New Guidance on WCAG 2.2 Emerges
As organizations adapt to new web standards, practical guidance on WCAG 2.2 is being shared by accessibility experts. TPGi published a guide on creating accessible dialogs, while Accessibility Services Canada is promoting a webinar on updates for cognitive, low vision, and motor needs. This reflects an ongoing effort to translate the updated standard into real-world design and development practices.
- The new guidelines, finalized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on October 5, 2023, introduce nine new success criteria to enhance usability for people with cognitive, learning, and motor disabilities, as well as low vision users. - For public sector bodies in the European Union, the current legal standard is WCAG 2.1 Level AA, enforced through the EU's Web Accessibility Directive. This is the standard Portugal's public sector must follow under Decree-Law No. 83/2018. - The European harmonised standard, EN 301 549, is expected to incorporate WCAG 2.2, but this update is not anticipated until 2025 at the earliest, at which point it would become a requirement under the Web Accessibility Directive and the European Accessibility Act. - Several new Level AA criteria are particularly relevant for government service platforms, including "Focus Not Obscured," which prevents sticky headers from hiding focused elements; "Dragging Movements," requiring alternatives for drag-and-drop interfaces; and "Target Size (Minimum)," which mandates a minimum size of 24x24 CSS pixels for clickable targets. - Another key addition is "Accessible Authentication (Minimum)," which discourages cognitive function tests like remembering a username and password or solving a puzzle to log in, promoting more accessible methods. - While most EU member states have not yet formally mandated WCAG 2.2, some national accessibility frameworks are beginning to align with it. Germany's Barrier-Free Information Technology Ordinance (BITV 2.0) and France's General Framework for Improving Accessibility (RGAA) are expected to incorporate the new standards in future updates. - The UK Government is an early adopter, with its GOV.UK Service Manual already requiring services to meet WCAG 2.2 level AA, providing a large-scale public sector case study. - Looking further ahead, the W3C has begun work on the next major iteration, WCAG 3.0, which aims to shift from a focus on technical success criteria to more holistic, user-focused outcomes, though it is not expected to become a formal recommendation for several years.
