Are WCAG Guidelines "Constantly Evolving?"

When the national and local media reports on digital accessibility, they often focus on lawsuits. That’s understandable: Litigation filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) can be profoundly disruptive for businesses. Lawsuits have compelled some of the world’s largest businesses to treat accessibility as a priority. 

However, we’ve also seen a disturbing number of media outlets report that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) — the international standards for digital accessibility — are “constantly evolving.” 

That’s problematic. Here’s why WCAG is a straightforward guidebook for accessibility — and why you don’t need to worry about the guidelines changing after you’ve earned conformance.

WCAG rarely changes, and new requirements are added through a public rulemaking process

WCAG is the framework that businesses use for compliance with the ADA, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), the European Accessibility Act (EAA), and countless other non-discrimination laws. 

So, who’s in charge of WCAG? The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) publishes the guidelines, with public input from thousands of web developers. The W3C also publishes standards for HTML, CSS, and other web technologies. 

The W3C has an established process for updating WCAG and adding new requirements (called “success criteria"): 

1. The accessibility Working Group publishes a Working Draft. Developers are invited to review the Draft and provide their input. 
2. When the Working Group believes that it has addressed all comments and technical requirements, they publish a Wide Review Working Draft for community review. 
3. After additional input, the Wide Review Working Draft may become a Candidate Recommendation. At this stage, the W3C encourages developers to use the technical report in their projects.
4. After there are implementations of each feature of the technical report, the W3C announces it as a Proposed Recommendation.
5. When the W3C Membership shows significant support for the Proposed Recommendation, it can be published as an official W3C Recommendation.

This process takes time. It’s not uncommon for a Working Draft to undergo years of revision before it moves past that stage.

The bottom line: When a new version of WCAG is released, it’s never a surprise. The W3C constantly communicates with the development community. That communication allows accessibility professionals to prepare for new recommendations for years prior to their official publication.

Related: 5 Quick Ways to Check Your Site Against New WCAG 2.2 Standards

All versions of WCAG 2 contain the requirements from previous versions

The “constantly changing" language is inaccurate for another reason: It implies that website owners might follow one set of rules, only to learn that a completely different set of rules are required for compliance.

Fortunately, that’s never the case. WCAG is specifically written to be backward-compatible. New versions include all of the requirements from previous versions, word-for-word (with one minor exception in the latest version of WCAG).

To put that another way, if your website fulfills all of the requirements in WCAG 2.1, you won’t need to do much more work to meet WCAG 2.2. 

And realistically, if you follow WCAG 2.1, you’re in a great position for compliance with the ADA and other laws — though following the additional criteria in WCAG 2.2 will help you enjoy the enormous business benefits of digital accessibility.

Related: How Accessibility Future-Proofs Your Website

Digital accessibility compliance is achievable, and it helps your business reach new audiences

If you’re concerned about the shifting legal landscape of accessibility compliance, that’s perfectly understandable. The good news is that the rules of accessibility might evolve over time, but they don’t change dramatically or suddenly. 

By adopting an accessible mindset, you can build content that conforms with current and future versions of WCAG. More importantly, you’ll create digital products that appeal to a wide range of users, including the 25% of U.S. adults with disabilities. 

Accessible content works better for every user, and the best practices of WCAG are beneficial for search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing strategies. 

At the Bureau of Internet Accessibility and AudioEye, we believe that we’ve built the best approach for adopting those best practices — and maintaining compliance with the ADA, AODA, and other digital accessibility laws. 

To learn more, send us a message to connect with a subject matter expert or get started with a free website accessibility scan.