level: AA
Level AA is the standard level most websites aim to meet. Most countries, states, and municipalities base their accessibility laws on WCAG AA. When people say “accessible website,” they typically mean WCAG AA compliance. Successfully implement every success criterion under Level AA and A to achieve this standard.
1.2.4 Captions (Live)
Live videos that include audio must be captioned.
1.2.5 Audio Description (Pre-recorded)
Actions, descriptions, and other important non-audio content in videos must be described in captions or a separate audio track.
1.3.4 Orientation
Rotating a device from portrait to landscape doesn’t stop everything being perfectly readable and usable.
1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose
The purpose of form fields can be identified by the browser, so that auto-complete suggestions can be offered in a dropdown.
1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
Text has a contrast ratio of 4.5 to 1. Large text can be a 3 to 1 ratio if it’s over 24px, or bold and over 19px.
1.4.4 Resize Text
Text can be resized up to 200% without loss of content or functionality, except for captions and images of text.
1.4.5 Images of Text
Text is actual text; not images of text.
1.4.10 Reflow
Content must remain readable and usable without requiring horizontal scrolling when viewed at a width of 320 CSS pixels (typically the width of a mobile viewport). Layouts should adapt responsively, and text should reflow to fit the screen.
1.4.11 Non-text Contrast
Usable components like form fields and buttons, and graphics like pie charts and line graphs must have a contrast ratio of 3 to 1.
1.4.12 Text Spacing
Users can increase letter, word, line, and paragraph spacing without cutting off content or breaking functionality.