Somewhere on your website right now, there is a button someone cannot press. Maybe it is the tiny “X” on a popup that a visitor with shaky hands keeps missing. Maybe it is a login screen asking someone with memory trouble to solve a puzzle before they can pay a bill. Maybe it is a menu that simply vanishes when a person tries to use it without a mouse.

None of these visitors will email you about it. They will just leave, and you will never know why.

WCAG 2.2 was written for exactly these moments. It is the newest version of the world’s web accessibility guidelines, and this WCAG 2.2 checklist walks you through it in plain English: what the rules actually ask for, what changed in the latest update, and how to check your own site without needing a technical background.

First, What Is WCAG 2.2?

WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Think of it as the building code for websites. A physical building code says doorways must be wide enough for wheelchairs and stairwells need handrails. WCAG says text needs enough contrast to read, buttons need to be reachable by keyboard, and images need descriptions for people who cannot see them.

The guidelines come in versions, and each new version adds to the last without erasing anything. WCAG 2.0 arrived in 2008. WCAG 2.1 added rules for mobile devices and low vision in 2018. WCAG 2.2, published in October 2023, is the current version, and it added nine new requirements focused heavily on people with motor and cognitive disabilities.

Each version also has three levels: A (the bare minimum), AA (the standard nearly every law and contract points to), and AAA (the gold standard, rarely required in full). When someone says “WCAG compliant,” they almost always mean Level AA. That is the level this checklist targets.

What’s New in WCAG 2.2 (and Why It’s Good News)

The nice thing about the 2.2 update is that every new rule solves a frustration you have probably felt yourself. Here is what the new requirements ask for, translated out of standards language:

• Buttons big enough to tap. Clickable targets need a minimum size (roughly the size of a fingertip), so people with tremors, arthritis, or just large thumbs can hit them reliably.
• No drag-only actions. If your site makes people drag a slider or drag-and-drop items, there must be a simpler alternative like a button or a text field. Dragging is very hard for many people with motor disabilities.
• Logins without memory puzzles. Signing in cannot depend on remembering things, retyping codes, or solving certain puzzles. Password managers and “paste” must work.
• No forcing people to repeat themselves. If someone already typed their address on step one of your form, step three should not make them type it again.
• Help stays in the same place. If you offer a help link, phone number, or chat widget, it should appear in a consistent spot on every page so people can find it when they need it.
• The keyboard focus stays visible. When someone navigates with the Tab key, the highlight showing where they are must be clearly visible and never hidden behind sticky headers or popups.

Notice a theme? These are not obscure technical rules. They are basic courtesy, written down. That is a good way to think about the whole checklist below.

The WCAG 2.2 Website Audit Checklist

A full WCAG 2.2 AA audit covers more than fifty individual requirements. You do not need to memorize them. What you need is a way to organize the work, and six sections cover it. This is the same structure our team uses when we audit websites by hand.

1. Can people see it clearly?

Start with the basics of vision. Text needs strong contrast against its background, light gray text on a white page fails for millions of people with low vision, and honestly strains everyone’s eyes. Your text should also survive being enlarged: zoom your browser to 200 percent and make sure nothing overlaps, disappears, or gets cut off.

Finally, color can never be the only way you communicate something. If your form shows errors only by turning a field red, a colorblind visitor sees nothing wrong. Add an icon and a written message.

2. Does everything work with a keyboard?

Many people cannot use a mouse, because of tremors, paralysis, repetitive strain injuries, or because they navigate by screen reader. For all of them, the keyboard is the front door. Press the Tab key and try to do everything a customer would do: open the menu, search, fill out your contact form, complete a purchase.

Three things to watch for: every interactive element must be reachable, you must always be able to see where you are (that visible focus outline), and nothing should trap you, if you can open a popup with the keyboard but cannot close it, that is a failure.

3. Does it pass the new 2.2 requirements?

This is the section most older audits miss, because the rules did not exist before late 2023. Check your buttons and links for size, small icon buttons crowded together are the most common failure. Check any feature that requires dragging. And walk through your login: if it blocks pasting passwords or makes people re-enter information they already gave, it needs attention.

If your site was audited against WCAG 2.1 a couple of years ago, this section is your gap. Everything else carried over; these rules are new homework.

