WCAG 2.2 AA checklist: all 55 Level A and AA criteria, with what changed from 2.1
A WCAG 2.2 AA checklist lists the 55 success criteria a product has to meet for Level AA: 31 at Level A and 24 at Level AA. Each one below has its number, its name and one line on what to check, grouped by the four WCAG principles. Six are marked New in 2.2, so the same list works as a WCAG 2.1 AA checklist. Each number links to the criterion’s own page.
In short
- WCAG 2.2 Level AA has 55 criteria: 31 at Level A and 24 at Level AA. Level AA includes every Level A criterion.
- The criteria sit under four principles: Perceivable (20), Operable (20), Understandable (13) and Robust (2).
- WCAG 2.2 adds six Level A and AA criteria and retires 4.1.1 Parsing. For a WCAG 2.1 AA checklist, skip the six and add 4.1.1.
- Check each criterion on every page and state people use, signed-in screens included, with a keyboard, a screen reader and 200% zoom.
- Automated checks find some failures. They can’t show that a criterion is met.
- Mark a criterion Supports only when a person has looked at the whole criterion. A finished checklist doesn’t show conformance.
What a WCAG 2.2 checklist covers
WCAG 2.2 is the current version of the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It became a W3C Recommendation on 5 October 2023. Each success criterion has a level: A, AA or AAA. A product meets Level AA when it meets every Level A and every Level AA criterion, so a WCAG 2.2 AA checklist holds 55 items. Level AAA isn’t on it: WCAG doesn’t recommend requiring it as a general policy for whole sites.
The criteria sit under four principles:
| Principle | What it asks | Criteria at A and AA |
|---|---|---|
| Perceivable | People can see or hear what’s there, in some form | 20 |
| Operable | People can use every control, by keyboard and by pointer | 20 |
| Understandable | Text, behavior and errors make sense | 13 |
| Robust | Assistive technology can read every part | 2 |
The plain words below are a summary. Each criterion’s full text, with its exceptions, is on its page and in the W3C’s Understanding documents.
How to use this checklist
- Cover the whole product. A criterion is met only if it’s met everywhere. Include signed-in screens, dialogs, error states and every step of a task, not just the home page.
- Use the tools people use. Check with a keyboard alone, a screen reader, 200% zoom and a 320-pixel-wide window. Several criteria can only be judged this way.
- Write down where. For each item, note the screens you checked and what you found. “Fails on the date picker in Scheduling” can be fixed; “some issues” can’t.
- Keep Supports for the whole criterion. A clean result from an automated check shows only that the tool found no failure. Mark an item Supports when a person has looked at the whole criterion, with the evidence open.
- Turn it into a report. An accessibility conformance report (ACR) gives each criterion a level (Supports, Partially Supports, Does Not Support, Not Applicable) and a remark. How to read and write an ACR.
A checklist is a working tool. Finishing it doesn’t show conformance, and it isn’t a report anyone else can check.
Perceivable: 20 criteria
| Criterion | Level | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1.1 Non-text Content | A | Every image, icon and image button has a text alternative that serves the same purpose. Decorative images are hidden from assistive technology. |
| 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded) | A | Recorded audio has a transcript. Silent video has a transcript or an audio track. |
| 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) | A | Recorded video with sound has accurate captions. |
| 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) | A | Recorded video has audio description, or a full text alternative of what’s said and shown. |
| 1.2.4 Captions (Live) | AA | Live video with sound has captions. |
| 1.2.5 Audio Description (Prerecorded) | AA | Recorded video describes what’s shown on screen and not said aloud. |
| 1.3.1 Info and Relationships | A | Headings, lists, tables and form labels that look like structure are marked up as that structure. |
| 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence | A | A screen reader reads the content in an order that keeps its meaning. |
| 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics | A | Instructions don’t depend only on shape, size, position or sound, such as “press the round button on the right”. |
| 1.3.4 Orientation | AA | Every screen works in portrait and landscape, unless one orientation is essential. |
| 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose | AA | Fields that ask for the person’s own details, such as name, email and address, carry the matching autocomplete value. |
| 1.4.1 Use of Color | A | Color is never the only way something is shown, such as which words are links or which field has an error. |
| 1.4.2 Audio Control | A | Audio that plays on its own for more than 3 seconds can be paused or stopped, or its volume set apart from the system volume. |
| 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) | AA | Text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 with its background, or 3:1 for large text. |
| 1.4.4 Resize text | AA | At 200% text size, nothing is cut off, overlapped or lost. |
| 1.4.5 Images of Text | AA | Text is real text, not a picture of text, except logos and similar. |
| 1.4.10 Reflow | AA | At 320 CSS pixels wide, content fits without scrolling in two directions, except parts such as data tables and maps. |
| 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast | AA | Control borders, focus indicators and meaningful graphics have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 with the colors next to them. |
| 1.4.12 Text Spacing | AA | With line, paragraph, letter and word spacing raised to the values WCAG gives, nothing is cut off or lost. |
