Accessibility Standards

Guides for WCAG 2.2, EN 301 549, the European Accessibility Act, and EU national frameworks. Each guide explains the requirement in plain language and tells you what to change.

Standards at a glance

WCAG 2.2

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 is a W3C Recommendation that defines 87 testable success criteria at three conformance levels (A, AA, AAA)[1]. It is the technical baseline most national laws reference directly: US federal rules, EU directives, and the accessibility requirements in procurement standards across dozens of jurisdictions all point to WCAG conformance as the measure of accessible web content.

Section 508 (US)

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires US federal agencies and their contractors to make electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. The 2017 refresh adopted WCAG 2.0 Level AA by reference for web content and electronic documents, meaning federal web teams that conform to WCAG 2.0 AA satisfy the core web requirements of Section 508. Read the Section 508 overview for scope, key dates, the Functional Performance Criteria, and a common-misunderstandings reference.

EN 301 549 (EU)

EN 301 549 is the European harmonised standard for ICT accessibility, developed jointly by ETSI, CEN, and CENELEC[2]. For web content, its clause 9 adopts WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA by reference. The standard extends further than WCAG: it covers hardware, two-way voice communication (including real-time text), video capabilities, non-web documents, software, and documentation and support services. The EU Web Accessibility Directive (Directive 2016/2102) names EN 301 549 as the harmonised standard that provides presumption of conformity for public-sector websites and mobile applications[3].

European Accessibility Act (EAA)

The European Accessibility Act (Directive 2019/882) extends accessibility obligations to private-sector products and services placed on the EU market[4]. It covers consumer banking, e-commerce, e-readers, self-service terminals, and passenger transport information, among other categories. Obligations began applying on 28 June 2025 for new products and services. EN 301 549 is the harmonised technical standard through which EAA conformance is demonstrated.

EU national frameworks

EU member states implement the Web Accessibility Directive and the EAA through national law. France's RGAA (Referentiel general d'amelioration de l'accessibilite) is the national framework for public-sector web accessibility[5]. Germany transposed its obligations via BITV 2.0 and the BFSG[6]. Italy's Stanca Law (Law 4/2004) established public-sector accessibility requirements and has been updated to align with EN 301 549[7]. Each national framework maps to EN 301 549 and WCAG as the technical baseline.

Perceivable

1.1.1 Non-text Content A 53.1% of home pages have at least one image missing alt text 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded) A Over 60% of podcast and audio content lacks transcripts 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) A Less than half of organizations caption all their video content 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) A Over 99% of video content on the web lacks audio descriptions 1.2.4 Captions (Live) AA Less than 1% of live video streams provide real-time captions 1.2.5 Audio Description (Prerecorded) AA Over 99% of video content on the web lacks audio descriptions 1.2.6 Sign Language (Prerecorded) AAA Captions satisfy 1.2.2 at Level A but do not satisfy 1.2.6 -- signed languages are distinct first languages, not transliterations of written text 1.2.7 Extended Audio Description (Prerecorded) AAA Applies at Level AAA only when pauses in the foreground audio are insufficient to fit the audio description needed to convey the video 1.2.8 Media Alternative (Prerecorded) AAA AAA-level: a full text alternative is required in addition to captions and audio description 1.2.9 Audio-only (Live) AAA Live audio-only streams need a synchronised text channel -- a transcript published after the broadcast does not satisfy 1.2.9 1.3.1 Info and Relationships A 33.1% of form inputs on home pages are not properly labeled 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence A Screen readers, braille displays, and reflow at 1.4.10 all walk the DOM in source order -- any CSS that rearranges visual position without restructuring the markup creates a sequence mismatch. 