What's the difference between WCAG 2.1 and 2.2?

WCAG 2.2 keeps everything in 2.1 and adds nine new success criteria, mostly helping people with cognitive disabilities, low vision, and those using touch or a keyboard. It became a W3C Recommendation in October 2023. One older criterion, 4.1.1 Parsing, was retired because modern browsers handle it. If you already meet 2.1 AA, 2.2 AA is a short list of additions, not a rewrite.

Which WCAG level should I aim for — A, AA, or AAA?

Aim for AA. Level A is the bare minimum and leaves real barriers in place; AAA is stricter than most sites can fully meet across every page. AA is the level courts, government rules, and procurement contracts reference, so it's the practical target for a normal website.

How big do buttons and links need to be under WCAG 2.2?

Success criterion 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum), a Level AA rule, asks that pointer targets be at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or have enough spacing that a 24-pixel circle centered on the target doesn't overlap a neighbor. Links inside a paragraph of text are exempt. It's aimed at cramped icon rows and tiny tap targets on mobile.

A practical WCAG 2.2 AA checklist for normal websites

Published September 8, 2026 · about a 7-minute read

WCAG is written for a standards committee, not for the person who has to ship a website by Friday. So most people either skim it, panic, or paste it into a compliance PDF nobody reads. Here's the version I wish I'd had: the WCAG 2.2 Level AA checks that actually apply to a normal site, in plain words, with the nine new 2.2 additions called out so you know what changed.

First, the three-letter maze: A, AA, AAA

WCAG groups its rules into three conformance levels. Level A is the floor — miss it and the site is broken for whole groups of people. AAA is the ceiling, stricter than most sites can hit on every page. AA is the target. It's what U.S. courts point to, what the 2024 government-site rule requires, and what procurement contracts ask for. When someone says "we need to be WCAG compliant," they mean AA. (If you're wondering why any of this matters legally, I covered that in the ADA website compliance guide.)

WCAG 2.2, published as a W3C Recommendation in October 2023, keeps every 2.1 rule and adds nine new criteria. It also retired one old one — 4.1.1 Parsing — because browsers handle that now. So 2.2 AA isn't a rewrite. If you meet 2.1 AA, you're most of the way there.

The core AA checklist (this is where most failures live)

Machines can catch some of these; the rest need you to actually use the page. Go top to bottom:

Text contrast at least 4.5:1 (3:1 for large text). Pale grey body text is the single most common automated failure I see.
Every image has appropriate alt text. Meaningful images describe their meaning; decorative ones use alt="" so they're skipped. A missing alt and a useless one ("image123.jpg") are both fails.
Every form field has a real <label>. Placeholder text is not a label — it vanishes when you type.
Full keyboard operation. Tab through the entire page. You must reach and activate every menu, control, and the checkout without a mouse, and never get trapped.
Visible focus indicator. The item you've tabbed to must be clearly outlined. Don't outline:none it away.
Logical heading structure. One <h1>, then <h2>/<h3> in order. Screen-reader users jump by heading; a page of styled <div>s gives them nothing to jump to.
Don't rely on color alone. "Fields in red are required" fails for colorblind users — add text or an icon.
Captions on video, and page language set (<html lang="en">). Small, easy, often forgotten.
Content reflows at 400% zoom without a horizontal scrollbar, and still works at 320px wide.

If you do nothing else, run a keyboard-only pass and a contrast check. Those two catch a huge share of the problems that end up in demand letters.

What's new in 2.2 — the nine additions

These are the criteria you won't find in older checklists. The ones that count toward AA are marked.

Criterion	Level	Plain meaning
2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured	AA	When you tab to something, a sticky header or cookie banner mustn't completely hide it.
2.5.7 Dragging Movements	AA	Anything you do by dragging (sliders, reordering) needs a non-drag alternative — a tap or click.
2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum)	AA	Tap/click targets at least 24×24 CSS pixels, or spaced so they don't crowd each other. Inline text links are exempt.
3.3.8 Accessible Authentication	AA	Don't force a cognitive test to log in. Allow password managers and paste; don't require solving a puzzle or retyping a code from memory.
3.2.6 Consistent Help	A	If you offer help (contact, chat), keep it in the same place across pages.
3.3.7 Redundant Entry	A	Don't make people re-type info they already gave you earlier in the same process.
2.4.12 / 2.4.13 Focus Appearance, and Accessible Authentication (Enhanced)	AAA	Stricter versions of the above — beyond what AA requires.

The two that catch people out are 2.5.8 (that cramped row of tiny social icons in your footer) and 3.3.8 (login flows that block paste or demand a from-memory code). Both are easy to overlook and easy to fix.

How to check without a consultant

Start with an automated scan to clear the machine-detectable failures — contrast, missing alt text, unlabeled fields, missing page language. That's the fast third. Then do the human part: one keyboard-only walk-through, one pass with your OS screen reader on your top pages. Automated tools can't tell whether your alt text is meaningful or whether the tab order makes sense — only a person can.

Our free accessibility checker runs the automated layer against your live page and grades it, so you can knock out the obvious failures first and spend your manual time where it counts. It sits alongside the security checks — because a site that's accessible but silently serving an expired certificate still turns visitors away at the door.

Grade your page against WCAG-based checks

Perimeter scans your live page for the machine-detectable AA failures — contrast, alt text, labels, structure — and grades it, next to your TLS, headers and DNS. Free, no signup.

Track accessibility over time → · Compliance plan $49/mo, dated reports