| 1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus | AA | Tooltips and popovers can be dismissed without moving the pointer, can be hovered themselves, and stay until the person moves away or dismisses them. |
Operable: 20 criteria
| Criterion | Level | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1.1 Keyboard | A | Everything works with a keyboard alone. |
| 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap | A | Focus can always leave every component, dialogs and embedded players included. |
| 2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts | A | Single-key shortcuts can be turned off or remapped, or work only when their control has focus. |
| 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable | A | Every time limit can be turned off, adjusted or extended, with the exceptions WCAG lists. |
| 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide | A | Carousels, animation and auto-updating content that last more than 5 seconds can be paused, stopped or hidden. |
| 2.3.1 Three Flashes or Below Threshold | A | Nothing flashes more than three times in one second, unless the flash is below the general and red flash thresholds. |
| 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks | A | A skip link, landmarks or headings let people move past blocks repeated on every page. |
| 2.4.2 Page Titled | A | Each page’s title says what the page is, and changes when a single-page app changes view. |
| 2.4.3 Focus Order | A | Tabbing moves through each page in an order that keeps its meaning, including into and out of dialogs. |
| 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) | A | What each link is for is clear from its text, or from its text and the sentence around it. |
| 2.4.5 Multiple Ways | AA | There’s more than one way to reach a page, such as navigation and search, except steps in a process. |
| 2.4.6 Headings and Labels | AA | Headings and labels describe what they introduce. |
| 2.4.7 Focus Visible | AA | The element with keyboard focus always shows a visible indicator. |
| 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) | AA | New in 2.2. The element with keyboard focus is never entirely hidden, such as by a sticky header or a cookie banner. |
| 2.5.1 Pointer Gestures | A | Anything done with a pinch, a multi-finger gesture or a swipe along a path can also be done with a single tap or click. |
| 2.5.2 Pointer Cancellation | A | Actions run when the pointer is released, and can be cancelled by moving away before release. |
| 2.5.3 Label in Name | A | Each control’s accessible name contains its visible label, so people using voice control can say what they see. |
| 2.5.4 Motion Actuation | A | Anything triggered by shaking or tilting the device also has a control, and the motion response can be turned off. |
| 2.5.7 Dragging Movements | AA | New in 2.2. Anything done by dragging can also be done with single clicks or taps, unless dragging is essential. |
| 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) | AA | New in 2.2. Pointer targets are at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or have enough space around them, with exceptions such as links in a sentence. |
Understandable: 13 criteria
| Criterion | Level | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1.1 Language of Page | A | Each page sets its main language in code. |
| 3.1.2 Language of Parts | AA | A passage in another language sets its own language in code. |
| 3.2.1 On Focus | A | Moving focus to an element never opens a new page, submits a form or moves focus somewhere else on its own. |
| 3.2.2 On Input | A | Choosing an option or checking a box doesn’t change the context unless people were told first. |
| 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation | AA | Navigation repeated across pages stays in the same relative order. |
| 3.2.4 Consistent Identification | AA | Components that do the same job have the same label and icon on every page. |
| 3.2.6 Consistent Help | A | New in 2.2. Help offered on several pages, such as contact details or a chat, appears in the same relative order on each. |
| 3.3.1 Error Identification | A | When an input error is detected, the field is identified and the error is described in text. |
| 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions | A | Every field has a label or instructions, including any required format. |
| 3.3.3 Error Suggestion | AA | When the correction is known, the error message suggests it. |
| 3.3.4 Error Prevention (Legal, Financial, Data) | AA | Purchases, legal submissions and changes to stored data can be reversed, are checked for errors, or can be reviewed and confirmed before they’re final. |
| 3.3.7 Redundant Entry | A | New in 2.2. Within a process, information the person already gave is filled in or offered to choose, not asked for again. |
| 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) | AA | New in 2.2. Signing in doesn’t depend on remembering or transcribing something or solving a puzzle, unless there’s an alternative or help, such as a password manager filling it in. |
Robust: 2 criteria
| Criterion | Level | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value | A | Every control exposes its name, role and state to assistive technology, and announces changes to them. |
| 4.1.3 Status Messages | AA | Messages such as “Saved” or “3 results” are announced by a screen reader without moving focus. |
Retired in 2.2: 4.1.1 Parsing (Level A). WCAG 2.2 removed it, because browsers and assistive technology no longer depend on well-formed markup, so it has no row above. Reports against other standards still list it. Under WCAG 2.1, the W3C’s 2023 errata say to treat it as always satisfied for content in HTML or XML, and the ITI’s VPAT template answers it as Supports. Section 508 and EN 301 549 reports keep the row too: answer it with valid markup or the W3C’s note that browsers now handle it. 4.1.1 Parsing.
