All 55 Level A and AA criteria, in plain language.

Every image, icon, chart, and control that isn't text needs a text alternative that serves the same purpose. Purely decorative images need to be marked so assistive technology skips them.

Where it fails: Alt text that describes the file rather than the meaning — "chart.png" instead of what the chart says — and icon-only buttons with no accessible name.

Prerecorded audio needs a transcript. Prerecorded video with no audio needs either a transcript or an audio description of what happens.

Where it fails: Podcast episodes and silent explainer videos published with no transcript at all.

Prerecorded video with sound needs accurate captions, including speaker identification and meaningful non-speech audio.

Where it fails: Relying on auto-generated captions without correcting them — names, jargon, and numbers are exactly what auto-captioning gets wrong.

Visual information in a video that isn't conveyed by the audio needs either an audio description or a full text alternative.

Where it fails: A demo video where the narrator says "click here and you'll see this" — with no description of what "this" is.

Live audio content in synchronized media needs real-time captions.

Where it fails: Streamed council meetings, webinars, and town halls published live with no CART or live captioning arranged.

At Level AA, prerecorded video needs an actual audio description track for visual content the narration doesn't cover — a text alternative alone no longer satisfies it.

Where it fails: Assuming captions cover this. Captions serve deaf users; audio description serves blind users. They're different obligations.

Structure that's visually obvious — headings, lists, tables, labels, groups — has to exist in the markup too, not just in the styling.

Where it fails: The single most-cited criterion in audits. Bold text standing in for headings, layout tables, and form labels that are just text sitting next to an input.

When reading order matters, the order in the code has to match the order a sighted user perceives.

Where it fails: CSS grid or flexbox reordering that makes the visual sequence differ from the DOM, so screen reader users hear content in a nonsensical order.

Instructions can't rely only on shape, size, position, or sound to identify something.

Where it fails: "Click the round button on the right" or "see the box below" — useless to anyone not perceiving the layout visually.

Content can't be locked to portrait or landscape unless a specific orientation is essential.

Where it fails: Mobile views that force rotation, which blocks users whose device is mounted to a wheelchair in a fixed orientation.

Fields collecting information about the user — name, email, address, phone — need programmatic autocomplete values so browsers and assistive tools can fill or relabel them.

Where it fails: Custom-built forms with no autocomplete attributes, forcing manual entry for users who depend on autofill.

Color can't be the only way you convey information, indicate an action, or mark an error.

Where it fails: Required fields shown only in red, chart series distinguished only by color, and links inside text that are colored but not underlined.

Audio that plays automatically for more than three seconds needs a way to pause, stop, or control its volume independently.

Where it fails: Background video with sound that starts on load, drowning out a screen reader the user cannot then hear to find the pause control.

Normal text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background; large text (18pt, or 14pt bold) needs 3:1.

Where it fails: Light gray body text, white text on brand colors that were chosen for the logo rather than for reading, and text over photographic backgrounds.

Text has to scale to 200% without losing content or breaking functionality.

Where it fails: Fixed-height containers that clip text when it grows, and buttons whose labels overflow and become unreadable.

Use real text rather than pictures of text, except for logos and cases where a specific presentation is essential.

Where it fails: Campaign graphics, infographics, and price tables published as flat images — unreadable at zoom and invisible to search.

Content has to reflow into a single column at 320 CSS pixels wide (equivalent to 400% zoom) without requiring scrolling in two directions.

Where it fails: Wide data tables and fixed-width layouts that force horizontal scrolling for low-vision users working at high zoom.

Interface components and meaningful graphics need at least 3:1 contrast against what's adjacent to them.

Where it fails: Input borders and toggle states rendered in pale gray, and focus indicators that don't contrast with the background they sit on.

No content or function may be lost when users override line height, paragraph spacing, letter spacing, and word spacing.

Where it fails: Fixed-height buttons and cards where increased line spacing pushes text out of its container or behind other elements.

Content that appears on hover or focus must be dismissible, hoverable, and persistent until dismissed.

Where it fails: Tooltips and dropdown menus that vanish the moment the pointer moves toward them, so a magnifier user can never read them.

Everything that can be done with a mouse must be doable with a keyboard alone.

Where it fails: Custom controls built from div and span elements with click handlers and no keyboard event handling, tab index, or role.

If keyboard focus can move into a component, it has to be able to move out again using the keyboard.

Where it fails: Modal dialogs and embedded media players that swallow focus, leaving keyboard users stuck until they reload the page.

Single-character keyboard shortcuts must be able to be turned off, remapped, or limited to when a component has focus.

Where it fails: Application shortcuts that fire while a speech-input user is dictating into a field, triggering unintended actions.

Time limits need to be turned off, adjusted, or extendable — with a warning and at least 20 seconds to respond.

Where it fails: Session timeouts on banking, benefits, and patient portals that expire silently and discard everything the user entered.

Moving, blinking, scrolling, or auto-updating content lasting more than five seconds needs a user control to pause or stop it.

Where it fails: Homepage hero carousels that rotate automatically with no pause button — a focus and cognitive barrier as well as a WCAG failure.

