WCAG 2.1 A Standards

Single-A Overview

Media

• All images have a descriptive, unique ALT tag.
• Audio/video-only media has an alternate means to deliver content: a collapsible text-version, alternative caption/audio track, or a downloadable companion.
• Captions, a transcription, or descriptions are included within streaming media.
• Streaming audio does not start automatically without pause/play controls.
• Controls for auto-playing media have pause, stop, and hide controls.

Markup

• If present, the website uses Aria roles and HTML5 tags appropriately.
• Webpage makes sense if you view it after having turned off JS/CSS.
• A TITLE element is included to differentiate pages.
• The human language of the content on the page is declared.
• The page does not include any parsing errors and has “clean” code without extra, excess, or erroneous tags.

Design

• User Interface or content elements are differentiated through more than just color, such that colorblind individuals can differentiate and gain the intended meaning.
• When using TAB keys to navigate to form elements or links, there is a CSS Focus state (usually a semi-transparent outline) that shows what element the user is on.
• Content does not include a “flash” or “strobe” effect that covers the screen and lasts longer than 3 seconds.
• Text used in a hyperlink clearly describes what users might expect to find after clicking, unless the content found is intended to be obfuscated.
• When being targeted/navigated to by Focus, elements don’t change in function – they should act the same way as when using a mouse.

Forms

• Unless declared beforehand, entering content into a form doesn’t change that element.
• If an error is detected in a form it is identified & described – usually with an asterisk.
• Forms and UI elements can be programmatically determined and used without a keyboard and mouse. This typically means that elements include: name, roles, and value.
• User can navigate between form elements using the tab or arrow keys.

Navigation

• You can navigate and perform necessary actions on the website using just a keyboard.
• Add a “skip to content” button that can jump users past navigation to the main content.
• When tab or arrow navigating, focus states are displayed in a logical order.

Miscellaneous

• Reasonable accommodations for extending or bypassing time limits (such as “check out within 5 minutes” or “you will be logged out in 45 seconds”) are made, such as allowing the user to extend the time limit.