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WCAG Levels Explained
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WCAG Levels Explained

Overview

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) define three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA. Understanding these levels helps you set appropriate accessibility goals for your projects and interpret CodeFrog’s accessibility test results.

What is WCAG?

WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is an international standard published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that provides guidelines for making web content accessible to people with disabilities. The current version is WCAG 2.1, with WCAG 2.2 in development.

The Three Conformance Levels

Level A: Minimum

Level A represents the minimum level of accessibility. Meeting Level A means your website is accessible to some users with disabilities, but may still have significant barriers for others.

Key Level A Requirements:

When to Target Level A:

Note: Level A alone is typically not sufficient for legal compliance in most jurisdictions.

Level AA is the most commonly targeted conformance level and is often required by law in many countries, including:

Key Level AA Requirements:

When to Target Level AA:

Legal Compliance: Level AA is typically the target for legal compliance. Many organizations are required to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards.

Level AAA: Enhanced

Level AAA represents the highest level of accessibility conformance. While it’s the gold standard, achieving full AAA compliance can be challenging and may not be practical for all content types.

Key Level AAA Requirements:

When to Target Level AAA:

Important Limitations:

How CodeFrog Tests WCAG Levels

CodeFrog uses axe-core, the industry-leading automated accessibility testing engine, to test your websites for WCAG compliance. Our testing covers all three WCAG levels.

What Gets Tested

When you run an accessibility scan, CodeFrog tests for violations across:

Understanding WCAG Ratings in Results

After running an accessibility scan, CodeFrog displays a WCAG Rating that shows which level your page passes based on automated testing:

Example:

Important Note: Automated testing can return A or AA ratings (never AAA), but full WCAG A, AA, or AAA conformance cannot be achieved with automated testing alone. Manual testing with assistive technologies (screen readers, keyboard navigation, etc.) is required for full conformance at any level. According to Deque (makers of axe-core), automated tests find less than 60% of accessibility issues on average. CodeFrog’s automated testing helps identify many issues, but should be combined with manual testing for complete WCAG compliance.

What CodeFrog Checks

CodeFrog’s accessibility testing checks for:

Color and Contrast:

Keyboard Navigation:

ARIA and Semantics:

Images and Media:

Forms:

Document Structure:

Interpreting Your Results

WCAG Rating

The WCAG rating indicates the highest level your page passes based on automated testing. This is calculated by:

  1. Checking if there are any Level A violations
  2. If no Level A violations, checking for Level AA violations
  3. If no Level AA violations, the rating is “AA” (automated testing never returns AAA)
  4. The rating is the highest automated level (A or AA) with no violations

Limitation of Automated Testing: It’s important to understand that automated testing can return A or AA ratings (never AAA), but full WCAG A, AA, or AAA conformance cannot be achieved with automated testing alone. Manual testing with assistive technologies is required to achieve full compliance at any level. Automated tools like CodeFrog can identify many issues, but they cannot catch all accessibility problems. For example, automated tests may miss issues related to:

For more information about the limitations of automated accessibility testing, see the Deque automated accessibility coverage report.

Health Score

In addition to the WCAG rating, CodeFrog provides an A-F health score based on the severity of findings:

The health score and WCAG rating work together to give you a complete picture:

Finding Details

Each finding in your results includes:

Best Practices

1. Target Level AA for Most Projects

For most websites and applications, Level AA is the recommended target because:

2. Test Early and Often

Run accessibility scans during development, not just before launch:

3. Combine Automated and Manual Testing

While CodeFrog catches many issues automatically, manual testing is essential:

4. Prioritize by Severity

When fixing issues:

  1. Critical and High severity issues first
  2. Level A violations before Level AA
  3. Level AA violations before Level AAA
  4. Focus on issues that affect the most users

5. Understand Automated Testing Limitations

Remember that:

Common Questions

Can I achieve WCAG A, AA, or AAA with CodeFrog alone?

No. While CodeFrog can test for many WCAG rules at all levels (A, AA, and AAA), full conformance at any level requires manual testing. Automated testing alone cannot fully verify WCAG compliance because:

Full WCAG conformance requires:

CodeFrog helps you identify and fix many issues automatically, but manual testing is essential for full compliance at any WCAG level.

What if I have AAA violations but pass AA?

That’s normal! Your WCAG rating will show “WCAG AA” if you have no A or AA violations but some AAA violations. This means you meet the standard level (AA) but not the enhanced level (AAA).

Should I fix all AAA violations?

Not necessarily. Consider:

How do I know which level to target?

External Resources