Hot Off the Press! ADA Compliance Updates for your Website: What’s New in WCAG 2.2
ADA Compliance Basics
Have you ever wondered exactly what “ADA Compliance” includes or why it matters to you as a business owner? Simply put, ADA Compliance means following the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities and requires equal access to public facilities and services.
ADA guidelines apply to both public and private entities, and include digital spaces, like websites and mobile apps, with the goal of removing obstacles that could prevent individuals with disabilities from having full access to programs, services, and other opportunities that are accessible to the general public.
You probably knew that ADA Compliance was required for your business’s physical location, but did you know that it also extends to your website and mobile apps? These digital spaces are locations that also require public accommodation. Ensuring compliance can help you to avoid any potential discrimination or legal issues related to accessibility, and can provide a number of other benefits to you and your customers.
- Expand your customer base with an accessible website that allows those with disabilities to make full use of its information and features.
- Build your reputation by showing a commitment to access and inclusion for everyone.
- Increase SEO and rankings by having an accessible site.
- Enhance the user experience for all users by including features like subtitles on videos and alternative text on images.
Understanding WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)
Ensuring ADA Compliance may seem a bit daunting given the importance it carries for your business. Fortunately, there are standards and guidelines available through the work of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
W3C is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web, establishing protocols and guidelines for website development. In 1997, the organization established the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to focus on accessibility in website design.
The primary work of the WAI has been to provide technical standards, education, and outreach for making web content more accessible to those with disabilities through their Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
WCAG provides a number of important guidelines for making digital content accessible to those with visual, auditory, mobility, or cognitive disorders. It is broken down into the following subgroups: Perceivable (e.g., adding alt text to images), Operable (e.g, making all content function from the keyboard), Understandable (e.g., predictable navigation), and Robust (e.g., compatible with assistive technologies), and provides guidelines for three levels of compliance (A, AA, and AAA), with AA being the recommended target level. WCAG is regarded as the international standard in web accessibility and is updated regularly.
What’s New in WCAG 2.2?
The previous version, WCAG 2.1, was published in 2018, and the newly updated version, WCAG 2.2, has just been released (in October 2023). Version 2.2 maintains the previous standards, with one exception, and expands on them with the addition of 9 new success criteria.
The one item that was changed from WCAG 2.1 to WCAG 2.2 is the removal of success criteria 4.1.1 (Parsing is obsolete). Parsing, in web design, is the process of analyzing a string of code to determine its structure and is usually used in the context of processing data from an external source, such as an API.
As a component of ADA Compliance, parsing was included in WCAG 2.0 to ensure that browsers and assistive technologies could accurately parse content. Since the introduction of WCAG 2.0, however, systems like HTML have been improved to better handle parsing errors, so in WCAG 2.1, this requirement was marked as obsolete. In the latest version, it has been removed completely from the guidelines as the assistive technology issues it was implemented to correct no longer exist.
The main difference between WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 is the addition of 9 new success criteria related to navigability (2.4), input modalities (2.5), predictability (3.2), and input assistance (3.3).
Let’s Dive into the new 9 success criteria.
2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) (AA)
When a user interface component receives keyboard focus, the component is not entirely hidden due to author-created content.
For example, if you have built in a sticky footer on your page, and a user is tabbing through focus components, none of the focus components can be hidden behind the footer. If the component is at least partially visible, it will meet the AA standard.
2.4.12 Focus Not Obscured (Enhanced) (AAA)
When a user interface component receives keyboard focus, no part of the component is hidden by author-created content. As in the example above, as long as all parts of all focus components are visible and not hidden by the sticky footer, it would meet the AAA standard.
2.4.13 Focus Appearance (AAA)
When the keyboard focus indicator is visible, an area of the focus indicator meets all the following:
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is at least as large as the area of a 2 CSS pixel thick perimeter of the unfocused component or sub-component, and
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has a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 between the same pixels in the focused and unfocused states
In addition to demonstrating success or failure for criterion 2.4.13, the image below also demonstrates a successful example of 2.4.12 (AAA) on the left and 2.4.11 (AA) on the right.

Example of how to meet 2.4.13 Focus Appearance Criteria
2.5.7 Dragging Movements (AA)
All functionality that uses a dragging movement for operation can be achieved by a single pointer without dragging unless dragging is essential or the functionality is determined by the user agent and not modified by the author.
Providing keyboard navigation as an alternative to requiring a pointer to be held and dragged would satisfy this requirement.

Example of Google Map’s Keyboard Shortcuts
2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) (AA)
The size of the target for pointer inputs is at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels (with some exceptions). If the element is smaller than 24 by 24 pixels, then there needs to be sufficient clearance between it and the next clickable item to reach that minimum.
Example of how to meet 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) Criteria
3.2.6 Consistent Help (A)
If a web page contains any of the following help mechanisms, and those mechanisms are repeated on multiple web pages within a set of web pages, they occur in the same relative order to other page content, unless a change is initiated by the user:
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Human contact details;
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Human contact mechanism;
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Self-help option;
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A fully automated contact mechanism.
In other words, if you have, for example, a “Contact Us” button in the bottom right corner of your homepage and plan to provide the same option on several other pages within your site, you should place the same button, in the same location, on every other included page to meet the standard for consistency.
3.3.7 Redundant Entry (A)
Information previously entered by or provided to the user that is required to be entered again in the same process is either:
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auto-populated, or
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available for the user to select (with some exceptions).
A simple way to meet the success criteria here is to store information during the session so that it does not need to be entered again or provide auto-populated choices where re-entry is required.
Another example would be including a checkbox to indicate that a billing address and mailing address are the same so the user doesn’t have to enter the same address information twice.
Example of how to meet 3.3.7 Redundant Entry Criteria
3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) (AA)
A cognitive function test (such as remembering a password or solving a puzzle) is not required for any step in an authentication process unless that step provides at least one of the following:
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Alternative – Another authentication method that does not rely on a cognitive function test.
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Mechanism – A mechanism is available to assist the user in completing the cognitive function test.
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Object Recognition – The cognitive function test is to recognize objects. Personal Content – The cognitive function test is to identify non-text content the user provided to the website.
A very simple way to meet the success criteria here is to allow for username and password to be copied and pasted from another source, or for a password manager to populate the information so that nothing has to be remembered by the user.
Additionally, if you require users to perform “I am not a robot”-style tasks such as Captcha, be sure to use object recognition images instead of deciphering altered numbers and letters to meet this criterion.
Do NOT use this:
Example of how NOT to meet 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) Criteria
Do this instead:
Example of how to meet 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) Criteria
3.3.9 Accessible Authentication (Enhanced) (AAA)
A cognitive function test (such as remembering a password or solving a puzzle) is not required for any step in an authentication process unless that step provides at least one of the following:
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Alternative – Another authentication method that does not rely on a cognitive function test.
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Mechanism – A mechanism is available to assist the user in completing the cognitive function test.
Complete guidance on these new success criteria, including how to implement them can be found on the W3C website.
Next Steps
Accessibility and ADA Compliance are critical aspects of the designs of your website and mobile apps, not just legally, but from a business perspective as well.
The guidance available through WCAG 2.2 provides all of the minimum criteria for ensuring that everyone, regardless of disability, has access to your digital space, but it is up to you to ensure that your site and apps are up to date based on the new standards.
If you need help making sure your website and apps are compliant with the new guidelines or have questions about what to do, reach out to a marketing agency professional. Pierson Media is here to help. Let’s grow your business together. https://piersonmedia.com