Meeting Digital Accessibility Requirements

What are the Requirements?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), published by the W3C, are the internationally recognized benchmark. The current version is WCAG 2.2, with WCAG 3.0 in development. Content is evaluated against four principles (POUR):

Perceivable

Information must be presentable in ways users can perceive — e.g., alt text for images, captions for video.

Operable

UI components must be navigable — e.g., full keyboard accessibility, no seizure-triggering content.

Understandable

Content and UI must be understandable — e.g., readable text, predictable navigation.

Robust

Content must work with assistive technologies — e.g., valid, semantic HTML.

Practical Requirements (WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA)

  • All images have descriptive alt text
  • Videos havecaptions and transcripts
  • Sufficient color contrast (4.5:1 for normal text)
  • Full keyboard navigation without a mouse
  • No content that flashes more than 3 times per second
  • Forms have clear labels and error messages
  • Pages have logical heading structure
  • Links have descriptive text (not just “click here”)
  • PDFs are fully remediated

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