Making accessibility standards easy to understand, one success criterion at a time.

principle: Perceivable

Make sure that everyone can perceive or detect the same content and components. Can people perceive this content with whatever capacity they have?

WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 Level A

1.3.1 Info and Relationships

Information or relationships between content that is visual is also conveyed through the code, via HTML or ARIA (for example the for attribute on a form label, or aria-describedby on an input that has hint text).

Code and Labels, Wording
Cognitive, Visual
Code, Content
WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 Level A

1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence

The visual presentation of the content matches what’s read out by a screen reader.

Code and Labels, Wording
Cognitive, Visual
Code
WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 Level A

1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics

Nothing is referred to just by its colour, size, position, shape, and so on.

Forms, Sensory, Wording
Cognitive, Visual
Content
WCAG 2.1, 2.2 Level AA

1.3.4 Orientation

Rotating a device from portrait to landscape doesn’t stop everything being perfectly readable and usable.

Gestures
Cognitive, Visual
Code
WCAG 2.1, 2.2 Level AA

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.

Forms
Cognitive, Visual
Code
WCAG 2.1, 2.2 Level AAA

1.3.6 Identify Purpose

Landmark regions and personalization semantics are used, allowing browser tools to remove non-essential content or add identifying icons to specific elements on the page.

Forms
Cognitive, Visual
Code
WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 Level A

1.4.1 Use of Color

Colour shouldn’t be the only thing used to convey meaning.

Sensory
Cognitive, Visual
Content, Design
WCAG 2.1, 2.2 Level AA

1.4.10 Reflow

Content remains readable and usable without requiring horizontal scrolling when viewed at 320 CSS pixels wide (typically equivalent to a mobile viewport) by adapting layout and reflowing text.

Gestures, Zoom and Legibility
Cognitive, Visual
Design
WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 Level AA

1.4.11 Non-text Contrast

Usable components like form fields and buttons, and graphics like pie charts and line graphs should have a contrast ratio of 3 to 1.

Sensory
Cognitive, Visual
Design
WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 Level AA

1.4.12 Text Spacing

Users can increase letter, word, line, and paragraph spacing without cutting off content or breaking functionality.

Zoom and Legibility
Cognitive, Visual
Code, Design