Who this is for

This guide is for small business owners, marketers, agencies, and web teams that need a plain-English review path before a redesign, launch, or qualified accessibility review. It is not a WCAG conformance claim, legal opinion, or certification.

What WCAG AA means in practical terms

WCAG AA is commonly used as a target level for accessible websites. In practical terms, it means people should be able to perceive, operate, understand, and navigate your site with different devices, assistive technologies, and access needs.

Quick checklist

  • Each page has a useful title, page language, main landmark, and clear H1.
  • Headings form a logical outline and are not empty.
  • Meaningful images have useful alt text, and decorative images use empty alt text.
  • Links and buttons have specific accessible names.
  • Every form field has a persistent label and clear instructions.
  • Text contrast is readable, including hover and focus states.
  • The site works with a keyboard and visible focus indicators.
  • Errors explain what happened and how to fix them.
  • Videos, audio, PDFs, and documents have appropriate alternatives or separate review.

What automated checks can help with

Automated checks can find many obvious issues quickly, including missing alt attributes, unlabeled fields, empty buttons, duplicate IDs, skipped heading levels, missing language, iframe title problems, and some colour contrast failures. Use the accessibility issue library to understand common findings and fixes.

What still needs human review

People still need to test keyboard flow, screen reader experience, focus order, error recovery, content clarity, media alternatives, documents, and whether alt text or link text is actually useful in context.

Suggested workflow

  1. Choose your homepage, contact page, service pages, forms, and any high-value landing pages.
  2. Run a first-pass scan and fix critical or major findings.
  3. Use focused checks for alt text, headings, and colour contrast.
  4. Keyboard-test the main journeys.
  5. Review forms, documents, media, and third-party widgets manually.
  6. Get qualified review before making formal WCAG, procurement, or legal compliance claims.

Keep the checklist practical

Run the checker Find obvious machine-detectable issues on one important page. Open the Canadian checklist Use broader manual review steps after scanning. Read the AODA guide Understand Ontario context without overclaiming. Read what automation misses Plan human review for the parts machines cannot prove.