What is WCAG?

Short answer

WCAG is the international standard for accessible websites. It says what a site must do so that everyone can use it. Including people who cannot see or hear well or do not use a mouse.

WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The standard comes from W3C. That is the organisation that also makes the basic rules of the web. Version 2.1 came out in 2018. Version 2.2 came out in October 2023 and adds a few rules.

Every rule has a level: A, AA or AAA. A is the minimum. AA is what laws usually ask for. AAA is the highest level. W3C itself advises against requiring AAA for a whole site, because not every page can reach it.

The rules fall under four principles. Perceivable: you can see or hear the content, for example through an alt text on a photo. Operable: everything also works with only a keyboard. Understandable: texts and forms are clear. Robust: the code works well with tools such as a screen reader.

The Dutch Digital Accessibility Act asks for WCAG 2.1 at level AA. We build to version 2.2 AA. That is a little stricter. For example, buttons are big enough to tap and the focus never disappears behind a fixed bar.

In our free dashboard the site audit measures part of these rules in the code. Think of alt texts, labels on fields, the language of the page and whether zooming works. A computer cannot measure everything. We measure colour contrast separately. Other rules need a person who really tests the site.

Real-life example

A webshop puts grey example text in the fields instead of a label. Once you start typing, the explanation is gone. A screen reader only says "edit text". A fixed label above each field solves it.

How we help with this

At Marketing Friends we take care of this for businesses across Europe. Read more about Website maintenance and hosting or start with the free scan.

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