WCAG — the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

What are the WCAG?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an internationally recognised standard for accessible web content, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) through its Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). They describe how websites, apps and digital documents can be designed so that as many people as possible can use them — regardless of visual, hearing, motor or cognitive impairments.

The four principles of the WCAG

Every WCAG criterion maps to one of four core principles:

• Perceivable: content must be available to the senses (e.g. text alternatives, sufficient contrast, captions).
• Operable: all functionality must be usable — including by keyboard, without a mouse.
• Understandable: content and operation must be clear and predictable.
• Robust: content must work reliably across different devices and assistive technologies (e.g. screen readers).

In English these are remembered by the acronym POUR.

Conformance levels: A, AA and AAA

The WCAG define three levels:

• A — the minimum requirements.
• AA — the practical and legal benchmark; this is the level the EAA refers to.
• AAA — the highest level; it can’t be fully met for all content and is rarely required across the board.

In practice, WCAG Level AA is the target to aim for.

Which WCAG version is current?

The current version is WCAG 2.2, an official W3C Recommendation since 5 October 2023 and, since October 2025, also recognised as an ISO standard (ISO/IEC 40500:2025). It builds on WCAG 2.1 (2018) and adds nine new success criteria — for example on visible keyboard focus, large-enough click targets and easier authentication. The versions are backwards-compatible: meeting 2.2 also means meeting 2.1 and 2.0. A fundamentally new generation, WCAG 3.0, is still in development and is not yet an adopted standard.

WCAG and the EAA — how they connect

The EAA requires accessibility but doesn’t name a specific technology. The technical benchmark comes from the European standard EN 301 549, which references the WCAG — currently WCAG 2.1 Level AA. An updated version of the standard that moves to WCAG 2.2 is in preparation (expected in 2026). In national terms, the same applies through implementing laws such as Germany’s BFSG. In practice: if you aim for WCAG 2.2 AA, you’re on the safe side.

What the WCAG require in practice — examples

Some typical requirements from real projects:

• sufficient colour contrast between text and background,
• full keyboard operability and a clearly visible focus indicator,
• meaningful text alternatives (alt text) for images,
• a logical heading and page structure,
• large-enough click/tap targets (at least 24×24 px) and consistent navigation,
• never using a single sensory or colour signal as the only information.

Getting closer to the WCAG

Part of the WCAG can be eased through comfort features — which is exactly what the Welcoma on-screen menu offers (contrast, text size, read-aloud, keyboard helpers and more). But the real lever is the underlying code: the WCAG scanner (coming soon) surfaces those issues and points to the affected spot. Honestly: a widget alone does not meet the WCAG — conformance comes from fixing the code. For WordPress: accessibility plugin for WordPress.

The WCAG in depth

Four focused guides go deeper than this overview:

• WCAG conformance levels A, AA and AAA — what the levels mean and which one the law requires.
• EN 301 549 — the harmonised EU standard that makes the WCAG legally binding.
• Colour contrast under WCAG — the measurable thresholds and how to test them.
• Automated WCAG tests — what test tools can and cannot do.