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Nowadays, nearly everyone uses digitally enabled devices to view and consume web content, and the internet is an indispensable part of our lives.
But is all web content accessible to everyone? Not necessarily.
This is why the WCAG guidelines were built: to address this gap in accessible web content formats for people with disabilities. The WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) ensures web content is available and accessible to everyone, which is a fundamental aspect of modern web development.
The WCAG standards have undergone multiple updates since they were first introduced in 1999 by the W3C. The latest version is WCAG 2.1, which businesses must follow.
If you’re wondering how to achieve WCAG 2.1 compliance, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog post, we’re discussing WCAG 2.1, and how to ensure WCAG 2.1 compliance.
What is WCAG?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a set of recommendations developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to make content on the web more accessible to people with disabilities. The WCAG guidelines ensure web content is usable by everyone, including people with limitations and impairments in hearing, speech, sight, cognition, and physical abilities.
Through regular revisions in WCAG standards, the W3C maintains its core principle: making digital content accessible to all users regardless of their abilities and the technology they use. WCAG 1.0 was the first version to be released in 1999, and the latest version, WCAG 2.2, is still in development, while WCAG 2.1 is the version that’s currently used.
Why is WCAG 2.1 Compliance Important?
Released in 2018, WCAG 2.1 was built on WCAG 2.0. Alongside the four core principles in the 2.0 version, 2.1 includes additional criteria to address the needs of individuals with learning, cognitive, and language impairments and mobile accessibility.
The WCAG 2.1 guidelines aim to make web content accessible to a wider audience.
WCAG 2.1 compliance is vital because it enables your digital product to:
Be inclusive by providing equal access to all regardless of their abilities.
Enhance user experience through clear navigation, inclusive design, and readable content.
Reach a larger target audience, which opens up new business opportunities.
Meet legal requirements and avoid lawsuits and fines.
Reflect corporate social responsibility by demonstrating a commitment to diversity and equal opportunity.
Boost SEO rankings as Google rewards accessible websites.
Prioritise accessibility to show a commitment to being inclusive and socially responsible. This improves brand reputation and image.
WCAG 2.1 Guidelines
WCAG 2.1 guidelines are categorised into 3 main conformance levels:
Level A (Basic Accessibility)
Level A has the most basic web accessibility features, so content meeting this level may be inaccessible to some users.
Recommendations include ensuring text alternatives for non-text content such as images and videos, and including descriptive and relevant titles, labels, and headers.
Level AA (Intermediate Accessibility)
This level caters to a wider range of accessibility barriers, and most businesses aim to meet Level AA to balance accessibility with feasibility. For accessible web content, the WCAG 2.1 AA checklist contains recommendations including:
Captioning all live audio content
Providing audio descriptions for pre-recorded video content
Using text and images that follow a 4:5:1 contrast ratio.
Allowing users to resize text up to 200% without loss of content or functionality.
Offering consistent navigation across the website.
Providing multiple routes to locate web pages.
Level AAA (Advanced Accessibility)
Level AAA is the highest and most complex accessibility level. Meeting this level’s criteria ensures that content is highly accessible, but it may be unfeasible for all web content to meet these standards.
This level includes providing sign language interpretation for all pre-recorded audio content and ensuring that the text and image contrast ratio is at least 7:1.
Most businesses and organisations must at least comply with the WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
How to Achieve WCAG 2.1 Compliance
WCAG sorts its compliance criteria into four categories: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
It’s helpful to have this WCAG 2.1 checklist on hand to check whether the advised changes have been incorporated by your web development, web design, and content teams.
1. Conduct an Accessibility Audit
Use manual testing, user testing, and accessibility testing tools for websites to evaluate web content and determine whether it meets the recommended WCAG 2.1 guidelines.
Keep in mind that automated testing tools may miss out on some issues. This is where manual testing shines, particularly if it’s supported by feedback and insights from people with disabilities. The actual user experience can be a valuable source of information for your development team.
Is there anything on your website that a colourblind, blind, low-vision, or deaf user can’t perceive?
If you have audio or video content, provide helpful text alternatives. You can also offer audio alternatives or support for screen readers for visually impaired users to consume content.
3. Ensure Content is Operable
Can users navigate your site with a keyboard only? Can all users take control of the on-site interactive elements?
Make it easy for users with disabilities to access and interact with your website content using character key shortcuts.
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4. Make Content Understandable
Are interactions on your site clear and easy to understand?
Include interactive elements like menus, icons, and links to make on-site interactions clear and easy to use by differentially abled users.
5. Ensure Content is Robust
Does your site support a variety of devices and browsers? Does it follow best practices?
Your website should be device and browser-agnostic, meaning users should be able to access your site through any device, browser, or platform. If you’re not sure how your site is being accessed, take advantage of QualityHive’s browser information-capturing features, which automatically capture browser and device information when your team raises tasks.
Finally, ensure your web development, web design, and content creation teams have WCAG checklists to implement and revisit changes made. To ensure your website remains accessible, you’ll need to continually monitor the site and make changes whenever necessary. Staying updated with the latest amendments to the WCAG guidelines will keep you on top of things.
Achieve WCAG 2.1 Compliance with QualityHive’s Accessibility Testing
Ticking off your WCAG 2.1 AA checklist is easy when you have the right tools on hand. With QualityHive as your user accessibility testing tool for your website, you can be certain that your website checks all the WCAG 2.1 checkboxes. Our testing feedback process results allow you to gauge how well users with disabilities can access, navigate, and understand your website.
You can use our accessibility testing tool to check your product against the recommended WCAG 2.1 guidelines and improve its regulatory compliance. Showing that you’re committed to accessibility can help you increase your audience, improve SEO, reduce legal risks, and improve your brand reputation.
Simplify your accessibility testing tasks and achieve WCAG 2.1 compliance with QualityHive. Book a demo with us today.
