AccessibilityWebsite DesignCompliance

Web Accessibility (WCAG 2.2) for Business Websites

By WebsiteAndGo Team

Quick Answer

WCAG 2.2 is the international accessibility standard that helps make websites usable for people with disabilities. For UK businesses it also reduces legal risk under the Equality Act 2010, and for US businesses it aligns with ADA guidance. Meeting WCAG 2.2 Level AA covers the vast majority of practical accessibility for a business website.

Roughly 16 million people in the UK live with a disability and one in four US adults reports a disability affecting major life activities. That is a huge share of any business's potential audience — and yet the average small-business website silently locks out users with visual, motor, hearing or cognitive impairments through issues that could often be fixed in a day.

Accessibility is not a niche add-on. It is professional web craftsmanship in 2026. WCAG 2.2, published by the W3C and adopted internationally, gives you a clear checklist of what "accessible enough" looks like for a business site. This guide explains what matters, what to test, and how to fix the most common problems without a full rebuild.

What WCAG 2.2 actually requires

WCAG 2.2 is organised around four principles: content must be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust. Under each principle there are testable success criteria at three levels: A (minimum), AA (industry standard for business sites) and AAA (aspirational, mostly for public-sector or specialised services).

For 99% of business websites the target is WCAG 2.2 Level AA. Reaching AA means keyboard users can operate the whole site, screen-reader users can understand it, colour-blind users can read every text/background combination, and users with motor impairments have targets they can hit accurately. It's the same standard that UK public sector procurement requires and that most large enterprises now insist on from suppliers.

The eight things to audit first

In an accessibility audit for a business site we start with these — they cover the majority of user impact:

Colour contrast. Body text needs at least 4.5:1 contrast against its background; large text needs 3:1. Free tools like WebAIM's Contrast Checker will flag issues in minutes.
Keyboard navigation. Tab through your site. Every link, button and form field must be reachable and every focused element must have a visible outline.
Image alt text. Every meaningful image needs a description. Decorative images should have empty alt text (`alt=""`), not be skipped entirely.
Form labels. Every input needs a visible, associated label — not just placeholder text.
Heading structure. One H1, then H2s under it, H3s under those. Screen-reader users navigate by headings.
Skip-to-content link. Lets keyboard users bypass the navigation on every page.
Video captions. All video content needs captions or transcripts.
Motion controls. Auto-playing carousels, video and parallax must be pausable.

New in WCAG 2.2

WCAG 2.2 (October 2023) added nine new success criteria on top of 2.1. The ones that matter most for business sites:

Focus Not Obscured. When an element receives focus, it must not be hidden behind sticky headers, cookie banners or chat widgets.
Target Size (Minimum). Interactive controls on touch interfaces must be at least 24×24 CSS pixels, with reasonable exceptions.
Dragging Movements. Any drag interaction must have a single-pointer alternative.
Consistent Help. Contact information or help links should stay in the same relative location across pages.
Redundant Entry. Don't force users to re-enter information they've already given in the same session (name, address, etc.).

Most of these are common-sense improvements and low effort to implement — but they require checking existing patterns in your CMS templates.

Legal risk for UK and US businesses

In the UK the Equality Act 2010 requires businesses to make "reasonable adjustments" for disabled users, and that includes digital services. Public-sector websites have a legal obligation to meet WCAG 2.2 AA under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018. Private businesses do not have a specific WCAG deadline, but tribunal cases have increasingly used WCAG as the benchmark for what "reasonable" means.

In the US, ADA-related lawsuits over inaccessible websites have grown steadily — over 4,000 web accessibility lawsuits were filed in federal court in 2024 according to UsableNet. Ecommerce, healthcare, education and finance are the most-targeted sectors.

On top of legal risk, accessible sites tend to perform better on SEO (clear structure, proper alt text, semantic HTML) and on conversion (readable typography, clear focus states, forms that work under stress).

How to fix accessibility issues without a rebuild

Most small-business sites can reach WCAG 2.2 AA in one to three weeks of focused work, not a full rebuild. The workflow we use with clients:

Automated scan. Tools like axe DevTools, WAVE or Lighthouse catch about 30% of issues. Start there but don't stop there.
Manual keyboard test. Tab through every template and record breakages.
Screen-reader spot check. VoiceOver on macOS or NVDA on Windows — even 30 minutes surfaces hidden problems.
Fix the templates, not the pages. Almost all issues live in your header, footer, form fields, buttons or blog post layout. Fixing those once fixes them everywhere.
Publish an accessibility statement. A short page acknowledging your standards, contact route for issues, and last audit date. Shows good faith and often improves search visibility.

Regular quarterly checks keep new content compliant. If your team ships new pages weekly, integrate axe into your build pipeline so nothing regresses silently.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is WCAG 2.2 legally required for UK businesses?

It is legally required for public sector websites. Private businesses are covered by the Equality Act's general duty to avoid discrimination — WCAG 2.2 AA is treated as the practical benchmark for "reasonable adjustments" in disputes.

What's the difference between WCAG 2.1 and 2.2?

WCAG 2.2 adds nine new success criteria focused on cognitive and motor accessibility, including target-size minimums, visible focus indicators and consistent help placement. It is backwards-compatible with 2.1.

How much does a WCAG audit cost?

A one-off audit of a small-business site typically ranges from £750 to £4,000 depending on scope. Fixes on top vary from a few hours to several weeks of work. WebAndGo offers audit-plus-remediation packages — see our website design service.

Do overlay tools like AccessiBe make my site compliant?

No. Overlays inject a widget that claims to fix accessibility on the fly but do not remediate underlying code. They are widely criticised by the accessibility community and have not held up in court. Real fixes require real markup changes.

Do I need a screen reader to test my own site?

For a professional audit yes. For a first pass, keyboard navigation and automated tools catch a huge share of issues. VoiceOver (Mac) and NVDA (Windows) are free if you want to try a real screen reader.

Ready to move forward?

WebsiteAndGo designs, builds and grows premium websites for ambitious businesses across the UK, US and beyond. If this article resonated, the next step is a short, no-pressure conversation about your goals.

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