On 5 October 2023, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announced that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 would officially become a ‘recommendation’ – meaning that all amendments are reviewed and completed, and it is now time to implement them.
In short, the requirement to meet WCAG 2.2 AA standards will replace the need to meet WCAG 2.1 AA – 2.2 encompassing and adding to 2.1 (and 2.0, which came before it).
2.2 brings to the party nine new guidelines, three of which aren’t a requirement to meet for public sector websites as they’re AAA guidelines (public sector websites only have to work to AA). There are six new points to consider:
- 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) (AA)
- 2.5.7 Dragging Movements (AA)
- 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) (AA)
- 3.2.6 Consistent Help (A)
- 3.3.7 Redundant Entry (A)
- 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) (AA)
The Frank accessibility team have reviewed WCAG 2.2 AA and are more than confident to now be working towards those 2.2 guidelines. Thankfully, the changes to the guidelines aren't enormous – a more substantial change will come with WCAG 3 - at some point in the future.
What do the new guidelines mean for my organisation?
This depends on the level of accessibility of your current site, but thankfully we have you covered:
Frank can undertake a review to fully audit your site against the new WCAG 2.2 AA standards. This will include checking against all that exists as part of 2.1.
We will then provide you with a cost estimate to ensure your site meets the standards and agree a time to schedule in the work. Please note, our reviews and subsequent changes focus only on the code and functionality. It is the client's responsibility to ensure that content is compliant with WCAG 2.2. We can deliver training for your team specifically on accessible content and we also have an Accessible Content Guide.
To arrange a review or training, please get in touch with Support (if you are a supported client). If not, please contact your Business Development Manager or contact Frank.
For those websites which have recently had a review to 2.1 AA – or have recently been developed – we can offer a smaller audit just against the new 2.2 standards, to bring our sites from 2.1 AA to 2.2 AA compliance.
We will then provide you with a cost estimate to ensure your site meets the new standards and agree a time to schedule in the work. Please note, our reviews and subsequent changes focus only on the code and functionality. It is the client's responsibility to ensure that content is compliant with WCAG 2.2. We can deliver training for your team specifically on accessible content and we also have an Accessible Content Guide.
To arrange a review or training, please get in touch with Support (if you are a supported client). If not, please contact your Business Development Manager or contact Frank.
All our sites from this point on will be built to WCAG 2.2 AA standards.
Our builds only focus on the code and functionality however. It is the client's responsibility to ensure that content is compliant with WCAG 2.2. We can deliver training for your team specifically on accessible content and we also have an Accessible Content Guide.
To arrange training, please get in touch with Support (if you are a supported client).
If you’re curious and would like to read more about WCAG 2.2, you can visit the W3C website and read about either ‘New features in WCAG 2.2’ (W3C), or if you’re brave enough, you can start from the top of that webpage and read the WCAG 2.2 guidelines in full (W3C).