Member-only story
What are the new WCAG Standards?
WCAG 2.2 — It’s finally here
Author’s Note: On October 5, 2023, the W3C published WCAG 2.2 as its Recommendation. Therefore, in order to be WCAG-compliant, WCAG 2.2 is now the official standard. I will keep this article unedited with the exception of this note.
The incredibly long-awaited WCAG 2.2 standards are now the “Proposed Recommendation” for W3C. This is the last type status before becoming the “Recommendation” and thereby being the new official accessibility guidelines for the W3C. It now only requires an official vote by the W3C. That vote supposedly ended on August 19, 2023 (source).
So, it looks like it’s a done deal. I’ve even checked the Editor’s Draft, and it’s essentially identical to the published one. In other words, there are no known changes waiting in the wings. Cue “Pomp and Circumstance”!
I wrote an article in December of 2021 detailing the new standards for WCAG 2.2 at that time. Since then, several other criteria have been added and some have been moved around.
Numbering in WCAG 2.2
Previously, the Criteria were ordered based off their respective Levels. But W3C decided (wisely, in my opinion) that it was best to just append to the existing Criteria to avoid numbering collisions and confusion with existing WCAG 2.1 Criteria.
The graduating class of Success Criteria
Below is a list of the new criteria. Please hold your applause until they’ve all been named.
- Success Criterion 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) (Level AA)
- Success Criterion 2.4.12 Focus Not Obscured (Enhanced) (Level AAA)
- Success Criterion 2.4.13 Focus Appearance (Level AAA)
- Success Criterion 2.5.7 Dragging Movements (Level AA)
- Success Criterion 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) (Level AA)
- Success Criterion 3.2.6 Consistent Help (Level A)
- Success Criterion 3.3.7 Redundant Entry (Level A)
- Success Criterion 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) (Level AA)
- Success Criterion 3.3.9 Accessible Authentication (Enhanced) (Level…
