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If looking at getting your website redesigned, you may have come across references to WCAG. But what is WCAG, why does it exist and why should you be aware of it before you choose your web development partner?
WCAG or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are the set of guidelines created by W3C, that provides a global standard for web accessibility. Endeavouring to ensure that everyone creating content for the web, meets at least a set standard of accessibility for people with a range of disabilities, that impact the way they interact with the web.
You might wonder why W3C gets to set the standard. It’s because setting web standards is what W3C was founded to do.
W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium, was originally founded by Tim Berners-Lee in 1994. Yes, that Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. He remains the Director of WC3, which is an organisation dedicated to the continued development and definition of web standards, including those for web development.
The consortium’s principles are grounded in creating an open web, that is secure and accessible for all.
The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.
Tim Berners-Lee
Among the standards and guidelines they’ve developed that are used worldwide, are those for HTML, CSS, XML and the topic of this post, Accessibility.
Within W3C is the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), responsible for the development of web accessibility standards, along with supporting content and resources to help developers build accessible websites which meet those standards.
The standards they develop and maintain are:
Each concerns itself with a particular area of accessibility for development, of which WCAG covers web content. This includes text, imagery, and markup.
The current WCAG standard in use is WCAG 2.0, and more specifically WCAG 2.1, as the guidelines receive updates.
The finalised version 2.0 was originally published in 2008, whilst 2.1 came about in 2018.
There is also a draft of version 2.2, which should be finalised and supersede 2.1 in April 2023. Alongside this, version 3.0 is being drafted and will eventually replace 2.0 as the standard.
Within the current standards, there are 3 levels denoted by A, AA & AAA. These are their ‘success criteria’ and can be tested with their validation tools. All are successes, but the levels represent the degree to which a website follows the guidelines. An accessibility rating.
As mentioned previously, WCAG provides guidelines and standards for accessibility in relation to content. Text, imagery and so on.
It provides instruction on how to make website content for users with a range of disabilities, and those using assistive technologies, like screen readers. The idea is to ensure that anyone using your website can access the same information with ease.
Areas covered include things like:
Their quick reference guide can be found here and shows you some of the techniques and requirements to meet in order to comply with WCAG standards. You will notice that each of the criteria also has one of the accessibility rating levels next to it (A, AA, AAA). This is to give clear guidance on what must be achieved to successfully meet each of the levels.
For most organisations, these ratings are just a guide. A standard to aim for as a starting point for creating and managing an accessible website.
Finding a partner that designs and develops accessible websites is something it is wise to have on your checklist when searching for a website agency. So knowing if they build to meet WCAG standards is useful to know.
Some organisations, however, due to their nature, have an internal or legal requirement to have websites that meet a particular WCAG rating. These are primarily public sector websites.
For example, a government or charitable organisation may have to ensure that its website meets AA at the very least.
Whilst most private organisations in the UK aren’t required to meet certain accessibility standards, you’d be stupid not to provide an accessible and easy-to-use website. Building a website that isn’t fully accessible to a potentially sizeable portion of your audience is not only poor form, but poor business sense.
Current statistics suggest that 22% of the UK population report having a disability. That includes me. 21% of working-age people, and 42% of pension-age people. With an ageing population and later retirement age, these numbers will only grow.
A website built without accessibility in mind, when accessibility is just part of providing a good user experience, is doomed to alienate a large section of users.
Why would you overlook such a large portion of your target audience by building sites that aren’t easily accessible for users with a range of needs and abilities? What could that represent in lost business?
There are estimates that in the UK alone, the loss to businesses from not adequately meeting the needs of those with disabilities is over £2 billion!
If that isn’t reason enough, providing an accessible website, is future-proofing it for changes in legislation and to search engine algorithms.
Web accessibility has been the topic of several lawsuits in the US, resulting in big fines. As a result, businesses in the US tend to take web accessibility far more seriously.
The cross-pollination between the US and the UK is high, and we could find ourselves with similar cases arising here, and legislation changes requiring all websites to meet certain accessibility standards.
For example, 2025 will see the arrival of the European Accessibility Act.
As I already alluded to, accessibility shouldn’t be considered as a separate entity to UX, as that suggests an otherness. It should just be a natural part of good usability partnered with quality web development.
It seems that Google is in agreement. We know that user experience is already an important factor in how their algorithm assesses a website and ranks content.
The inclusion of accessibility reports in tools like Lighthouse clearly demonstrates that accessibility is also on Google’s radar.
It makes sense that in future, accessibility will form part of the signals and factors with which they rank pages in search. It would not surprise me at all if this happens in the next few years.
If you’d like to learn more about digital accessibility in general, I recommend checking out the A11y Project.
If you’re considering a website redesign or a new website, Impact Media build WordPress websites to WCAG 2.1 A as standard, and higher where required. Get in touch and we can chat about your project requirements and whether we could be a good fit.
