Most people think that web accessibility means to simply add alternative text to images, but it’s so much more than that. Not convinced? Just take a look at the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG – pronounced wick-ag) and you’ll see how far the accessibility landscape goes.
There are four main sections to the guidelines (POUR): Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. In each principle section there’s a break down of the requirements necessary to meet each guideline. There are also three levels to the guidelines: A, AA, AAA, where level A is meeting the minimum in terms of accessibility. Most organizations should strive to meet level AA requirements, and some are required to by law.
There’s a short & sweet article by Essential Accessibility that gives a succinct overview of the versions of WCAG, its principles, and levels of conformance. There are a total of 78 success criteria, but in this series we will focus on a few of the basic, and often, overlooked ones. Are you ready to get your wick-ag on?
