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Articles about WCAG, the European Accessibility Act, and practical tips for developers and content creators.
SC 2.4.3 - What does "Focus Order" mean?
You tab through a form. Name, then email, then suddenly the footer, then back up to the phone number. Nothing is broken exactly. Every field is reachable. But you have lost track of where you are and what you have already filled in.
SC 2.4.6 - What does "Headings and Labels" mean?
You open a page and the first heading is “Overview”. Overview of what? You scroll and find “Details”, “More information” and “Other”. Not one of them tells you what is in the section. You have to read everything to find out what the page is about.
SC 2.4.7 - What does "Focus Visible" mean?
Imagine filling in a form with your mouse, except the cursor is invisible. You click somewhere and hope you hit the right field. Nobody would ship that.
SC 2.5.3 - What does "Label in Name" mean?
Somebody using voice control looks at your page, sees a button that says “Send”, and says “click Send”. Nothing happens.
SC 2.5.8 - What does "Target Size (Minimum)" mean?
A 16 pixel cross to dismiss a notification. Pagination numbers packed edge to edge. A row of tiny icons in the footer. If your hand shakes, or your fingers are broad, or you are on a moving train, those targets are close to unhittable. And when you miss, you usually hit the one next to it. WCAG says: a clickable target is at least 24 by 24 pixels, or has enough empty space around it.
SC 3.1.1 - What does "Language of Page" mean?
A screen reader pronounces your text using the language the page declares. Put the wrong one there and an English voice reads your Dutch page out loud. Not translated, just pronounced with English rules, which produces something close to noise.
SC 3.1.2 - What does "Language of Parts" mean?
Most pages are written in one language, with the occasional passage in another: a quote, a product name, a phrase the industry never bothered to translate. If you do not say where the language changes, a screen reader keeps applying the wrong pronunciation rules and the passage comes out as noise.
SC 3.3.1 - What does "Error Identification" mean?
You fill in a form, press send, and the page comes back with something highlighted in red. Somewhere. You scroll, you squint, you compare fields. Eventually you find it, or you give up and phone.
SC 3.3.2 - What does "Labels or Instructions" mean?
You open a form with five fields. No labels, just grey example text that vanishes the moment you start typing. Halfway down you no longer remember what the first field wanted. A couple of fields have an asterisk and nothing on the page says what it means.
SC 3.3.8 - What does "Accessible Authentication (Minimum)" mean?
You want to log in. First a sixteen-character password you are supposed to have memorised. Then a CAPTCHA with distorted text. Then every traffic light in a grid of photos. Make one mistake and you start again.
SC 4.1.2 - What does "Name, Role, Value" mean?
A screen reader user reaches a control on your page. Three things have to be true for them to use it. They have to know what it is (a button, a checkbox, a tab), what it is called (“Add to basket”), and what state it is in (pressed, expanded, checked). Success criterion 4.1.2 is the rule that guarantees all three: every interactive element exposes a name, a role and, where relevant, a value or state.
SC 4.1.3 - What does "Status Messages" mean?
You add something to your basket. The little number next to the cart icon goes from 2 to 3. Nothing else happens: no page reload, no focus change, no confirmation you have to dismiss.