What WCAG means for digital accessibility
When dealing with digital accessibility, you automatically come across the term WCAG. WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. They are the international guidelines for digital accessibility. But what does WCAG really mean and why is it important?
What does WCAG mean?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG guidelines are the international standard for digital accessibility. The standard is maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Together with organizations and people around the world, the W3C develops the WCAG standard. The WCAG is constantly evolving. Currently, WCAG 2.1 is the version that Web sites must comply with, but WCAG 2.2 has now appeared and WCAG 3 is also being worked on.
The 4 WCAG principles
WCAG is based on 4 principles:
- Observable: everyone must be able to perceive all content on your website or app.
- Operable: everyone must be able to operate your website or app.
- Understandable: everyone must be able to understand the information and operation of your website or app.
- Robust: everyone should be able to use your website or app even as technologies evolve.
The WCAG guidelines and success criteria elaborate on the principles
Under these 4 principles are 13 guidelines. These guidelines elaborate on the principles. These are the basic goals for accessibility, but you cannot test them. For that, success criteria are defined for each guideline. So to comply with WCAG, your website or app must meet the success criteria. An overview of all guidelines and success criteria can be found on W3C's site.
What does WCAG A, WCAG AA and WCAG AAA mean?
The WCAG success criteria are on three levels: A, AA and AAA. These indicate priority based on the impact of the success criterion on accessibility.
- WCAG A: These success criteria are necessary because otherwise it is impossible for certain groups of people to use the content. This includes 30 success criteria.
- WCAG AA: these success criteria are desirable, otherwise it is difficult for certain groups of people to use the content. This level (WCAG 2.1 AA) websites and apps must comply with European and Dutch legislation in order to be accessible. This WCAG AA can also be found in the European accessibility standard EN 301 549. This includes 20 success criteria as well as level A criteria.
- WCAG AAA: These success criteria are optional, to make it easier for certain groups of people to use the content. They include 28 success criteria and the criteria of levels A and AA.
- If we use WCAG 2.2, there are 31 criteria for level A, 24 success criteria for AA and 31 success criteria for AAA.
Read more about WCAG A, WCAG AA en WCAG AAA
When are you WCAG-proof?
You meet the legal WCAG standard if your website or app meets the success criteria of WCAG A and AA. Level AAA is not mandatory. In practice, therefore, there are hardly any websites and apps that achieve WCAG AAA. So with level AA, you are WCAG-proof. But how do you know if your website or app meets the standard? That requires an accessibility audit. We provide such WCAG audits for our clients.
The WCAG in brief
In summary, the WCAG is based on 4 principles. These are detailed in 13 guidelines. You can test these guidelines using 78 success criteria. Your website or app meets the standard if no errors are found in the 50 success criteria of WCAG 2.1 AA.
WCAG test of your website or app with an audit
An audit is an accessibility test and shows the extent to which your website or app is accessible. The WCAG is leading in an audit. So we look to see if your website or app meets the success criteria of WCAG 2.1 AA. This is the level maintained in European and Dutch legislation as a standard. An audit is not something you use an automatic WCAG checker for. This is work for specialists which requires a lot of manual work. Want to know how we perform an audit and what types of audits there are?
Read more about accessibility audits
What is WCAG-EM?
You may have come across the term WCAG-EM. This is not an additional criterion, but has to do with how you conduct a test. WCAG-EM stands for Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology. It is the international standard for testing the extent to which a website complies with WCAG. We therefore conduct our audits according to the WCAG-EM methodology.
WCAG-EM contains guidelines for:
- determining the scope of the investigation,
- exploring the target website (determining key pages and functionality),
- determining representative samples of websites where it is not feasible to examine all content,
- auditing the selected samples,
- reporting the findings.
WCAG and legislation: EN 301 549 and the European accessibility act
For governments, digital accessibility is mandatory and there are specific accessibility requirements. This is laid down in European legislation, namely the European accessibility standard EN 301 549. This standard describes what websites and apps must meet in terms of digital accessibility. For this, the standard states that you must comply with WCAG 2.1 AA. So this is the standard we use in an audit. In the Netherlands, the European directive has been incorporated into the Government Digital Accessibility Decree.
Digital accessibility is also becoming mandatory for businesses. In fact, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) that will come into force in 2025 stipulates that various products and services must be accessible. These include:
- computers and operating systems
- ATMs, ticket and check-in machines
- smartphones
- TV equipment for digital television services
- telephony services and related equipment
- access to audiovisual media services such as television broadcasting and related consumer equipment
- passenger air, bus, rail and water transport services
- banking services
- e-books
- e-commerce
In addition to legislation, accessibility is of course helpful and important to work on anyway. In the Netherlands there are already more than 4 million people with a disability. You don't want to leave them out in the cold, do you?
Read more about the European Accessibility Act (EAA)
What is an accessibility statement?
An accessibility statement shows the extent to which a Web site or app meets WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility requirements. It also states what measures will be taken to improve accessibility and in what time frame they will be taken. It is mandatory for government organizations to have a public, up-to-date accessibility statement.
For the statement, you need an accessibility audit. This is because you use the results from the survey as evidence for the accessibility statement. Note that the audit results are only valid for 3 years. After that, a new audit is needed for a valid accessibility statement.
The accessibility statement has a standard form. It is mandatory for governments to follow it. The fill-in wizard at toegankelijkheidsverklaring.nl helps you create an accessibility declaration for your website or app.
Make your PDFs WCAG-proof, too
Digital accessibility goes beyond your website or app. All digital information should be usable by everyone, including documents. PDFs are widely used to share information. Unfortunately, PDFs are often not accessible. As a result, someone who depends on a screen reader, for example, cannot use the information. Do you still want to use PDFs? We are happy to make your PDFs accessible so that everyone receives your message!
The benefits and importance of digital accessibility
After what you've read here about the WCAG, it can seem quite complicated and time-consuming to get started. Yet it is important to work on digital accessibility. There are 4.5 million people with disabilities in the Netherlands. Without digital accessibility, they simply cannot use your website or app (properly). This can have major consequences. That's why digital accessibility is mandatory for governments and is also becoming mandatory for many companies.
A digitally accessible site is also more findable in search engines like Google. Google is actually a user with a disability as well. Therefore, Google understands a digitally accessible site better. That increases the chances of a higher ranking.
Accessibility is also pleasant for people without disabilities. Letters that are not too small and have sufficient contrast with the background read more comfortably for everyone. Clear navigation makes it easier for everyone to use. So digital accessibility is a no brainer, right?
Getting started with WCAG
Time to get to work on digital accessibility. But how do you do that and where do you start? No worries. No matter where you stand on the route to accessibility, we'll make sure you move forward. You can do that by:
