If you’ve just started learning about accessibility, you might be a bit overwhelmed by all the jargon. WCAG, VPAT, s508, Level A – what on earth are they? Do they apply to your work or can you safely ignore them? I’ve been the guide for many of our clients through the jumble of acronyms and standards. I’d love to help you too.
WCAG and other standards
The most important acronym to know about is WCAG. It stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It’s the approved international standard for judging the accessibility of a website or web app. It is not in any way an introduction to accessibility! It’s a full technical standard with success criteria and lots of jargon. It’s written and maintained by the W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium. The fact that it’s a technical standard is why you see so many blog posts, talks and videos explaining it. Some of us (including me) earn a living by understanding it fully, but a lot of people just want to know the bits that are relevant to their own work.
WCAG has three levels of compliance, which are called Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. As a rough guideline, Level A includes things that are essential, meaning that without them people with disabilities won’t be able to use the website even if they have assistive technology or are willing to work around the problem. Level AA and Level AAA include things which apply to more specific types of content, make assistive technology easier to use, or make it easier to work around problems. Each level builds on the one before it. Level A has 32 criteria, Level AA adds another 23 criteria, and Level AAA adds an extra 31. This makes a total of 89 success criteria overall.
Australia currently has WCAG Level AA as it’s legal compliance standard. This means that if you have a digital product used by Australians, then that’s the measure of accessibility people are going to judge you by. If someone says that a website “meets WCAG Level AA”, what they’re saying is that the website passes all the tests needed to meet the 55 accessibility requirements that make up Level A and Level AA.
Just to add some more jargon to the pile, WCAG also has versions. Sometimes you’ll see those written like ‘WCAG2.1’ or ‘WCAG v2.2’. We’re currently on version 2.2 of WCAG. Each version adds a few more criteria and is mostly backwards compatible with previous versions. Some laws and contracts specify which version they use, but usually that’s not a good idea. If you want to ask for something that “meets WCAG” (maybe in a supplier or procurement contract) you might be better off saying “the latest version of WCAG”. That way your customers and clients won’t miss out on the newer accessibility requirements that get added every few years.
Other accessibility standards from around the world are Section 508 from the USA and EN 301 549 which is from the European Union. They’re similar to WCAG, but not identical. They’re written in a style that matches legislation which already existed in those places. If you pass WCAG, there’s a good chance that you’ll pass the American and European standards too. It’s always worth double-checking though!
Measuring products against standards
The other common acronym that’s useful to know about is VPAT. This stands for Voluntary Product Accessibility Template. It’s a standard way of describing the accessibility of a digital product, which includes software and documents (not just websites). The idea of the VPAT is to make it easier for people buying digital products to compare them, because the information is in a format that’s the same for every product.
For example, say you were in charge of buying a timesheet product for your team and wanted to make sure that your staff with disabilities could use it. You could ask for the VPATs of each product you were thinking about buying or find them on the product’s website. VPATs list each accessibility requirement and then say if the product meets it. It’s possible to have a VPAT that says “Does not support” on every criteria, but hopefully you won’t buy a product like that! You could compare those lists to see how compliant each product is or if they are missing any accessibility requirements that are essential for your team. That would help you decide which product to spend your limited budget on. VPATs can be written for WCAG, Section 508, EN 301 549, or whichever standard you have to comply with.
The funny thing is that everyone calls these VPATs (even me) but that’s just the name of the template. Once you’ve filled out a VPAT with all the details of a product, it should really be called an ACR: Accessibility Conformance Report. But whether you see one named VPAT or ACR, it should have the same information for you.
I hope this has helped you get to know some of the most common acronyms you see thrown around in accessibility conversations. If you need help figuring out the next steps on your accessibility journey, get in touch with our friendly and skilled team.