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics A Instructions like "click the round button on the right" carry zero information for screen-reader users and break on any layout that reflows 1.3.4 Orientation AA Orientation locks fail users whose devices are fixed to a wheelchair, stand, or mount and cannot be rotated 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose AA Without an autocomplete token, a user-info input is opaque to browser autofill, password managers, and symbol-substitution assistive tech 1.3.6 Identify Purpose AAA Level AAA criterion targeting personalization: the purpose of UI components, icons, and regions must be programmatically determinable so user agents can substitute symbols, simplify, or hide non-essential elements 1.4.1 Use of Color A Color-only signals (red error borders, color-coded required fields, color-only chart series) collapse to a single undifferentiated state for users who cannot perceive the color difference -- the information is literally not in their rendering of the page. 1.4.2 Audio Control A Autoplay audio longer than 3 seconds with no pause or independent volume control fails 1.4.2 and renders the page unusable for screen reader users, whose speech output shares the system audio channel 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) AA 79.1% of home pages have low-contrast text -- the most frequently detected WCAG failure in the WebAIM Million 1.4.4 Resize Text AA Fixed pixel font sizes and fixed-height containers clip or hide text when users scale to 200% 1.4.5 Images of Text AA Bitmap text does not reflow, cannot inherit user font or color overrides, and pixelates under browser zoom -- failures that compound with 1.4.4 Resize Text and 1.4.12 Text Spacing. 1.4.6 Contrast (Enhanced) AAA AAA raises the contrast bar from 4.5:1 to 7:1 for normal text, targeting legibility for users with roughly 20/80 vision 1.4.7 Low or No Background Audio AAA Level AAA criterion: prerecorded speech audio must have no background sounds, a mechanism to turn them off, or background mixed at least 20 dB below the foreground speech 1.4.8 Visual Presentation AAA Level AAA -- the most prescriptive typography criterion in WCAG, bundling five separate requirements for blocks of text 1.4.9 Images of Text (No Exception) AAA At Level AAA, the logo and brand-name carve-out from 1.4.5 is removed -- the only exceptions left are pure decoration and cases where a particular visual presentation is essential to the information. 1.4.10 Reflow AA Any fixed-pixel element wider than 320 CSS px forces low-vision users at 400% zoom to scroll in two dimensions at once, breaking line-by-line reading. 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast AA Added in WCAG 2.1 to close the 1.4.3 gap: UI component boundaries, icon shapes, and chart elements that carry meaning must clear 3:1 against adjacent color 1.4.12 Text Spacing AA Users with dyslexia, low vision, and other cognitive and learning disabilities apply browser extensions and user stylesheets that override line height, paragraph spacing, letter spacing, and word spacing -- layouts built around fixed-height containers and overflow: hidden clip the enlarged text and break the page. 1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus AA Tooltips and popovers triggered on hover or focus must be dismissible without moving the pointer, hoverable without vanishing, and persistent until the user or trigger releases them

Operable

2.1.1 Keyboard A 30.6% of home pages expose an empty button -- a control a keyboard user can focus but not identify 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap A Custom dialogs and third-party embeds trap focus when they intercept Tab without releasing it on Escape or close 2.1.3 Keyboard (No Exception) AAA 2.1.3 (AAA) removes the path-dependent exception that 2.1.1 (A) allows, so any freehand, handwriting, or gesture interaction must also ship a keyboard alternative 2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts A Single-character shortcuts bound on document fire whenever any element has focus -- speech dictation, fat-fingered keys, and open microphones all trigger unintended actions unless the shortcut can be disabled, remapped to a modifier, or scoped to a focused component. 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable A Session timeouts that fire without warning lock users out mid-task: screen-reader users, users with cognitive and learning disabilities, and users with motor disabilities all need more time to read, navigate, and complete forms than a fixed inactivity timer allows. 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide A Auto-rotating carousels and scrolling tickers are the canonical 2.2.2 failure: motion starts on load, runs past the five-second threshold, and ships without a pause, stop, or hide control. 2.2.3 No Timing AAA Session timeouts, idle warnings, and limited-time offers all fail 2.2.3 even when they pass 2.2.1 2.2.4 Interruptions AAA Author- or server-initiated interruptions -- chat widgets, push permission prompts, auto-opening modals, assertive live regions -- must be postponable or suppressible by the user, except for genuine emergencies. 2.2.5 Re-authenticating AAA When a session expires mid-transaction, the partially-completed work must survive the re-authentication round trip -- the server-side draft keyed to the user identity, or encrypted in the re-auth payload, so the user returns to the same step with the same data 2.2.6 Timeouts AAA 2.2.6 is upfront notice: users must be told the duration of any inactivity timeout that could cause data loss before they start, unless that data is preserved for more than 20 hours. It is distinct from 2.2.1 (Timing Adjustable), which governs extending or disabling the timer itself. 2.3.1 Three Flashes or Below Threshold A Photosensitive epilepsy affects roughly 1 in 4,000 people; 3-5% of people with epilepsy are photosensitive 2.3.2 Three Flashes AAA Removes the general and red flash thresholds and the small-area exemption that 2.3.1 relies on -- any flash above three per second fails, regardless of brightness, hue, or size. 2.3.3 Animation from Interactions AAA Parallax backgrounds and scroll-linked transforms trigger vection illusions that activate motion-sickness pathways in users with vestibular disorders 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks A Without a skip link or landmarks, keyboard users Tab through every header and nav link on every page before reaching content. 2.4.2 Page Titled A 2.4.3 Focus Order A Focus order failures happen when the DOM source order stops matching the visual reading order -- positive tabindex, CSS order, and absolute positioning are the common causes 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) A 46.3% of home pages contain empty links; 15.2% contain ambiguous link text 2.4.5 Multiple Ways AA At least two distinct location mechanisms (nav, search, sitemap, index, breadcrumb, related links) must reach any page in a set -- except pages that are a step in a process 2.4.6 Headings and Labels AA Screen reader users navigate by heading rotor; generic heading text like "Section 1" or "More info" strips that rotor of its usefulness 2.4.7 Focus Visible AA CSS resets that apply outline: none globally suppress the platform focus ring for every focusable element without providing a replacement indicator. 2.4.8 Location AAA Deep pages in complex sites without breadcrumbs, aria-current, or hierarchical URLs leave users unable to determine where they are in the information architecture 2.4.9 Link Purpose (Link Only) AAA At Level AAA, link text must identify the destination on its own -- surrounding sentences, list items, and table cells cannot be used to disambiguate 2.4.10 Section Headings AAA Where a page is organized into sections, 2.4.10 (Level AAA) requires each section to be marked with a real heading element so assistive technology can expose the document outline 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) AA New in WCAG 2.2: when a component receives keyboard focus, it must not be entirely hidden by author-created content such as a sticky header, fixed footer, or cookie banner 2.4.12 Focus Not Obscured (Enhanced) AAA Any sticky header, footer, cookie banner, or chat widget that overlaps a focused element by even one pixel fails this Level AAA criterion -- the strict counterpart to 2.4.11. 2.4.13 Focus Appearance AAA Default browser focus rings are typically 1-2px and often fall below the 3:1 focused-vs-unfocused contrast threshold on styled components 2.5.1 Pointer Gestures A Multipoint and path-based gestures (pinch-zoom, two-finger rotate, swipe, draw-a-shape) cannot be produced by head pointers, mouth sticks, eye-gaze systems, or single switches -- shipping them without a single-pointer alternative locks those users out of the feature entirely. 2.5.2 Pointer Cancellation A Custom widgets that bind actions to pointerdown, mousedown, or touchstart fire the moment a finger lands -- so an accidental touch during scrolling or rest triggers the action with no chance to slide off and cancel 2.5.3 Label in Name A When aria-label overrides visible button text with a different string, voice-control commands targeting the visible label fail silently -- the accessibility tree no longer contains the word the user spoke 2.5.4 Motion Actuation A Motion-actuated features that ship without a UI equivalent lock out users whose devices are wheelchair-mounted or desk-resting, and fire constantly for users with tremors who cannot hold a device still. 2.5.5 Target Size (Enhanced) AAA 2.5.5 raises the target-size floor to 44x44 CSS pixels at AAA; the AA-level 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum), added in WCAG 2.2, sets the required bar at 24x24 CSS pixels. 2.5.6 Concurrent Input Mechanisms AAA 2.5.6 is satisfied when content does not restrict the input modalities a platform exposes, except where the restriction is essential, required for security, or required to respect user settings. 2.5.7 Dragging Movements AA Drag-to-reorder lists, kanban boards, and custom sliders routinely ship with no single-pointer fallback -- head pointers, eye trackers, switch devices, and voice control cannot issue a press-hold-move path. 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) AA 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum), added in WCAG 2.2 at Level AA, requires pointer targets to fit a 24x24 CSS pixel square unless one of five exceptions applies (spacing, equivalent, inline, user-agent, essential).

Understandable

3.1.1 Language of Page A WebAIM Million 2026 found 13.5% of one million home pages had a missing document language declaration, one of the six most common automatically detected failures. 3.1.2 Language of Parts AA Without inline lang attributes, a screen reader keeps the page-default phonetic engine loaded across a foreign phrase -- the tokens come out as English phonemes applied to non-English spelling and are unrecognizable to the listener 3.1.3 Unusual Words AAA Jargon, idioms, and restricted-sense terms block comprehension for users with cognitive and learning disabilities, non-native readers, and newcomers to a domain unless a lookup mechanism is attached to the term. 3.1.4 Abbreviations AAA Abbreviations without an expansion mechanism break comprehension for readers who do not already know the term -- screen readers may pronounce acronyms as words, hiding the meaning entirely 3.1.5 Reading Level AAA Roughly half of adults in OECD countries score at or below Level 2 on the PIAAC prose literacy scale, meaning they struggle with text above a lower secondary reading level 3.1.6 Pronunciation AAA Screen readers resolve heteronyms like "lead" and "tear" from spelling alone, so without a pronunciation mechanism the wrong phoneme reaches the listener 3.2.1 On Focus A Focus is a passive event fired during keyboard navigation -- any change of context wired to it fires before the user has decided to activate the control 3.2.2 On Input A Changing the setting of a UI component -- filling a field, ticking a checkbox, picking from a dropdown -- must not automatically change context unless the user was warned before the control 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation AA Navigational mechanisms repeated across a set of pages must occur in the same relative order each time, unless the user initiates a change (WCAG 2.2 SC 3.2.3, Level AA). 3.2.4 Consistent Identification AA Shared components hand-authored per page drift in label, icon, and accessible name, forcing users to re-identify the same control on every page 3.2.5 Change on Request AAA At Level AAA, a change of context is conforming only if the user explicitly requested it or can turn the automatic change off -- predictability and advance warning are not enough 3.2.6 Consistent Help A New in WCAG 2.2 Level A: help mechanisms repeated across a set of pages must appear in the same relative order. 3.3.1 Error Identification A A form that marks invalid fields only with a red border or a generic banner leaves assistive technology with no text to announce -- the error state exists visually but is never exposed to the accessibility tree. 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions A 33.1% of form inputs on home pages lack a proper accessible label 3.3.3 Error Suggestion AA When a validator already knows the expected format or the closed set of valid values, 3.3.3 (Level AA) requires that suggestion to appear in the error message -- unless exposing it would jeopardize security or the purpose of the content. 3.3.4 Error Prevention (Legal, Financial, Data) AA Applies to pages causing legal commitments, financial transactions, data modification or deletion, or test submissions -- at least one of reversible, checked, or confirmed must hold 3.3.5 Help AAA Context-sensitive help (Level AAA) means help tied to the specific field or task the user is on -- not a link to a generic FAQ. 3.3.6 Error Prevention (All) AAA Extends 3.3.4's three safeguards -- reversible, checked, or confirmed -- to every user submission, not just legal, financial, and data-handling transactions 3.3.7 Redundant Entry A New in WCAG 2.2: if a process asks for the same information twice, it must be auto-populated or selectable -- not retyped 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) AA Setting autocomplete="off" on a password field blocks the same password managers that would otherwise satisfy the "mechanism to assist" exception 3.3.9 Accessible Authentication (Enhanced) AAA At AAA, image-based CAPTCHAs and personal-content challenges fail outright: 3.3.9 removes the object-recognition and user-provided-content exceptions that 3.3.8 still allows

Robust

4.1.2 Name, Role, Value A 30.6% of home pages had empty buttons (WebAIM Million 2026) 4.1.3 Status Messages AA Status messages rendered as plain divs without role="status", role="alert", or aria-live are invisible to screen readers -- the text appears on screen but AT has no event to announce.

EN 301 549 -- European ICT Accessibility Standard

European Accessibility Act

EU National Frameworks

References

  1. [1] W3C (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C, Accessed 2026-04-07. https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/ ↩
  2. [2] ETSI (2021). Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services (EN 301 549 V3.2.1). ETSI, Accessed 2026-04-07. https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_en/301500_301599/301549/03.02.01_60/en_301549v030201p.pdf ↩
  3. [3] European Parliament and Council (2016). Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies. Official Journal of the European Union, Accessed 2026-04-07. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2016/2102/oj ↩
  4. [4] European Parliament and Council (2019). Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the accessibility requirements for products and services (European Accessibility Act). Official Journal of the European Union, Accessed 2026-04-07. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/882/oj ↩
  5. [5] Direction interministérielle du numérique (DINUM) (2023). Référentiel général d'amélioration de l'accessibilité (RGAA), version 4.1.2. République française, Accessed 2026-04-07. https://accessibilite.numerique.gouv.fr/ ↩
  6. [6] Bundesregierung (2011). Verordnung zur Schaffung barrierefreier Informationstechnik nach dem Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz (Barrierefreie-Informationstechnik-Verordnung - BITV 2.0). Bundesgesetzblatt, Accessed 2026-04-07. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bitv_2_0/ ↩
  7. [7] Parlamento italiano (2004). Legge 9 gennaio 2004, n. 4 -- Disposizioni per favorire e semplificare l'accesso degli utenti e, in particolare, delle persone con disabilita' agli strumenti informatici. Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 13, 17 gennaio 2004, Accessed 2026-04-07. https://www.normattiva.it/uri-res/N2Ls?urn:nir:stato:legge:2004-01-09;4 ↩