Understanding WCAG 2.1 Guidelines

Introduction to WCAG 2.1

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 is the international standard for web accessibility. It provides a framework for making web content accessible to people with disabilities.

The Four Principles

• Perceivable - Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive
• Operable - User interface components and navigation must be operable
• Understandable - Information and operation of user interface must be understandable
• Robust - Content must be robust enough to be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents

Conformance Levels

WCAG 2.1 has three levels of conformance:

• Level A - Basic accessibility requirements
• Level AA - Most common accessibility requirements (recommended minimum)
• Level AAA - Highest level of accessibility