How do WCAG guidelines improve website accessibility?

1 What are WCAG?

WCAG are a set of standards and recommendations developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international organization for web technology. These guidelines provide a framework and a checklist of best practices for making web content perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for people with disabilities. WCAG are based on four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Specifically, web content must be presented in different ways, such as text, audio, or visual; easy to navigate and interact with; clear and consistent; compatible with current and future technologies; and use valid and error-free code. Additionally, web content must be compatible with assistive technologies, avoid features that can cause seizures or physical discomfort, use simple and intuitive language, provide feedback and error prevention, and follow web standards.

2 Why are WCAG important?

WCAG are important for several reasons. First, WCAG can help you comply with the legal and ethical obligations to provide equal access and opportunity to people with disabilities. Many countries have adopted WCAG as part of their accessibility laws and regulations, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the US, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) in Canada, or the European Accessibility Act (EAA) in the EU. Failing to meet WCAG can result in lawsuits, fines, or reputational damage.

Second, WCAG can help you improve your user experience and customer satisfaction. By following WCAG, you can make your website more usable, functional, and attractive for a wider and more diverse audience. You can also increase your customer loyalty, retention, and referrals, as people with disabilities and their friends and family will appreciate your efforts and values.

Third, WCAG can help you boost your SEO and online visibility. By following WCAG, you can make your website more readable, crawlable, and indexable for search engines, as they use similar criteria and algorithms as assistive technologies. You can also improve your ranking, traffic, and conversions, as you can target more keywords, reach more potential customers, and reduce your bounce rate and exit rate.

3 How to use WCAG?

WCAG are organized into three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA. Each level represents a different degree of accessibility and difficulty of implementation. Level A is the minimum requirement, level AA is the recommended level for most websites, and level AAA is the highest and most complex level. Each level consists of a number of success criteria, which are specific and measurable guidelines for achieving the four principles. Each success criterion has a number of techniques, which are examples and methods for implementing the guidelines.

To use WCAG, you need to evaluate your website against the success criteria and the techniques, and identify the gaps and issues that need to be addressed. You can use different tools and methods for this, such as automated checkers, manual testing, or user feedback. You can also use the WCAG Quick Reference, which is a customizable and interactive tool that helps you find the relevant guidelines, techniques, and resources for your website.

4 How to implement WCAG?

Implementing WCAG can be a difficult and lengthy process, depending on the size, complexity, and type of your website. However, there are some general steps and tips that can help you make your website more accessible and compliant with WCAG. To begin, make sure your website has a clear and logical structure, a consistent and responsive design, and a valid and error-free code. Utilize headings, lists, tables, and other semantic elements to organize your content. Use CSS to style your content and HTML5 to add features and functionality. Additionally, it is important to add alternative text to non-text elements such as images or graphs for people who use screen readers or have low vision. Captions and transcripts should also be provided for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Moreover, ensure color contrast is sufficient for people who have color blindness or low vision by using colors with a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text or 3:1 for large text. Finally, enable keyboard navigation for people with motor or dexterity impairments by making sure your web content has a logical tab order, a visible focus indicator, and a skip link.

5 How to maintain WCAG?

Maintaining WCAG is an ongoing and dynamic process, as your website evolves and changes over time. To ensure compliance, you should monitor and review your website regularly, and update and improve it as needed. Establish a policy and a plan with clearly defined roles, tasks, scope, criteria, deadlines, and milestones. Additionally, use a checklist and template to keep track of WCAG compliance implementation. To test and evaluate your website, utilize automated tools such as validators or checkers, manual tools such as keyboard or assistive technology, and user feedback like surveys or interviews. Doing so can help you achieve and maintain WCAG.