Success Criteria

Every WCAG 2.2 success criterion explained, one page at a time.

• WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content

  Success Criterion 1.1.1 requires a text alternative for every piece of non-text content. Here's the exact requirement, what counts as an exception, and how it's tested.

• WCAG 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)

  Success Criterion 1.2.1 requires a text or audio alternative for prerecorded audio-only or video-only content, like a podcast transcript or a silent product demo's narration.

• WCAG 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)

  Success Criterion 1.2.2 requires captions for all prerecorded audio content in synchronized video, so deaf and hard-of-hearing users can access the full experience.

• WCAG 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)

  Success Criterion 1.2.3 requires that visual-only information in a video — things shown but never said — is also made available to people who can't see the video.

• WCAG 1.2.4 Captions (Live)

  Success Criterion 1.2.4 extends the captioning requirement to live audio content, like livestreams and webinars — a real-time production requirement, not just a post-production one.

• WCAG 1.2.5 Audio Description (Prerecorded)

  Success Criterion 1.2.5 requires a real audio-description track for prerecorded video — the AA-level upgrade from 1.2.3's lighter 'or media alternative' option.

• WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships

  Success Criterion 1.3.1 requires that structure and relationships conveyed visually are also available programmatically. It's the broadest, most frequently-cited criterion in WCAG.

• WCAG 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence

  Success Criterion 1.3.2 requires that content can be read in a meaningful order programmatically, even when visual CSS positioning differs from the underlying DOM order.

• WCAG 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics

  Success Criterion 1.3.3 requires that instructions don't rely solely on shape, size, position, or sound to identify something — cues that don't reach every user.

• WCAG 1.3.4 Orientation

  Success Criterion 1.3.4 requires that content isn't restricted to only portrait or only landscape orientation, unless a specific orientation is genuinely essential.

• WCAG 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose

  Success Criterion 1.3.5 requires common input fields to be programmatically identifiable by purpose, enabling browser autofill and easing cognitive load.

• WCAG 1.4.1 Use of Color

  Success Criterion 1.4.1 requires that color isn't the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, or distinguishing an element.

• WCAG 1.4.2 Audio Control

  Success Criterion 1.4.2 requires a way to pause, stop, or control the volume of any audio that plays automatically for more than 3 seconds.

• WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)

  Success Criterion 1.4.3 sets the exact 4.5:1 and 3:1 contrast ratios text needs against its background. Here's the full requirement and what's exempt.

• WCAG 1.4.4 Resize Text

  Success Criterion 1.4.4 requires text to be resizable up to 200% without losing content or functionality, and without requiring horizontal scrolling.

• WCAG 1.4.5 Images of Text

  Success Criterion 1.4.5 requires using real, styleable text instead of an image of text wherever the same visual result can be achieved with actual text.

• WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow

  Success Criterion 1.4.10 requires content to reflow into a single-column, no-two-dimensional-scrolling layout at 400% zoom on a 320px-wide viewport.

• WCAG 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast

  Success Criterion 1.4.11 extends the contrast requirement beyond text to UI component boundaries and graphical objects that convey meaning.

• WCAG 1.4.12 Text Spacing

  Success Criterion 1.4.12 requires that content still works when a user overrides line height, paragraph spacing, letter spacing, and word spacing to more generous values.

• WCAG 1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus

  Success Criterion 1.4.13 requires that tooltips and popovers triggered by hover or focus are dismissible, hoverable, and persistent — not disappearing the moment a user tries to interact with them.

• WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard

  Success Criterion 2.1.1 requires that all functionality is operable through a keyboard interface, with no exceptions for interactions that fundamentally require a specific input path.

• WCAG 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap

  Success Criterion 2.1.2 requires that if keyboard focus can move into a component, it can also move back out using only the keyboard.

• WCAG 2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts

  Success Criterion 2.1.4 requires that single-character keyboard shortcuts can be turned off, remapped, or only work while a specific control has focus.

• WCAG 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable

  Success Criterion 2.2.1 requires that users can turn off, adjust, or extend any time limit imposed by content, with narrow exceptions.

• WCAG 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide

  Success Criterion 2.2.2 requires a way to pause, stop, or hide any moving, blinking, scrolling, or auto-updating content that lasts more than 5 seconds.

• WCAG 2.3.1 Three Flashes or Below Threshold

  Success Criterion 2.3.1 requires that content doesn't flash more than three times per second, protecting users with photosensitive seizure disorders.

• WCAG 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks

  Success Criterion 2.4.1 requires a way to skip repeated content blocks, like navigation menus, that appear across multiple pages.

• WCAG 2.4.2 Page Titled

  Success Criterion 2.4.2 requires web pages to have titles that describe their topic or purpose. Here's what makes a title compliant versus just technically present.

