WCAG
Also known as: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
WCAG is the international standard defining how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities.
In full
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, published by the World Wide Web Consortium, are the international reference standard for web accessibility. WCAG 2.2 became a W3C Recommendation in October 2023 and is the current version. The guidelines are organised around four principles: content must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Three conformance levels exist. Level A is the minimum, Level AA is what essentially every regulation and procurement standard worldwide adopts, and Level AAA includes requirements not realistically achievable across a whole site. Requirements cover colour contrast, keyboard operability, text alternatives, predictable behaviour, and reduced-motion support.
Why it matters
Accessibility failures exclude real customers, and roughly a quarter of New Zealanders are disabled. The great majority of common failures are also cheap to prevent during design and expensive to retrofit afterwards.