Accessibility compliance

Practical accessibility patterns for journalism and academic web publishing.

When to activate

• Building or auditing news websites
• Writing alt text for article images
• Creating accessible data visualizations
• Developing tools that journalists use
• Ensuring multimedia content is accessible
• Meeting legal accessibility requirements
• Publishing academic content online

WCAG essentials for news sites

WCAG 2.2 became a W3C Recommendation in October 2023 and is backwards-compatible with 2.1. Targeting 2.2 AA is the right default for new work; 2.1 AA remains the floor in most legal regimes (see "Legal requirements" below).

WCAG 2.2 added nine criteria over 2.1. Most relevant for news sites: 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) AA — interactive targets at least 24×24 CSS pixels; 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) AA — focused element not fully hidden by sticky headers / chat widgets; 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication AA — no cognitive function tests (e.g., transcribing distorted text) without an alternative; 3.3.7 Redundant Entry A — don't ask users to re-enter the same data within a session.