WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)

Why WCAG conformance matters

• Law: the European Accessibility Act (from June 2025) and national laws require level AA for e-commerce, banking and digital services.
• Reach: according to the WHO, over a billion people live with a disability — an inaccessible site excludes real customers.
• Quality: WCAG practices (semantic HTML, contrast, keyboard support) improve UX and SEO for everyone.

How to audit conformance

Automated tests (e.g. axe-core) typically detect 30–40% of issues — the rest must be verified manually: with keyboard navigation, a screen reader and content review. A mature process combines automated audits in CI with periodic manual testing.

Example

Two criteria often checked first — alternative text for images (SC 1.1.1) and a logical heading hierarchy (SC 1.3.1).

<img src="/team.jpg" alt="The CometWeb team in a meeting at the office">

<main>
  <h1>CometWeb Insight pricing</h1>
  <section>
    <h2>Monthly plans</h2>
    <h3>Starter plan</h3>
  </section>
</main>

Which WCAG level is legally required?

In the European Union and most jurisdictions the reference point is level AA — required by the European Accessibility Act, the EN 301 549 standard and US case law around the ADA.