WCAG Guidelines
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) by W3C ensure web content is accessible to all, offering criteria to make it perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for users with disabilities.
What are Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a set of recommendations for making web content more accessible to people with disabilities. Published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), WCAG addresses accessibility of web content on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices.
Ensuring web content is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust boosts accessibility, user experience, legal compliance, and brand reputation.
Why is it important to test for accessibility?
Perceivable
This means that users must be able to perceive the information being presented; it cannot be invisible to all of their senses.
Operable
This means that users must be able to operate the interface. The interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform.
Understandable
This means that users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the interface. The content or operation cannot be beyond their understanding.
Robust
This means that users must be able to access the content as technologies advance. As technologies and user agents evolve, the content should remain accessible.
Key web accessibility best practices from WCAG
Allow extra time for form entries or remove time limits entirely.
Keep navigation, headers, footers, and sidebars consistent across all pages.
Ensure your website is fully navigable using only a keyboard.
Use clear content structure for screen reader compatibility.
Maintain proper contrast between text and background for better readability.
Avoid flashing elements to prevent seizures.
Provide clear error messages and guidance to help users fix mistakes.