Nothing may flash more than three times per second unless it stays below defined flash thresholds.

Where it fails: Rare, but severe when present — animated advertising and video content that can trigger photosensitive seizures.

Users need a way to skip past navigation and other content repeated on every page.

Where it fails: No skip link and no landmark regions, so a keyboard user tabs through 40 navigation links on every single page.

Every page needs a title that describes its topic or purpose.

Where it fails: Every page in a web application titled with the product name alone, giving no orientation when tabbing between windows.

Focus has to move in an order that preserves meaning and operability.

Where it fails: Positive tabindex values, and modals that open without moving focus into them — so the next Tab continues behind the overlay.

The purpose of each link has to be determinable from its text, or from its text together with its immediate context.

Where it fails: A page of twelve identical "Read more" links, which a screen reader user encounters as a list of twelve identical destinations.

There needs to be more than one way to find a page — search, a sitemap, or a navigation index — unless the page is a step in a process.

Where it fails: Deep content reachable only by navigating a multi-level menu, with no search and no sitemap.

Headings and labels must actually describe the topic or purpose of what they introduce.

Where it fails: Generic headings like "More information" and form labels like "Field 3" that technically exist but convey nothing.

Keyboard focus has to be visible. Always.

Where it fails: A stylesheet containing `outline: none` with nothing replacing it — the most common and most consequential single line in web accessibility.

When an element receives keyboard focus, it can't be entirely hidden behind other content.

Where it fails: Sticky headers, cookie banners, and chat widgets that cover the focused element, so keyboard users can't see where they are.

Any multipoint or path-based gesture needs a single-pointer alternative.

Where it fails: Maps, sliders, and image galleries operable only by pinch or swipe, with no buttons doing the same job.

Actions should complete on release, not on press, so a user who lands on the wrong control can move off and cancel.

Where it fails: Controls wired to mousedown that fire irreversibly the instant they're touched.

A control's accessible name has to contain the text that's visible on it, so speech-input users can say what they see.

Where it fails: A button reading "Submit application" with an aria-label of "Send" — the voice command matching the visible text does nothing.

Functions triggered by device motion or gestures need a conventional control alternative, and motion actuation must be able to be disabled.

Where it fails: Shake-to-undo and tilt-to-navigate with no button equivalent, which excludes users with tremor or a mounted device.

Anything operated by dragging needs a single-pointer alternative that doesn't require dragging.

Where it fails: Kanban boards, reorderable lists, and range sliders with drag as the only way to change a value.

Interactive targets need to be at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or have enough spacing around them to reach that effective size.

Where it fails: Tightly packed icon rows, small close buttons, and pagination links crammed together on mobile.

The default human language of each page has to be declared in the markup.

Where it fails: A missing or wrong lang attribute, which makes a screen reader pronounce the entire page with the wrong voice and rules.

Passages in a different language than the page default need to be marked as such.

Where it fails: Spanish-language service information embedded in an English page with no lang attribute on the section.

Moving focus to a component must not by itself cause a change of context.

Where it fails: Focusing a select element that immediately navigates to a new page before the user has chosen anything.

Changing a setting must not automatically change context unless the user was warned beforehand.

Where it fails: Forms that auto-submit when the last field is filled, or dropdowns that navigate on selection with no Go button.

Navigation repeated across pages has to stay in the same relative order.

Where it fails: Department microsites that reorder the global navigation, so the pattern a user learned no longer holds.

Components with the same function have to be identified consistently across the site.

Where it fails: The same action labeled "Search," "Find," and "Look up" in three places, or the same icon meaning different things.

If help is available — contact details, a chat option, a help link — it has to appear in the same relative place on every page that offers it.

Where it fails: Support links that move between the header, the footer, and a floating widget depending on which section you're in.

When an input error is detected, the item in error must be identified and described in text.

Where it fails: Red outlines with no message, and error summaries that appear visually but are never announced to assistive technology.

Inputs need labels or instructions — including format requirements the user can't guess.

Where it fails: Placeholder text used as the only label, which disappears the moment typing starts and often fails contrast anyway.

If you know how to fix the error, say so — unless doing that would compromise security.

Where it fails: "Invalid input" with no indication of what format was expected or which of nine fields is the problem.

Submissions with legal or financial consequence must be reversible, checked, or confirmable before they're final.

Where it fails: Payment, benefits application, and permit submissions that commit instantly with no review step.

Information the user already entered in the same process has to be auto-populated or available to select — not retyped.

Where it fails: Multi-step applications that ask for the same address three times across four steps.

Logging in can't require a cognitive function test — remembering, transcribing, or solving a puzzle — unless an alternative exists or the field supports password managers.

Where it fails: Blocking paste in password fields, and image-recognition CAPTCHA with no non-cognitive alternative.

Every interactive component must expose its name, its role, and its current state to assistive technology.

Where it fails: Custom toggles, tabs, and comboboxes that look right and announce as nothing — or as "clickable" with no state.

Status updates that don't take focus — results counts, cart confirmations, validation success — must still be announced.

Where it fails: "Added to cart" and "12 results found" rendered visually with no live region, so screen reader users never learn anything happened.