The World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are used for making sure browser-based apps and services are conformant to industry standards.

Apps and services developed across the Intelligence Community must meet WCAG 2.2 Level A and Level AA criteria. Where possible, try to meet Level AAA too.

Being fully conformant to WCAG doesn't guarantee that your app or service is accessible to everyone. We use it as a good minimum standard, supported by enhanced requirements and responsive reporting processes.

Where applicable, there are around 70 criteria that an app or service needs to meet. Meeting them means the app or service is accessible in a number of ways and is generally implemented to accepted standards. You still need to do other manual and automated testing .

The Web Accessibility Initative (WAI) has good documentation on How to Meet WCAG for each criterion.

An Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) is a checklist you can use to measure conformance to the WCAG standards.

Completing this will give you the documentation that's required by the Digital Accessibility Policy .

WCAG is based on four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust.

People will use your app in different ways, including ways you didn't plan for. They may use a sense other than sight to browse. People may rely on assistive technology to present information in a different way, such as a screen reader or braille display.

WCAG works to make sure your app is presented to assistive technologies in a way that gives a comparable experience to people who use them.

When people can perceive your app, they need to be able to do something with it. Some people may have difficulties interacting with the keyboard or mouse due to motor difficulties. They may use one or the other, or another mechanism such as speech.

WCAG checks for good keyboard navigation, no time limits and standard-compliant form fields.

Once your app is perceivable and operable, make sure what is shown is understandable. An app that behaves unexpectedly or inconsistently is one that might stop people from understanding what it is or how to use it.

WCAG checks that you use clear language in a way that signposts functionality. It also checks content for a hierarchy to make sure people who may not see your app can understand it.

Standards such as WCAG, HTML5, CSS3 and good coding practices ensure technologies don't struggle with your service. Consider that when assistive technology fails, it's not always obvious to the user that something has ‘gone wrong’.

WCAG checks some basic coding standards to make sure assistive technology can interact with your capability.

WCAG has three levels of conformance. The higher level of conformance your service has, the more people will benefit.

The impact of Level A criteria might be barely visible in an interface but Level AAA criteria will have a significant impact on the design.