Conformance level

Every success criterion in WCAG 2.2 carries one of three levels, and the level is a property of the criterion rather than a score anybody earns. Contrast (Minimum), 1.4.3, is AA. Contrast (Enhanced), 1.4.6, is AAA. Non-text Content, 1.1.1, is A. Claiming a conformance level means claiming that the page satisfies every criterion at that level and at every level below it, so an AA claim covers all the A criteria too. There is no partial credit in the standard: a page that misses one AA criterion does not conform at AA, however many others it passes.

The tiers are not a quality ladder, which is the misreading that causes the most trouble in practice. AAA is a different set of criteria, gathered because they could not be required of all content, and WCAG says plainly that AAA conformance is not recommended as a general policy for a whole site, because some content cannot satisfy every AAA criterion. Sign language interpretation for every prerecorded video, 1.2.6, is AAA for exactly that reason. So a team that meets a few AAA criteria has not reached a higher grade, it has done more than AA asked for in those places, which is worth doing and is not the same claim.

AA is the practical target because that is where regulation points. The tier you are being asked for is almost always AA on a specific version of WCAG, and the version matters: 2.2 added criteria that 2.1 does not have, including Target Size (Minimum), 2.5.8, at AA. The design consequences show up early. Body text at 4.5 to 1 and large text at 3 to 1 is 1.4.3 at AA, interface components and graphics at 3 to 1 is non-text contrast 1.4.11 at AA, reflow at 1.4.10 and text spacing at 1.4.12 are both AA, and a visible focus ring is Focus Visible 2.4.7 at AA. Note that APCA, the contrast model being explored for the next generation of the guidelines, is not a WCAG 2.2 conformance method: a design tuned to it still has to pass 1.4.3 to make an AA claim.

WCAG 3 will change the shape of all this, but not yet. It is still a Working Draft, its conformance model is one of the open questions its editors are asking reviewers about, and the bronze, silver, and gold ratings floated in an earlier draft are not in the current one. Anyone writing a target into a contract today is writing a WCAG 2.2 level. The other half of the standard’s vocabulary worth knowing when reading a claim is the accessibility supported requirement and the full pages rule: conformance is claimed for whole pages, so a component library cannot conform on its own, which is why a design system’s own claim is always about what it makes possible rather than what a product has achieved.