WCAG

Level A covers the basic criteria, without which some users cannot access the content at all. Level AA is the target adopted by most regulations, among them the RGAA and the European standard EN 301 549. Level AAA is the most demanding and is not achievable across an entire site, since some of its criteria conflict with one another depending on the audiences concerned. The levels are cumulative: meeting AA necessarily means meeting A.

Colour contrast, with a minimum ratio of 4.5:1 for body text at level AA. The size of clickable areas, at least 24 pixels on each side at AA, 44 at level AAA. The visibility of keyboard focus. The absence of information conveyed by colour alone. And the consistency of navigation from one page to the next. These criteria directly determine the choices of palette, typography and grid.

Yes, but they were written for the web, and transposing them calls for interpretation work on native components. The accessibility recommendations published by Apple and Google apply the same principles in the touch context. The European standard EN 301 549 also extends the requirements to software and mobile applications.

Automated tools detect around a third of the problems, those that can be read in the code. The rest calls for manual testing: keyboard navigation, listening with a screen reader, contrast checking, consistency across journeys. Tests with people with disabilities remain the most reliable method, and the most costly. In practice, automated testing does the rough work and manual testing decides.

No. Version 3.0 is a working draft with no normative value, and its final recommendation is not expected before 2028 at the earliest. Its conformance model will change, with a graded rating in place of the A, AA and AAA levels. The two versions will then coexist for several years, and the work started today on WCAG 2.2 at level AA will not be wasted.