Why WCAG conformance matters
- Accessibility: check whether a keyboard or screen-reader user can complete the full task.
- Quality: semantics, contrast, labels and understandable errors help remove specific barriers.
- Law: WCAG is a technical standard. Obligations depend on the product, service, jurisdiction and applicable legislation; the EAA is not a universal AA mandate for every website.
How to audit conformance
Automation detects some barriers, but no tool alone establishes conformance (W3C WAI). Test the complete keyboard journey, focus order and visibility, error messages, and the meaning of descriptions and structures. Record pass, fail, not applicable and not tested criteria with evidence.
Example
Examples of techniques for SC 1.1.1 and 1.3.1. Alternative text depends on an image’s function; decorative images usually have alt="". Logical headings are a technique for expressing relationships, not a standalone criterion saying “never skip a level”.
<img src="/chart.png" alt="LCP decreased from 3 to 2 seconds in a lab test"><main>
<h1>CometWeb Insight pricing</h1>
<section>
<h2>Monthly plans</h2>
<h3>Example plan</h3>
</section>
</main>AA includes A and AA requirements; AAA adds AAA requirements. A level is not a pass percentage. W3C does not recommend requiring AAA as a general policy for entire sites because some content cannot satisfy every AAA criterion.
It added nine success criteria, among them focus appearance, an alternative to dragging, a minimum target size, consistent help, and not asking for the same information twice. One criterion from 2.1 was withdrawn.
No. Automated tools catch part of the barriers (missing attributes, contrast, heading structure), but cannot judge whether an image description conveys the meaning, or whether the focus order makes sense to a person. Conformance is not claimable without manual review.
The existence of a website alone does not determine a required level. Check service scope, jurisdiction and the laws and standards referenced by the applicable obligation. An automated WCAG result is not a legal opinion or certificate.