WCAG

How the standard is organised

WCAG has three layers. Four principles — content must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust — sit above a set of guidelines, which in turn contain the success criteria that are the testable part. Only success criteria are pass or fail; everything above them is framing.

Each criterion carries a level. Level A is the floor, AA is the working standard almost every requirement points at, and AAA is a set of criteria the W3C itself notes cannot be satisfied for all content. "WCAG 2.2 AA" means every Level A and Level AA criterion is met.

Versions

Each version is additive: meeting 2.2 AA means you also meet 2.1 AA and 2.0 AA. WCAG 3.0 is a draft with a different structure and is not something to build a requirement around today.

The criteria that bite hardest in surveys

A survey is a form, and forms concentrate the criteria that are easiest to fail.

• Labels or Instructions (3.3.2) — a placeholder is not a label. It disappears the moment somebody types.
• Error Identification and Error Suggestion (3.3.1, 3.3.3) — "invalid input" is not an error message. Say what is wrong and what a valid answer looks like.
• Dragging Movements (2.5.7, new in 2.2) — anything achieved by dragging must also be achievable with a single pointer without dragging. This is the one that catches ranking questions.
• Focus Not Obscured (2.4.11, new in 2.2) — a sticky header or a cookie bar must not hide the element you have just tabbed to.
• Target Size (2.5.8, new in 2.2) — 24 by 24 CSS pixels minimum, with exceptions. Radio buttons in a matrix are where this fails.
• Info and Relationships (1.3.1) — a grid's row and column relationships have to reach assistive technology, not just the eye.
• Timing Adjustable (2.2.1) — if a survey session can expire, the respondent must be able to extend it.

The UK legal position

Two separate things. The Equality Act 2010 requires reasonable adjustments for disabled people, and applies broadly. Separately, the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 place specific duties on public sector bodies, including publishing an accessibility statement in a set format. The technical standard those regulations point at is set out in EN 301 549, which incorporates WCAG; UK government guidance for public sector sites currently points at WCAG 2.2 level AA. If you are procuring for a council, a trust or a university, expect 2.2 AA and an accessibility statement to be in the requirements.

A note on what "compliant" means

WCAG conformance is a property of a specific page or process at a specific time, not a badge a product carries. A survey tool can build an accessible respondent experience and you can still make an inaccessible survey with it — images without alternative text, a grid nobody can operate, a question written at degree-reading level. Conformance for the survey you publish is shared between the tool and the person building it.

In NumoForms

WCAG 2.2 level AA is the standard the product is built and tested against. It is a target, not a verified conformance claim: no third party has audited it, there is no VPAT, and we do not hold an accessibility certification. The honest account of what is done, what is not, and what a survey author still has to get right is on the accessibility page, with the formal statement at accessibility statement. Related: matrix questions and ranking questions, the two types that need the most care.