What WCAG 2.2 changed for small-business websites

The short version

• WCAG 2.2 became the W3C standard on October 5, 2023. It keeps everything from 2.1, adds nine criteria and removes 4.1.1 Parsing.
• Six new criteria are level A or AA, the levels most businesses aim for.
• The quick wins: visible keyboard focus that sticky bars don’t hide, bigger tap targets, help in a consistent spot, forms that don’t ask twice, and logins that allow paste and password managers.
• The checks below are a practical, conservative first pass, not a full compliance test.
• Start with the older basics, such as contrast, alt text and labels, if you haven’t. Our article on a practical start to accessibility covers them.
• This isn’t legal advice. Our answer on whether your site needs to be ADA accessible covers the legal picture.

What are the new criteria?

From the W3C’s What’s new in WCAG 2.2, checked on October 31, 2026:

How do I check my site against them?

Take your home page, a contact or booking page, and any login or checkout. Work through these. Each takes a few minutes.

These are practical, conservative checks. Some are stricter than the AA criterion itself, so a problem here isn’t always a formal failure, and passing them all doesn’t prove the site conforms. A full evaluation also looks at the W3C’s exceptions and every page type.

Keyboard focus (2.4.11)

1. Click in the browser’s address bar, then press Tab repeatedly.
2. Watch the outline move through links, buttons and form fields.
3. Note any focused item that ends up completely hidden behind a sticky header, cookie notice or chat button. That fails 2.4.11 at level AA. Also note any item that’s partly covered. The W3C’s focus page allows partial cover at AA, but it fails the stricter AAA version, and it’s worth fixing anyway.
4. Note it if the outline disappears altogether. That’s covered by an older criterion, 2.4.7 Focus Visible.

Fix: keep the cookie notice from covering content, and ask your developer to add scroll padding so focused items stop below a sticky header.

Dragging (2.5.7)

5. Find anything you drag: a before-and-after image slider, a price range slider, a map, sortable items.
6. Check you can do the same with a tap or click, such as arrow buttons or typed values.

Fix: add buttons alongside the drag control. The W3C’s dragging page uses a draggable map with up, down, left and right buttons as its example of a pass. The criterion makes exceptions where dragging is essential, or where the browser itself provides the dragging and the site hasn’t changed it. If you’re not sure whether an embedded map or widget counts, ask your developer, and give key details like your address in text either way.

Tap target size (2.5.8)

7. On a phone, tap small icons: social links, close buttons, carousel dots, footer links.
8. The W3C’s target size page sets 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or enough spacing that a 24-pixel circle around each doesn’t overlap the next. Links inside a sentence are an exception.

Fix: enlarge icon buttons and add padding between small links. Our guide to checking your site works on phones covers this alongside other phone checks.

Consistent help (3.2.6)

9. If several pages show a phone number, contact link or chat button, check it comes in the same order relative to the rest of the page on each of them. Compare pages at the same screen size, since a phone layout can differ from the desktop one.

The W3C’s consistent help page says this applies only within a set of related pages, and only where the help is repeated. It doesn’t require help on every page, or any help at all. Changes the user makes, such as zooming, are allowed.

Fix: put help links in the shared header or footer, not page by page.

Redundant entry (3.3.7)

10. Walk through any multi-step form or checkout. Does it ask for anything twice, such as a billing address after a shipping address?

Fix: offer a “same as shipping” checkbox, or carry the earlier answer forward. The W3C’s redundant entry page allows exceptions: confirming a new password that’s hidden as you type it, for security, re-entry that’s essential (such as a memory game), and earlier answers that are no longer valid.

Accessible login (3.3.8)

11. On any login page, try pasting a password and letting a password manager fill it in. Both should work.
12. Look at the CAPTCHA. The W3C’s authentication page says distorted-text puzzles that make you retype characters generally fail without another way in. Blocking paste fails too.

Fix: allow paste and autofill, and switch to a CAPTCHA or spam check that doesn’t make people transcribe text. Email login links or passkeys are other options.

Why does it matter?

The new criteria target problems many visitors hit, not only people who use assistive technology. Small tap targets frustrate anyone on a phone. A cookie bar covering the focused field blocks keyboard users entirely. Logins that block paste push people toward weak passwords. And WCAG is the standard most accessibility rules and requests point to, so working toward 2.2 AA keeps you current.

What are the common mistakes?

• Relying on an overlay widget. Our answer on accessibility overlays explains why these don’t fix the site itself.
• Fixing only the home page. Contact, booking and checkout pages matter more.
• Removing focus outlines because they “look ugly.” Restyle them instead.
• A CAPTCHA on the contact form that many people can’t solve. There are less demanding ways to stop spam; see stopping contact form spam.
• Chasing AAA criteria first. Get A and AA right before anything else.

What if I find problems I can’t fix myself?

Write down the page, what you did and what happened. The W3C’s free Easy Checks help you describe it. Most fixes above are theme or plugin changes your web team can make. A full audit against WCAG 2.2 is a separate, larger job, best done by someone experienced with assistive technology.

How much does it cost, and how long does it take?

The checks take an hour or two for a small site. Many fixes are small, like padding, a checkbox or a setting. Others, like replacing a drag-only slider or a login system, take more. Ask for a quote per fix.

How does E-3 handle this?

We can check your site against these criteria and fix problems in the site itself rather than adding an overlay. You decide which fixes go ahead. We don’t promise legal compliance.

Related questions

• Website accessibility: a practical start
• Does my small business website need to be ADA accessible?
• What is alt text, and how do I write it?
• What does WCAG mean?
• Back to the complete guide to website basics

Sources

1. What's new in WCAG 2.2 (W3C Web Accessibility Initiative)
2. Understanding Success Criterion 3.3.8: Accessible Authentication (Minimum) (W3C WAI)
3. Understanding Success Criterion 2.5.8: Target Size (Minimum) (W3C WAI)
4. Easy Checks: a first review of web accessibility (W3C WAI)
5. Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.11: Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) (W3C WAI)
6. Understanding Success Criterion 2.5.7: Dragging Movements (W3C WAI)
7. Understanding Success Criterion 3.2.6: Consistent Help (W3C WAI)
8. Understanding Success Criterion 3.3.7: Redundant Entry (W3C WAI)