Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 – Final Draft is now available

Accessibility Guidelines Working Group at World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has released final draft of WCAG 2.2 on 11th August, 2020. WCAG 2.2 has introduced 9 new Success Criterions out of which 8 are Level AA and.. Let’s take a look at new Success Criterions.

• Success criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible (Changed from Level AA to Level A) – Any keyboard operable user interface has a mode of operation where the keyboard focus indicator is visible.
• Success Criterion 2.4.11 Focus Appearance (minimum) (Level AA) – For the keyboard focus indicator of each User Interface Component, all of the following are true:

1. Minimum area: The focus indication area is greater than or equal to a 1 CSS pixel border of the focused control, or has a thickness of at least 8 CSS pixels along the shortest side of the element.
2. Change of contrast: The color change for the focus indication area has a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 with the colors of the unfocused state.
3. Adjacent contrast: The focus indication area has a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 against all adjacent colors for the minimum area or greater, or has a thickness of at least 2 CSS pixels.
4. Unobscured: The item with focus is not entirely hidden by author-created content.

• Success Criterion 2.4.12 Focus Appearance (Enhanced) (Level AAA) – For the keyboard focus indicator of each User Interface Component, all of the following are true:

1. Minimum area: The focus indication area is greater than or equal to a 2 CSS pixel solid border around the control.
2. Change of contrast: Color changes used to indicate focus have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 with the colors changed from the unfocused control.
3. Unobscured: No part of the focus indicator is hidden by author-created content.

• Success Criterion 2.4.13 Fixed Reference Points (Level A) – When a web page or set of web pages is an electronic publication with pagebreak locators, a mechanism is available to navigate to each locator and each locator maintains its place in the flow of content, even when the formatting or platform change.
• Success Criterion 2.5.7 Dragging (Level AA) – All functionality that uses a dragging movement for operation can be operated by a single pointer without dragging, unless dragging is essential.
• Success Criterion 2.5.8 Pointer Target Spacing (Level AA) – For each target, there is an area with a width and height of at least 44 CSS pixels that includes it, and no other targets, except when:

1. Enlarge: A mechanism is available to change the CSS pixel size of each target, or its spacing, so there is an area with a width and height of at least 44 CSS pixels that includes it, and no other targets;
2. Inline: The target is in a sentence or block of text;
3. User agent: The size of the target is controlled by the user agent and is not modified by the author;
4. Essential: A particular presentation of the target is essential to the information being conveyed.

• Success Criterion 3.2.6 Findable Help (Level A) – When a single web page application or set of web pages having options like Human contact details, human contact mechanism, self help option, a fully automated contact mechanism, then access to at least one of the options should be made available in the same relative order on each page
• Success Criterion 3.2.7 Hidden Controls (Level AA) – Controls needed to progress or complete a process are visible at the time they are needed without requiring pointer hover or keyboard focus, or a mechanism is available to make them persistently visible.
• Success Criterion 3.3.7 Accessible Authentication (Level A) – If an authentication process relies on a cognitive function test, at least one other method must also be available that does not rely on a cognitive function test.
• Success Criterion 3.3.8 Redundant Entry (Level A) – For steps in a process, information previously entered by or provided to the user that is required on subsequent steps is either autopopulated or available for users to select. Exception: When re-entering information is essential; example: Re-enter new password on a password reset form.

Looks like there are some good changes made and I personally happy to see 2.4.7 Focus Visible has been promoted to Level A.

Looking forward to have WCAG 2.2 become a recommendation.