What are some of the WCAG success criteria and techniques that are specific to content management systems?

1 CMS and WCAG levels

WCAG has three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA. Each level has a number of success criteria that web content must meet to be accessible. Level A is the minimum requirement, level AA is the recommended level for most web content, and level AAA is the highest level of accessibility. CMS can affect the level of conformance of web content in different ways. For example, some CMS features, such as templates, themes, plugins, or widgets, may have built-in accessibility features that help meet some of the WCAG success criteria. On the other hand, some CMS features may introduce accessibility barriers that prevent web content from meeting some of the WCAG success criteria. Therefore, it is important to evaluate and test the accessibility of CMS features before using them for web content creation.

2 CMS and WCAG principles

WCAG has four principles that guide web accessibility: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Each principle has a number of guidelines that provide general goals and outcomes for web accessibility. CMS can support or hinder the implementation of these principles in web content. For example, CMS can support the perceivable principle by providing options to add alternative text, captions, transcripts, or audio descriptions to multimedia content. CMS can also support the operable principle by providing keyboard access, navigation menus, skip links, or breadcrumbs to web content. However, CMS can also hinder the understandable principle by generating complex or inconsistent code, labels, or instructions for web content. CMS can also hinder the robust principle by using outdated or incompatible technologies, formats, or standards for web content.

3 CMS and WCAG techniques

WCAG has a number of techniques that provide specific methods and examples for implementing web accessibility. These techniques are tailored to certain technologies, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or PDF, as well as certain CMS platforms, such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, or Squarespace. For instance, some CMS-specific techniques include using a plugin or module to generate a sitemap (G63), check the contrast ratio of text and background colors (G18), add a language attribute to the HTML element (H57), add a skip link (G1), and add a search function (G161). It is important to note that not all CMS features or plugins are reliable or compatible with web accessibility; thus, you should verify and test the functionality and accessibility of CMS features or plugins before using them for web content creation.

4 CMS and WCAG resources

For those looking to learn more about WCAG and CMS, there are many online resources available. The official WCAG website provides the full text of the standards, guidelines, success criteria, and techniques, as well as tutorials, quick references, checklists, and tools for web accessibility. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) website has information and guidance for different audiences, such as developers and designers, on how to apply WCAG to different types of web content. The WebAIM website provides articles, tips, training, and evaluation tools for web accessibility. Additionally, the W3C Community Group on Accessibility in CMS is a forum for discussion and collaboration on web accessibility issues related to CMS. Moreover, there are many more resources available online that can provide useful information and support for web accessibility.

5 CMS and WCAG best practices

To ensure that web content created with CMS is accessible and compliant with WCAG, users should consider several best practices. This includes choosing a CMS platform that supports web accessibility, evaluating and testing the accessibility of CMS features before using them, following the WCAG principles, guidelines, success criteria and techniques when creating web content, providing alternative and equivalent content for multimedia, images, icons or symbols, using clear and consistent headings, labels, links and navigation for web content, using simple and plain language for web content, using valid and semantic code for web content, checking and correcting the spelling, grammar and punctuation of web content and updating and maintaining the web content regularly. By taking these steps into account, users can create web content with CMS that is accessible and compliant with WCAG. This can benefit those with disabilities as well as those with different preferences or situations.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?