Checking against WCAG 2.1?
Use the same list with two changes:
- Skip the six rows marked New in 2.2: 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum), 2.5.7 Dragging Movements, 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum), 3.2.6 Consistent Help, 3.3.7 Redundant Entry and 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum). WCAG 2.1 doesn’t have them.
- Add 4.1.1 Parsing, which WCAG 2.1 still lists. Its errata say to treat it as always satisfied for HTML and XML.
That leaves 50 criteria: 30 at Level A and 20 at Level AA.
Many requests still name WCAG 2.1. EN 301 549, the European standard that EU public bodies and the European Accessibility Act rely on, requires WCAG 2.1 A and AA for web content. Contracts and procurement policies often name the version that was current when they were written. Use the version the request names. A product that meets 2.2 AA meets every 2.1 AA criterion except 4.1.1, which needs only the answer above. Section 508 and WCAG: what each asks, and where they differ.
What automated checks can and can’t do
The W3C puts it plainly: “Tools cannot check all accessibility aspects automatically. Human judgement is required.” A rule can measure a contrast ratio or spot an image with no text alternative. It can’t tell whether a text alternative says what the image is for, or whether focus moves in an order that makes sense.
Our own numbers, from Variantly’s criteria data on 18 October 2026:
- Our automated checks look for failures under 30 of the 55 criteria. The other 25 have no automated check at all.
- 11 rows start with a rule check over every captured state, 34 start with a proposal from a model that reads the evidence, and 10 start with a person, because the answer depends on something the pages can’t show on their own.
- No row is marked Supports from a clean check alone. A person rates it with the issues open.
Questions people ask
How many criteria are in WCAG 2.2 AA?
55: 31 at Level A and 24 at Level AA. WCAG 2.2 has 86 criteria in all; the other 31 are Level AAA.
How many criteria are in WCAG 2.1 AA?
50: 30 at Level A and 20 at Level AA. That’s this list without the six rows new in 2.2, plus 4.1.1 Parsing.
Does finishing this checklist show that a product conforms?
No. A checklist records what someone checked. Conformance means every criterion is met on every page, and the evidence for that is the work behind each line: which screens, which tools, and who looked. An accessibility conformance report (ACR) states it per criterion, with a remark.
Should I use WCAG 2.1 or 2.2?
Use the version the request names. If it names none, 2.2 is the current W3C Recommendation, and meeting 2.2 AA covers every 2.1 AA criterion except 4.1.1.
Can an automated scan complete the checklist?
No. Automated checks find some failures, on every page they reach. Many criteria need a person: whether a text alternative fits its image, whether focus order keeps meaning, whether an error message helps. A clean scan shows only that the tool found no failure.
Is WCAG 2.2 AA the same as Section 508?
No. Section 508 adopts WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA by reference and adds requirements for documents, software and support. Meeting 2.2 AA covers the WCAG criteria 508 asks of web content, except the 4.1.1 row a 508 report still lists.
Sources
- W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, What’s New in WCAG 2.2
- W3C, WCAG 2.1 Errata
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, what accessibility tools can and can’t check