4. Is it easy to understand?

Structure matters as much as looks. Pages need real headings in a logical order, so people using screen readers can skim the way sighted visitors do. Form fields need clear labels, “Email address,” not a hint that disappears the moment you start typing. Error messages should say what went wrong and how to fix it, not just “invalid input.”

Consistency counts here too. Navigation should stay in the same place on every page, and as of 2.2, so should your help options.

5. Do images and media carry their weight?

Every meaningful image needs alt text, a short written description that screen readers speak aloud. A photo of your storefront might be “Our shop entrance on Main Street with a wheelchair ramp.” Decorative flourishes can be marked so screen readers skip them entirely.

Videos need captions for people who cannot hear them. And avoid locking important text inside images, where it cannot be enlarged, translated, or read aloud.

6. Did you test like a person, not just a program?

Automated scanners are a useful first pass, they catch missing alt text, weak contrast, and unlabeled fields in seconds. But they can only detect a fraction of WCAG issues, because most requirements involve judgment. A scanner can confirm an image has alt text; it cannot tell you the alt text says “IMG_4092.jpg.”

So finish every audit the human way: complete real tasks with only a keyboard, listen to a page through a screen reader, and try your forms the way a first-time visitor would. Then put a repeat on the calendar, quarterly is a healthy rhythm, because every site update can quietly introduce new barriers.

How to Run Your Own Mini-Audit This Week

You do not need to boil the ocean. Here is a starter version you can do in an afternoon, no tools required beyond a browser:

1. Pick your five most important pages. Usually the homepage, your main service or product page, the contact form, and wherever people pay or sign up.
2. Do the keyboard test. Unplug your mouse and complete one real task on each page using only Tab, Enter, and the arrow keys.
3. Do the zoom test. Enlarge each page to 200 percent and look for anything that breaks or disappears.
4. Do the squint test. Step back and squint at the screen. If any text fades into its background, your contrast is too weak.
5. Write down everything that annoyed you. If it annoyed you, it is likely blocking someone else entirely. That list is the start of your remediation plan.

This will not catch everything, nothing short of a full manual audit will, but it reliably surfaces the loudest problems. If you want to understand what a professional version involves and costs, we have broken down website accessibility audit pricing and the full remediation process in plain terms.

Is WCAG 2.2 Legally Required?

Here is the honest answer: most U.S. laws currently point at slightly older versions. The Department of Justice rule for state and local governments requires WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Section 508, which covers federal agencies, points to WCAG 2.0 AA. Courts hearing ADA website lawsuits routinely treat WCAG AA as the benchmark.

So why audit against 2.2? Because the versions nest inside each other. A site that meets WCAG 2.2 AA automatically meets 2.1 AA and 2.0 AA, every requirement from the older versions is still in there. Auditing against the current version means you satisfy every law on the books today and you are already standing where the regulations are headed. Nobody has ever regretted being slightly ahead of a compliance deadline.

And beyond the legal question: the people the 2.2 rules help, older adults, people with tremors, people with cognitive disabilities, are already on your website today. The law is the floor, not the point.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between WCAG 2.1 and 2.2?

WCAG 2.2 keeps everything from 2.1 and adds nine new requirements, mostly helping people with motor and cognitive disabilities: minimum button sizes, alternatives to dragging, accessible logins, no repeated data entry, consistent help placement, and stronger rules for keeping the keyboard focus visible. One outdated technical rule from 2.1 (called “parsing”) was retired because modern browsers made it unnecessary.

Do automated checkers cover the whole checklist?

No. Automated tools typically detect only a minority of WCAG issues, the ones with yes-or-no answers a program can verify. Whether your reading order makes sense, your alt text is meaningful, or your forms are usable requires human judgment. Use a scanner for the first pass, then verify by hand.

How often should we audit our website?

Do a full audit when you first commit to accessibility or after any redesign, then lighter quarterly checks. Websites are living things, every new page, plugin, or campaign can introduce new barriers. A quarterly rhythm catches problems while they are still small.

Get a Clear Answer About Your Website

A checklist tells you what to look for. It cannot tell you what your site actually does when a screen reader hits your checkout page, only testing can do that. Our team runs full manual WCAG 2.2 AA audits and fixes what we find, and everything starts in our web accessibility workspace, where you can see exactly what we check and why.

If you want to know where your website stands today, request a free audit and we will show you, in plain English, with no scare tactics. You can also review our pricing up front, because surprises belong in birthday parties, not invoices.