The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have existed for 24 years. The first version – aptly named 1.0 – was published on May 5, 1999, and was revolutionary regarding web accessibility. Today, we are up to version 2.1, considered the gold standard.
The WCAG exists for one simple reason: to ensure digital accessibility to persons with disabilities across the globe. They are not restricted to one country or one government agency. Instead, they are guidelines for individuals and organizations worldwide to use to provide digital accessibility.
History
On May 5, 1999, the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published the first version of the WCAG. The WCAG served as a set of guidelines to make the Internet more accessible for people with disabilities, as the World Wide Web was exploding in popularity and reach across the globe. Since then, it has been updated three times.
Version 2.0 was released on December 11, 2008, to broaden the first version's scope. The nine years between WCAG versions served as a time of substantial digital innovation. Hence, updates to guidelines, the creation of new guidelines, and clarification of guidelines were necessary to continue providing digital access to all. It also introduced the four “guiding principles” of accessibility: content must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
On June 5, 2018, version 2.1 was released. It built on but did not replace version 2.0 – it was backward-compatible, meaning if you complied with 2.1, you automatically adhered to 2.0. 2.1 served to include success criteria for mobile devices, which 2.0 could not accommodate.
Current guidelines
Version 2.1 built upon the guidelines already established in version 2.0. Specifically, it sought to add guidelines for mobile devices, low vision, and cognitive disabilities. Version 2.1 does not replace version 2.0: version 2.0 is still in effect and has not been modified. If an organization is already in compliance with version 2.0, they only need to include the new criteria to comply with version 2.1 fully.
Version 2.1 of WCAG has guidelines that focus on low vision. 2.3 percent of the US population has some sort of visual disability, per the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). With numbers like that coupled with the explosion of the digital age, it was imperative to have a portion of the updates to WCAG focus on low vision. WCAG has criteria based on contrast (contrast ratio of at least 3:1) and text spacing (the website must be usable no matter the user’s text size.)
The CDC reports that 10.9 percent of US adults have a cognitive disability. Cognitive disabilities refer to problems with thinking, learning, remembering, using judgment, and making decisions. WCAG’s new criteria regarding cognitive disabilities include ensuring that input fields have their purpose identified for assistive technologies to label them if necessary and inform users if inactivity will cause session logouts.
Most people browse the Internet from their smartphones. In fact, 60 percent of website traffic comes from mobile devices. Accessibility with regard to mobile devices includes concerns about touch screens, screen sizes, and more. Version 2.1 of WCAG’s criteria for mobile devices attempts to bridge this accessibility gap by ensuring that content cannot be restricted to a certain orientation and that motion-activated features can be deactivated and accessed through a user interface.
Future of WCAG
The WAI is convening to draft and release a version 2.2 of WCAG, scheduled to be finalized in April 2023. The WAI is currently accepting public comments before the finalization. The current draft on their website includes guidelines on sensory issues, CAPTCHAs, time-based media, decoration, and more.
Version 2.2, when it is released, will likely not be the last version of WCAG to be drafted, finalized, and released. As the digital world evolves, so do the standards of accessibility. WCAG will evolve alongside it to ensure that the Internet remains accessible. In the future, many more versions of WCAG will likely be released, all just as important as the last in the name of accessibility.
Conclusion
From the beginning, WCAG has existed to promote digital accessibility. As the world of the Internet has changed, new versions have been released, leading to the version we have today. As the Internet continues to evolve, more versions will be created to keep the Internet accessible for all.
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