Accessibility conversations usually start with risk — a lawsuit, an audit, a procurement requirement — but the stronger long-term argument is the one that rarely gets made: accessible products reach more people and cost less to maintain.
WCAG 2.2 added nine new success criteria on top of 2.1, with a particular focus on cognitive…
Roughly one in six people globally live with some form of disability, and that doesn’t count…
Section 508 governs US federal procurement — if you sell to US government agencies,…
WCAG 2.2 added nine new success criteria on top of 2.1, with a particular focus on cognitive accessibility, mobile interaction patterns, and authentication. Focus Not Obscured, Dragging Movements, Target Size (Minimum), and Accessible Authentication are the ones most product teams encounter first — they affect everyday UI decisions like modal placement, drag-and-drop interactions, and tap target sizing, not just screen-reader edge cases.
Roughly one in six people globally live with some form of disability, and that doesn’t count the much larger group affected by situational or temporary limitations — a broken arm, bright sunlight on a phone screen, a noisy environment that makes audio content unusable. Accessible design decisions — sufficient contrast, resizable text, captions, logical keyboard navigation — make products easier to use for everyone in those conditions, not just permanent assistive-technology users.
An initial WCAG audit against a representative set of key user flows — not the whole site at once — gives you a prioritized, evidence-backed remediation list rather than a vague sense that “accessibility needs work.” From there, VPAT® / ACR preparation turns that audit into the document your enterprise customers and procurement teams are actually asking for.
Yes, Level AA is the target referenced by most legal frameworks, government requirements and procurement standards, including Section 508 and most ADA settlements. Level AAA is rarely required in full and some AAA criteria aren’t achievable for all content types.
VPAT® (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) is the standardized template; ACR (Accessibility Conformance Report) is the completed document produced from it for a specific product. People often use the terms interchangeably, but the ACR is the deliverable procurement teams actually request.
No. Automated tools reliably catch roughly a third of WCAG success criteria — contrast ratios, missing alt text, form labeling. Keyboard navigation logic, focus order, and meaningful screen-reader experience require manual testing by someone using assistive technology.