WCAG compliance: the questions we get asked most

It is rarely the thing that gets a project approved, and often the thing that decides how it goes. The questions about WCAG compliance that come up most often on our calls.

Accessibility work almost always improves the experience for people who have no impairment at all. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

Do we need to care about this?

AA is the level most organisations are held to. There is a version of this that is over-engineered, and it is worth avoiding. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

Can it wait until after launch?

Occasionally. More often the post-launch version costs several times the pre-launch one. Small and consistent beats large and occasional here.

How do we know it is working?

Some sectors have a legal obligation, not a preference. Getting it slightly wrong is survivable. Ignoring it entirely is not. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

What this looks like day to day

Most of it is correctness rather than charity: use the right element and much of it happens automatically. Three things worth confirming about WCAG compliance before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Some sectors have a legal obligation, not a preference — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you are not sure where your systems currently stand on this, it takes us about an hour to find out.