG success criteria. |
| Three Conformance Levels | Level A (minimum), Level AA (standard), and Level AAA (enhanced) for graduated implementation. |
| Testable Success Criteria | Specific, testable criteria providing a clear pass/fail basis for accessibility evaluation. |
| ACT Rules Integration | Machine-executable rules enabling consistent automated testing across evaluation tools. |
| Techniques and Failures Documentation | Sufficient techniques, advisory techniques, and common failures for each success criterion. |
| WCAG 3.0 Outcome-Based Model | Scoring-based conformance model replacing binary pass/fail for more nuanced assessment. |
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Legal Compliance | Meeting legal accessibility requirements including ADA, Section 508, EN 301 549, and AODA. |
| Automated Accessibility Testing | Integrating ACT Rules into CI/CD pipelines to catch WCAG violations automatically. |
| Screen Reader Compatibility | WAI-ARIA roles and properties enable accessible rich web applications. |
| Accessibility Auditing | WCAG criteria as the evaluation framework for manual and automated audits. |
| Inclusive Design | Building accessibility in from the design phase rather than retrofitting. |
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| axe-core | Popular open-source accessibility testing engine mapping rules to WCAG success criteria. |
| WAVE | Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool visually highlighting WCAG issues on web pages. |
| Lighthouse | Google Lighthouse includes accessibility audits mapped to WCAG criteria. |
| NVDA and JAWS | Screen readers implementing WAI-ARIA API mappings for blind and low-vision users. |
| ISO/IEC 40500 | WCAG 2.2 is identical to ISO/IEC 40500:2025 for international procurement. |
- WCAG Vocabulary — Normative taxonomy mapping 6 resources, 7 actions, 5 personas, and 4 domains across the W3C accessibility standards ecosystem
FN: Kin Lane
Email: kin@apievangelist.com