What is WCAG?
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is the international standard for making web content accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG defines levels A, AA, and AAA; most organizations target AA conformance.
Why WCAG matters
WCAG is the reference standard that laws and procurement rules point to when they say 'accessible': ADA case law in the US, the European Accessibility Act, which applies to many private-sector services from June 2025, and public-sector rules almost everywhere. Version 2.2 is current; conformance level AA is the usual target. The guidelines are organised around four principles: content must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.
Beyond compliance, most WCAG fixes improve the site for everyone: sufficient contrast helps on a sunny phone screen, captions help in a quiet office, keyboard access helps power users, clear form labels reduce errors. Automated tools catch roughly a third of issues (contrast, missing alt text, labels, landmarks); the rest, such as whether alt text is meaningful or a flow makes sense with a screen reader, needs a person.
Example
The AA criteria most sites fail first:
1.4.3 Contrast: 4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for large text
1.1.1 Text alternatives for images
2.4.7 Visible keyboard focus
3.3.2 Labels for form inputs
2.5.8 Target size: 24×24 CSS px minimum (new in 2.2)Fixing these five removes most automated errors.
Common mistakes
- •Installing an accessibility overlay widget instead of fixing the HTML.
- •Removing focus outlines for aesthetics.
- •Treating the automated score as full conformance.
How Webmatik checks it
Webmatik's Accessibility category runs the automatable checks: Color contrast indicators, Image alt text, Form labels, Heading structure, Page structure for screen readers, Keyboard-only navigation, Skip to content shortcut, Page language setting and Pinch-to-zoom support.
Check your own site
Free Accessibility Audit Tool
Contrast, tap targets, alt text, keyboard navigation — every failure with a plain-English fix.
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