What WCAG compliance actually means
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are published by the W3C and provide internationally recognised criteria for accessible web content. WCAG 2.2 is organised around four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.
Its success criteria are divided into Levels A, AA and AAA. The levels are cumulative. A page conforming at Level AA must satisfy the applicable Level A and Level AA success criteria, not simply achieve a percentage score in a testing tool.
Conformance also has requirements beyond passing individual checks. W3C guidance explains that a conformance claim applies to complete pages, and complete processes must be considered where a page forms part of a sequence. That matters for websites with journeys such as registration, purchasing, account access or multi-step applications.
WCAG 2.2 added nine success criteria compared with WCAG 2.1 and removed the obsolete Parsing criterion. The additions include requirements concerning areas such as focus visibility, dragging movements, target size, consistent help and accessible authentication.
Level A, AA and AAA explained
Level A is the minimum conformance level. Failures here can create fundamental barriers, such as content or controls that some users cannot perceive or operate.
Level AA includes all Level A and Level AA success criteria. It is the level explicitly referenced by the UK accessibility requirements for covered public-sector websites and mobile applications, and it is a common practical benchmark for organisations working to improve web accessibility.
Level AAA includes A, AA and AAA. W3C guidance states that requiring Level AAA conformance for entire sites is not recommended as a general policy because some content cannot satisfy every AAA success criterion. Individual AAA criteria can still be valuable where they address the needs of a particular audience.
The important point is that WCAG is not a menu where a site can pass most criteria and automatically claim a level. A Level AA claim requires the conformance requirements for that level to be met.
WCAG compliance and UK law
WCAG and legislation should not be treated as interchangeable. For private-sector organisations in Great Britain, the Equality Act 2010 includes duties affecting service providers, including a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. The Act does not contain a blanket rule stating that every private website must conform to WCAG 2.2 AA.
The position is more specific for covered public-sector bodies. GOV.UK guidance says public-sector websites and mobile apps within the accessibility regulations should meet WCAG 2.2 AA, subject to applicable legal provisions, and publish an accessibility statement.
Organisations serving customers in the European Union may have additional obligations under national laws implementing the European Accessibility Act. The Act's accessibility requirements have applied to specified products and services since 28 June 2025. A UK organisation should establish whether its particular service and market fall within scope rather than assuming that every website is treated identically.
Our website accessibility guidance explains the broader practical position, while the European Accessibility Act page covers the EU framework in more detail.
How to assess and improve WCAG conformance
Start with evidence. An accessibility audit should combine automated analysis with knowledgeable manual evaluation because automated tools cannot test every accessibility requirement. Our £549 audit includes an automated whole-site scan, keyboard and screen reader testing, WCAG 2.2 mapping and a prioritised, costed fix plan.
Remediation should then address the underlying cause rather than masking the symptom. Common examples include correcting semantic structure, making custom controls keyboard operable, restoring visible focus, giving form fields programmatically associated labels, improving error handling and changing components whose colour contrast fails the relevant criterion.
After changes are made, the affected components and user journeys should be retested. This is important where a shared template or component appears across the site, because one code change can correct many occurrences but can also create unintended regressions.
An accessibility overlay or toolbar should not be treated as proof of WCAG conformance. WCAG evaluates the underlying content and interactions, and W3C guidance makes clear that automated tools cannot determine accessibility by themselves.
Keeping a WCAG compliant website from regressing
Conformance can change after publication. New content, plugins, themes, scripts and design components can introduce failures even when earlier issues have been corrected. A new call-to-action colour can reduce contrast, a form builder update can alter labels, or a modal added by a plugin can create a keyboard trap.
Our Accessibility Monitoring plan costs £69 a month or £690 annually. It includes monthly WCAG 2.2 AA scans of key pages, human review of flagged issues, fixes for issues within 24 hours, a quarterly compliance certificate, maintenance of the accessibility statement and priority EAA regulation alerts.
For organisations starting from an unknown position, the usual practical sequence is assessment, remediation, retesting and then monitoring. You can also use our free accessibility checker for an initial automated view before commissioning a full audit.