WCAG 2.2 AA explained for small business websites

More small business owners are asking whether their website is accessible. The question usually turns up after a customer complaint, a tender form, or an email from someone offering to fix it for a fee. The answer almost always involves 4 letters and 2 numbers: WCAG 2.2 AA. It sounds like a tax form. It’s mostly common sense, written down very carefully.

This guide explains what WCAG 2.2 AA is and what it asks of a small business website. It also covers what you can check yourself in an afternoon. It’s general information, not legal advice.

What is WCAG 2.2 AA?

WCAG 2.2 AA is the level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines most organisations aim for. The W3C publishes the guidelines, and they are the worldwide benchmark for whether people with disability can use a website. Level AA means meeting every A and AA success criterion in version 2.2, which became a W3C Recommendation in October 2023.

WCAG stands for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) publishes them. It’s the body that sets many of the standards the web runs on.

The guidelines are grouped under 4 principles. Content must be:

• Perceivable: people can see or hear it, or get it another way (text for images, captions for video).
• Operable: people can use it with a keyboard, a switch, a screen reader or voice control, as well as a mouse.
• Understandable: it behaves predictably, and the language and forms make sense.
• Robust: it works with the assistive technology people use.

Each guideline has testable “success criteria” at 3 levels. A is the minimum. AA is the widely adopted target. AAA is the highest, and isn’t expected of whole sites. When people say “WCAG 2.2 AA”, they mean every A and AA criterion in version 2.2.

Version 2.2 kept almost everything from 2.1. It added 9 new criteria, 6 of them at A or AA. It also removed one old criterion about HTML parsing that modern browsers had made redundant.

Does an Australian small business have to meet WCAG?

No Australian law names WCAG for small businesses. But the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 makes it unlawful to discriminate against people with disability when providing goods and services. A website is one way a business provides them. The Australian Human Rights Commission points to WCAG as the practical benchmark. Meeting WCAG 2.2 AA is the clearest way to show reasonable steps.

Government agencies are generally expected to meet WCAG. Many tenders, grants and procurement panels now ask suppliers about it too.

The law doesn’t hand small businesses a certificate to hang on the wall. What it does is create a risk if people with disability can’t use your site to find information, book, buy or get in touch.

It’s also good business. The things WCAG asks for make a site easier for everyone. Think readable text, clear forms, sensible headings and pages that work on a phone with one hand.

What changed in WCAG 2.2?

WCAG 2.2 added 6 criteria at level A or AA. Keyboard focus can’t be hidden behind sticky headers. Dragging needs a click alternative. Targets must be at least 24 by 24 pixels. Help sits in a consistent place. People shouldn’t type the same thing twice. Logins can’t rely on memory tests.

If your site was built to WCAG 2.1 AA, these are the additions to look at.

1. Focus not obscured (2.4.11, AA). When someone moves through the page with the keyboard, the item they are on must not be completely hidden. Sticky headers, cookie banners and chat buttons are the usual culprits.
2. Dragging movements (2.5.7, AA). Anything you can do by dragging, such as a slider or a reorderable list, must also work with a simple click or tap.
3. Target size, minimum (2.5.8, AA). Buttons and links need to be at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or have enough space around them. That lets people with limited dexterity hit them.
4. Consistent help (3.2.6, A). If you offer help, such as a phone number, contact link or chat, keep it in the same place on every page.
5. Redundant entry (3.3.7, A). Don’t make people type the same information twice in one process. If they gave you their address in step 1, fill it in or let them select it in step 3.
6. Accessible authentication, minimum (3.3.8, AA). Logging in must not depend on a memory or puzzle test. Password managers and pasting must work.

For a typical brochure website, the first 4 are the ones most likely to matter. The last 2 mostly affect sites with multi-step forms, bookings, checkouts or logins.

How can you check your website’s accessibility yourself?

You can find the most common accessibility problems in an hour with no special software. Move through your pages with the Tab key. Zoom to 200%. Check image alt text and heading order. Test text contrast with a free checker. Then fill in your own contact form and make mistakes on purpose to see the error messages.

Set aside an hour and try these on your homepage, a service page and your contact page.

Put the mouse away. Press Tab repeatedly to move through the page. Can you always see where you are? Can you reach every link, button and form field? Can you open and close the menu? Can you send the form? If you get stuck or lose track of where you are, so will a keyboard user.

Zoom to 200%. Use the browser’s zoom. Does text reflow so you can still read it without scrolling sideways? Does anything overlap or disappear?

Check your images. Every meaningful image needs alternative text that says what it shows or does. Decorative images should have empty alt text so screen readers skip them.

Read your headings. Headings should form an outline of the page, with one main heading and sections beneath it. A heading chosen because the text “looked the right size” breaks that outline.

Test contrast. Low contrast text is the most common failure in WebAIM’s yearly scan of the top 1 million home pages. Normal text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 against its background. Large text needs 3 to 1. Free contrast checkers tell you in seconds.

Fill in your own form. Does every field have a visible label, rather than placeholder text that disappears? When you get something wrong, does the error say what and where, in words?

If these 6 checks turn up problems, a full audit will almost certainly find more. If you find none, that’s a good sign. It still falls short of conformance.

What can automated accessibility scanners find?

Automated scanners find missing alt text, empty links, contrast problems and missing form labels quickly and consistently. They can’t judge whether alt text makes sense, whether the reading order works, or whether a screen reader user can finish a booking. Many WCAG criteria need a person to test them.

We run automated scanners on every build. They’re useful, and they’re only the start.

A genuine WCAG accessibility audit combines automated scanning with manual testing using a keyboard and a screen reader. That’s how you find focus disappearing behind a sticky header, or a form that reads in the wrong order.

Be wary of overlay widgets that promise instant compliance with one line of code. They don’t fix the underlying page, and disability advocates have raised concerns about them for years.

Fix the shared components first

The most efficient way to fix accessibility is in the components your site is built from. If the navigation, buttons, forms and card patterns are accessible, every page built from them starts accessible. If they aren’t, every new page repeats the same faults.

That’s how we approach accessibility remediation. We fix the shared parts first, then the content. It’s also why accessibility is cheapest when it’s part of the design from the start, rather than a retrofit after launch.

Where accessibility matters most

Every business benefits, but for some the stakes are higher. Disability service providers, health practices and anyone serving older customers have audiences where many visitors rely on assistive technology, larger text or simpler layouts. For an NDIS provider, an inaccessible website shuts out the people the service exists for.

A sensible next step

Run the 6 checks above and write down what you find. If the list is short, fix it and keep an eye on new content. If it’s long, or your site handles bookings, forms or payments, a structured audit helps. It gives you a prioritised list of what to fix first, measured against the standard.

Accessibility needs looking after for the life of the site. Every new page, image and form is a chance to keep it or lose it. Once the foundations are right, keeping it is mostly habit.

Want a website built to WCAG 2.2 AA from day one?

Every site we build is tested to WCAG 2.2 AA before release, so nobody gets locked out of booking, buying or getting in touch. See how our WCAG accessibility audit works on an existing site. Book a free strategy call and we’ll tell you straight how far your site has to go.