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Understanding the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
7 Aug 2021 | 8 min Read
1. Overview
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) documents help to explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. Web contents include text, images, sounds, presentation, etc
WCAG guidelines were established by W3C. It contains a set of guidelines for digital accessibility. Different versions of WCAG are 2.0, 2.1. The latest released version is 2.2.
2. Tools to check WCAG
Use given tools to check WCAG website compliance.
3. Browser Extensions to check WCAG
Below are browser extensions to check WCAG website compliance.
WAVE Evaluation Tool for Mozilla
WAVE Evaluation Tool for Chrome
4. Conformance Levels
Web accessibility guidelines (WCAG) contain 3 confirmation levels A, AA, AAA. Each of which has an increasingly higher standard of accessibility.
Level A
Level A is the basic minimum of digital accessibility standards and is often regarded as “below acceptable” in the majority of instances.
Level AA
It is the standard goal that most businesses and organizations aspire for in digital accessibility.
Level AAA
The most stringent level, however, is not needed as a general policy for whole sites because it is not feasible to meet all Level AAA success requirements for some content.
5. Most common errors & solution
Here, we’re going to tell you the most common errors/alerts that occurred during site audits in WCAG tools
- Missing Alternative Text
- Missing form label
- Contrast Error
- Redundant Title Text
- Redundant link
- Missing Fieldset
Let’s see in detail each error with code snapshots.
5.1 Missing Alternative Text
All images should have alternative text to help screen reader users understand what they’re seeing. Those who are blind or visually challenged utilize a screen reader.
It converts the visual information on the screen into a different format, such as reading the text aloud. Screen readers are unable to convert images into words.
As a result, each image must have a brief, descriptive alternative.
How to fix it
For resolving these types of errors add alternative text to the respective image tag.
Results screenshot after resolving Missing Alternative text error
5.2 Missing form input label
Each element of a form should have a label associated with them. Labels are necessary to understand the purpose of each form element. A screen reader, on the other hand, cannot make these assumptions, so the lab must.
How to fix it
- The input element should be nested within the label element.
- Give the label a for a property with the same value as the input element’s id.
- Give the input element the aria-labeled by attribute, which should be the same as the id of the labeling element.
Results screenshot after resolving Missing form input label
5.3 Contrast Error
All text on a website should have a strong color contrast with the background color. Low contrast writing makes reading more challenging. Contrast sensitivity is lost in many older persons as they age. A person with impaired vision will be unable to read text that is set against a low-contrast backdrop.
Results screenshot after resolving Contrast Error
5.4 Redundant title text
The title attribute value is used to provide advisory information. When the user hovers the mouse over an element, it usually appears. The advisory information should not be identical or nearly equal to the element text or alternative text.
How to fix it
In most cases, the title attribute can be omitted; otherwise, it can be modified to give advisory rather than duplicate information. The title text is often inaccessible to sighted keyboard users and may or may not be read by a screen reader.
5.5 Redundant link
When adjacent links go to the same place (for example, a linked product image and an adjacent linked product name that both go to the same product page), keyboard and screen reader users will have to do more navigation and repetition.
How to Fix It:
If at all possible, consolidate the duplicate links into a single link and eliminate any superfluous content or alternative text (for example, if a product image and a product description are on the same page).
5.6 Missing Fieldset
How to Fix It
Determine whether the grouping of checkboxes or radio buttons has or needs text that explains the purpose of the checkboxes or radio button grouping. If so, mark up the group within a fieldset and put the group description in a legend element.
Results screenshot after resolving Missing fieldset
6. Conclusion
Web Content accessibility is very essential for developers & organizations that want to create high-quality websites, and not exclude people from using their products & services. If any query related to this blog or you need service on this then Contact Us
