A Guide to WCAG 2.2 Compliance
What WCAG 2.2 adds, how it differs from WCAG 2.1, and the steps to take to meet it on your website.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 is the current version of the W3C's web accessibility standard. Its new success criteria mainly help users with low vision, cognitive impairments, and motor disabilities.
What is New in WCAG 2.2?
WCAG 2.2 introduces 9 new success criteria and removes one obsolete criterion (4.1.1 Parsing). The additions include:
- Focus Not Obscured (Minimum): Ensure that when an element receives keyboard focus, it is not entirely hidden by author-created content.
- Focus Not Obscured (Enhanced): Ensure that the focused element is not hidden at all.
- Focus Appearance: Define clear visible indicators for keyboard focus.
- Dragging Movements: Provide an alternative to dragging gestures.
- Target Size (Minimum): Ensure interactive targets are at least 24x24 CSS pixels.
- Consistent Help: Help mechanisms must be consistently placed across pages.
- Redundant Entry: Information previously entered by the user should not be required again.
- Accessible Authentication (Minimum): Do not rely solely on cognitive function tests for login.
- Accessible Authentication (Enhanced): Strictly prohibit cognitive tests like transcription, math puzzles, or identifying objects in pictures for authentication without an alternative.
Why Should You Upgrade to WCAG 2.2?
Meeting WCAG 2.2 lowers legal risk, and it also means more people can use your site. Many accessibility fixes, such as clear headings, labelled controls and text alternatives, improve the experience for every visitor.
The same semantic HTML that screen readers rely on also gives search engines and AI crawlers a clearer picture of what each page contains.