A designer-centric translation of WCAG 2.2, structured for clarity, filterability, searchability and understanding.
A study found out that when the team considered accessibility right from the design stage, they saw a 67% drop in compliance issues found during testing. This study, published by Deque University, has always been my inspiration. This resource was built with the intention of simplifying the complex WCAG 2.2 guidelines into plain language — focusing on "what needs to be done to avoid failure" instead of how something will be checked against the established standards.
What makes it one of a kind?
- A Notion database published as a website, allowing users to sort guidelines by compliance level (A/AA), disability type and also making the entire book searchable
- Designer-first curation, focusing on what "needs to be done" rather than just reference statements
- Downloadable PDF map, giving teams an offline, shareable version of guidelines in easy to understand language
- Renamed a few guidelines to ensure they reflect the actual guidelines — e.g. 2.1.4 No clash with shortcuts, which in the original WCAG documents has been described as Character Key Shortcuts
- Cards and lists UI, offering quick access, scannability and filtering without navigating long text blocks
- Interlinking of related guidelines to ensure clarity and dependency
- Quoted reliable guidance-to-engineering links, directing engineers to external code snippets by experts like Jan Jaap de Groot and Paul van Workum from Abra — Jan Jaap de Groot is the head of MATF
- Notion is functional across all form factors, making the content responsive by default, so that the resource can be accessed from any device
- Explains different levels of compliance and why most experts stop at AA level
- Discusses which team is responsible for maintaining and satisfying a particular criteria of WCAG 2.2
- You can filter based on the guidelines applicable to specific commonly used UI components
Impact Potential
- Helps designers work on accessibility by simplifying the understanding, thereby avoiding complexity aversion
- Referable at the point of inspiration — makes it an ideal accessibility guide to keep handy during an intense design process
- Allows designers to focus on the accessibility outcomes in their control
- The study published by Deque University states that when the team considered accessibility right from the design stage, they saw a 67% drop in compliance issues found during testing — this resource is sure to help more upstream teams consider accessibility