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Making the Web Accessible

Strategies, standards, and supporting resources to help you make the Web more accessible to people with disabilities.

W3C

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops international standards for the Web: HTML, CSS, and many more.

WAI

The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops standards and support materials to help you understand and implement accessibility.

You

You can use W3C WAI resources to make your websites, applications, and other digital creations more accessible and usable to everyone.

  News

WCAG 2.1 adopted in European standard EN 301 549 for ICT

European standard EN 301 549 “Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services” is updated to adopt Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 for information and communications technology (ICT) including:

  • web content
  • electronic documents
  • non-web software, such as native mobile apps

See more information in the blog post WCAG 2.1 Adoption in Europe.

(2018-09-13)

WCAG 2.1 in Italian: Authorized Translation Published

Linee guida per l'accessibilità dei contenuti Web (WCAG) 2.1, the Italian Authorized Translation of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, is now available, following completion of the W3C Authorized Translations process. WAI encourages translating WAI documents in all languages. See:

(2018-09-13)

Judy Brewer Receives 2018 SIGACCESS Award

Judy Brewer, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Director at W3C/MIT, received the SIGACCESS Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility Award for 2018. The award recognizes individuals who have made significant and lasting contributions to the development of computing technologies that improve the accessibility of media and services to people with disabilities. For more information, see Judy Brewer: Outstanding Contribution Recipient 2018 and SIGACCESS Outstanding Contribution Award.

(2018-07-27)

For Review: Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA Working Draft

Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA is being reviesd and updated. A Working Draft is available for review. Since the last publication, the abilities of robots to defeat CAPTCHAs has increased, and new technologies to authenticate human users have come available. This update brings the document up to date with these new realities. For more information, see the blog post Updated and extensively revised “Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA” Published. Please submit any comments by 31 July 2018.

(2018-07-03)

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Web Accessibility Perspectives: Keyboard Compatibility

All functionality must be usable with the keyboard. That is, users can access links, buttons, forms, and other controls using the Tab key and other keystrokes. Websites should not require a mouse.

Keyboard accessibility is essential for people with disabilities and benefits everyone in a variety of situations.

More About Keyboard Compatibility See All Perspectives Videos

Featured Resource: Accessibility Principles

The Accessibility Principles page introduces some of the web accessibility requirements for websites, web applications, browsers, and other tools. It provides references to the international standards from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and to stories of web users.

Accessibility Principles

Featured Resource: What's New in WCAG 2.1

WCAG 2.1 has 17 additional requirements (“success criteria”) that address mobile accessibility, people with low vision, and people with cognitive and learning disabilities. The What’s New in WCAG 2.1 page introduces the new success criteria. It includes quotes from personas to help you understand the issues.

What's New in WCAG 2.1

Sponsors and Funders

WAI is supported in part by the following organizations. Thank you!

WAI welcomes additional sponsors.