What are the WCAG and which version applies?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the internationally authoritative standard for accessible web content, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). They are organized around four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. The current version is WCAG 2.2, published in October 2023.

EN 301 549, which the BFSG references, names WCAG 2.1 AA as the minimum. We consistently recommend WCAG 2.2 AA, however, because that version adds new criteria, on focus visibility, target sizes for touch interaction and simplified authentication, and thus reflects the current state of the art.

Those who adopt 2.2 today are well protected against the foreseeable update of the EN standard. How we implement these criteria in practice, we show on the accessible web development page.