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WordPress Accessibility Day 2023: know your acronyms

WordPress Accessibility Day 2023 is a free 24-hour global event that aims to raise awareness and increase general understanding of website accessibility in WordPress — it will take place on September 27 and run through the 28th.

If you’re new to accessibility or want clear guidelines on terminology before the webinar, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the three basic building blocks of accessibility guidelines: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), A11y, and Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG).

To lay a foundation, the following guidelines are focused on making web content more accessible to a broader range of people with disabilities, including blindness, deafness, hearing loss, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, and more.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

WCAG, or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, are standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to ensure digital content is accessible to people with disabilities.

The success criteria for WCAG 2.1 are based on four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.

Each principle has several guidelines that provide web developers with specific goals. Each guideline has one or more success criteria that define how to meet the guideline through accessibility testing. 

The success criteria are rated at three levels of conformance: A (lowest), AA (medium), and AAA (highest). To be compliant, web content must meet at least level AA.

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Explore how Testlio’s clients, a not-for-profit academic publisher, ran accessibility audits and solved 17 critical WCAG compliance issues.

Examples of WCAG guidelines include:

  • Provide text alternatives for non-text content, such as images, audio, and video.
  • Provide captions and transcripts for multimedia content, such as audio and video.
  • Ensure that color is not the only means of conveying information, such as links, errors, or status.
  • Ensure that text can be resized up to 200% without loss of content or functionality.
  • Provide keyboard access to all functionality and navigation of the web content.
  • Provide clear and consistent labels, instructions, and feedback for user input.
  • Avoid or minimize using content that may cause seizures, such as flashing or flickering images.
  • Ensure that web content is compatible with current and future user agents, such as browsers, screen readers, and assistive technologies.

A11Y 

The A11Y Project is a community-driven initiative that aims to provide practical and easy-to-understand resources on web accessibility. The A11Y features articles, checklists, tools, and resources that cover various aspects of web accessibility, including design, testing, and best practices. 

The A11Y checklist summarizes the main points of each WCAG guideline and provides examples of how to implement them. It also indicates each point’s conformance level (A, AA, or AAA).

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG)

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) are recommendations developed by the W3C to make authoring tools more accessible to people with disabilities. 

Authoring tools are software or services that enable users to create or modify web content, such as web editors, content management systems, blogs, wikis, and social media platforms.

Tune in to Testlio’s Helen Burge walk through understanding and testing ATAG successfully when using an authoring tool and how to choose one that allows anyone to create an accessible website. 

ATAG is organized into four principles: 

  • Platform accessibility
  • Author interface accessibility
  • Support for producing accessible content
  • Promote and integrate accessibility

Each principle has guidelines, success criteria, and techniques to help implement them.

ATAG also has three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA, which reflect the priority and impact of the accessibility issues. 

The success criteria for ATAG is divided into two parts: 

  • Part A – covers the accessibility of the authoring tool itself, such as its user interface and documentation.
  • Part B – covers the support for producing accessible web content by the authoring tool, such as its features, settings, and output.

Examples of ATAG guidelines to follow:

  • Provide keyboard access and alternative input methods for all authoring tool functionality.
  • Provide accessible documentation and help for the authoring tool, such as user manuals, tutorials, and online support.
  • Provide features that enable authors to check and correct accessibility problems in their web content, such as validators, checkers, and repair functions.
  • Provide features that enable authors to create and edit accessible web content, such as templates, styles, formats, and markup options.
  • Provide features that enable authors to preserve and enhance the accessibility of existing web content, such as import, export, and conversion functions.
  • Provide features that enable authors to manage and publish accessible web content, such as metadata, preview, and publishing options.

Following significant accessibility guidelines will help organizations implement responsible digital accessibility and adhere to the European Accessibility Act, effective June 28, 2025.