Day 70: How to Fail WCAG Level AA, Part 1

Published on 08 Feb 2019

• journal
• resources
• was
• specifications
• wcag

The last three days I've reviewed failures for WCAG Level A within Perceivable, Operable, and Understandable and Robust. Now it's time to step up our expectations and look out how we're all fairing at the middle conformance level: Level AA.

• Read through Perceivable success criteria (Level AA) techniques on How to Meet WCAG 2 site.
• Mapped success criteria to failures.

Within the Perceivable principle, there are 11 additional success criteria to meet Level AA conformance within the latest WCAG recommendation (2.1).

5 SC within WCAG 2.0:

• 1.2.4 Captions (live)
• 1.2.5 Audio descriptions (pre-recorded)
• 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum)
• 1.4.4 Resize text
• 1.4.5 Images of text

6 more SC added in WCAG 2.1:

• 1.3.4 Orientation (new to 2.1)
• 1.3.5 Identify input purposes (new to 2.1)
• 1.4.10 Reflow (new to 2.1)
• 1.4.11 Non-text contrast (new to 2.1)
• 1.4.12 Text spacing (new to 2.1)
• 1.4.13 Content on hover or focus (new to 2.1)

SC 1.2.4 Captions (live):  In Level A, pre-recorded video with audio required captions. Level AA conformance fails when no open/closed or synchronized text stream is provided with captioning during live synchronized video with audio. This affects people with hearing impairments.

SC 1.2.5 Audio descriptions (pre-recorded): In Level A some sort of alternative (AD or text) needs to be provided for videos. Level AA conformance fails when there is no audio description track provided. This presents a challenge to users who may not be able to see the video.

SC 1.3.4 Orientation (new to 2.1): The user is prevented from using landscape view within a web app that does not essentially need to remain in portrait view. This affects people who magnify the screen and choose to view webpages in landscape.

SC 1.3.5 Identify input purposes (new to 2.1): No input data type or instructions for restricted data input are conveyed to the user. This affects people who use screen readers and some people with cognitive disabilities.

SC 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum): Background color and foreground text color have a contrast ratio of under 4:5:1 which makes it hard for people with visual impairments to perceive.

SC 1.4.4 Resize text: When text is resized within the browser at 200%, text is clipped. This makes reading your text difficult for people with visual impairments.

SC 1.4.5 Images of text: An image with text was used, even though it could have been presented in the same way with true text and use of CSS. This greatly affects people who magnify or zoom into their screen and the image pixelates.

SC 1.4.10 Reflow (new to 2.1): Media queries are absent. Content forces user to scroll horizontally and vertically. This presents a challenge to people who need to enlarge text or zoom into the screen.

SC 1.4.11 Non-text contrast (new to 2.1): Low contrast between text box and its background. No border is present. Like SC 1.4.3, this affects anyone with a visual impairment, including colorblindness.

SC 1.4.12 Text spacing (new to 2.1): Content boxes are restrictive in size and don't allow for text spacing to be adjusted by the user without text being clipped. This greatly affects people with visual impairments, dyslexia, and cognitive disabilities.

SC 1.4.13 Content on hover or focus (new to 2.1): Custom tooltip is not persistent nor dismissable. This greatly affects people who magnify their screen.

I had to cut the list of Level AA SC in half since there are 20 additional criteria, in total. I'm feeling a little more confident about my organizations efforts to achieve Level AA, and am happy to see that other people are paying attention to color contrast and reflow issues. Pertaining to the Perceivable principle, I don't think it takes to much effort to step up a level to remove even more barriers for people of all abilities.