It’s official, the journey is finally over and the published Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 2.2 are live! The full WCAG 2.2 guidelines define how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. The newly launched WCAG 2.2 guidelines build atop its predecessors WCAG 1.0, WCAG 2.0, and WCAG 2.1.
Below are some helpful supporting documents to help you understand and meet the WCAG 2.2 guidelines:
Comparing WCAG 2.2 with WCAG 2.1
WCAG 2.2 is backwards compatible with WCAG 2.1. This means that web pages conforming to it are at least as accessible as pages that conform to WCAG 2.1.
The goal was to improve upon WCAG 2.1 especially towards improving the guidance for three groups of users including those with:
- Cognitive or learning disabilities
- Low vision
- Disabilities on mobile devices
The following success criteria are new:
- 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) (AA)
- 2.4.12 Focus Not Obscured (Enhanced) (AAA)
- 2.4.13 Focus Appearance (AAA)
- 2.5.7 Dragging Movements (AA)
- 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) (AA)
- 3.2.6 Consistent Help (A)
- 3.3.7 Redundant Entry (A)
- 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) (AA)
- 3.3.9 Accessible Authentication (Enhanced) (AAA)
Note that the upcoming WCAG 3 will introduce backwards incompatibility. There is one criteria that was removed from the previous 2.0 and 2.1 criteria in 2.2:
- 4.1.1 Parsing is obsolete
This simply means that having correct markup is no longer a requirement due to the fact that modern browsers have vastly improved how they handle parsing errors.
While you’re here, ACHECKS provides a subscription-based service to monitor and report to you any accessibility issues found in the pages of your website.
You might also find value in our free accessibility toolbox that can help you in your digital accessibility journey:
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