• WCAG 2.4.3 Focus Order

  Success Criterion 2.4.3 requires that when a page can be navigated sequentially, the focus order preserves meaning and operability — matching the logical, intended sequence.

• WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)

  Success Criterion 2.4.4 requires a link's purpose to be determinable from its text alone, or from that text plus its surrounding context.

• WCAG 2.4.5 Multiple Ways

  Success Criterion 2.4.5 requires more than one way to locate a page within a set of pages, such as a search function plus a site map or navigation menu.

• WCAG 2.4.6 Headings and Labels

  Success Criterion 2.4.6 requires that headings and labels describe the topic or purpose they introduce, not just that they exist.

• WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible

  Success Criterion 2.4.7 requires that any keyboard-operable interface has a visible indicator showing which element currently has keyboard focus.

• WCAG 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum)

  Success Criterion 2.4.11, new in WCAG 2.2, requires that a keyboard-focused element is at least partially visible, not completely hidden behind sticky headers, footers, or cookie banners.

• WCAG 2.5.1 Pointer Gestures

  Success Criterion 2.5.1 requires that any multipoint or path-based gesture (pinch-to-zoom, swipe) has a single-pointer alternative that doesn't require a precise path.

• WCAG 2.5.2 Pointer Cancellation

  Success Criterion 2.5.2 requires that pointer-triggered actions can be cancelled, typically by firing on release (up-event) rather than on initial press (down-event).

• WCAG 2.5.3 Label in Name

  Success Criterion 2.5.3 requires that a control's accessible name contains the text that's visually displayed on it, so voice-control users can reliably target it by speaking what they see.

• WCAG 2.5.4 Motion Actuation

  Success Criterion 2.5.4 requires that functionality triggered by device motion (shaking, tilting) also has a conventional UI alternative, and can be disabled to prevent accidental triggering.

• WCAG 2.5.7 Dragging Movements

  Success Criterion 2.5.7, new in WCAG 2.2, requires that any drag-and-drop interaction has a single-click/tap alternative that doesn't require a sustained drag gesture.

• WCAG 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum)

  Success Criterion 2.5.8, new in WCAG 2.2, requires clickable targets to be at least 24x24 CSS pixels, or have enough spacing, or otherwise qualify for an exception.

• WCAG 3.1.1 Language of Page

  Success Criterion 3.1.1 requires the default human language of a page to be programmatically identified via the lang attribute.

• WCAG 3.1.2 Language of Parts

  Success Criterion 3.1.2 requires that the human language of any passage or phrase differing from the page's default language is programmatically identified.

• WCAG 3.2.1 On Focus

  Success Criterion 3.2.1 requires that simply moving keyboard focus onto an element never triggers an unexpected context change, like a form auto-submitting or a new window opening.

• WCAG 3.2.2 On Input

  Success Criterion 3.2.2 requires that changing a form control's value doesn't automatically trigger an unexpected context change, unless the user is warned about that behavior beforehand.

• WCAG 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation

  Success Criterion 3.2.3 requires that repeated navigation mechanisms appear in the same relative order across every page they appear on within a set of pages.

• WCAG 3.2.4 Consistent Identification

  Success Criterion 3.2.4 requires that components with the same function are identified consistently across a set of pages — the same icon, label, or name every time.

• WCAG 3.2.6 Consistent Help

  Success Criterion 3.2.6, new in WCAG 2.2, requires that help mechanisms — contact info, chat widgets, FAQ links — appear in the same relative order across every page they're present on.

• WCAG 3.3.1 Error Identification

  Success Criterion 3.3.1 requires that when a form validation error is detected, the specific item in error is identified and described to the user in text.

• WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions

  Success Criterion 3.3.2 requires labels or instructions whenever content requires user input, so people know what a form field expects before they fill it in.

• WCAG 3.3.3 Error Suggestion

  Success Criterion 3.3.3 requires that when an input error is detected and a fix is known, the user is given a suggestion for how to correct it.

• WCAG 3.3.4 Error Prevention (Legal, Financial, Data)

  Success Criterion 3.3.4 requires a review, confirmation, or reversal step before finalizing legal commitments, financial transactions, or data-modifying submissions.

• WCAG 3.3.7 Redundant Entry

  Success Criterion 3.3.7, new in WCAG 2.2, requires that information a user already provided in the same process is auto-populated or made available for the user to select, rather than re-typed.

• WCAG 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum)

  Success Criterion 3.3.8, new in WCAG 2.2, requires that login doesn't depend on a cognitive function test — like memorizing a password or solving a puzzle — with no accessible alternative.

• WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value

  Success Criterion 4.1.2 requires every UI component to expose its name, role, and state to assistive technology. It underlies more automated violations than any other single criterion.

• WCAG 4.1.3 Status Messages

  Success Criterion 4.1.3 requires that status messages — like 'item added to cart' or a form validation result — are announced to assistive technology without needing to move keyboard focus.