If you've looked into accessibility for your store, you'll have run into the phrase "WCAG 2.2 AA" — usually delivered as if everyone already knows what it means. Most guides either drown you in technical detail or wave the term around to scare you. This one just explains it: what the letters mean, what the standard actually asks of your store, and how to find out where you stand.
WCAG stands for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It's a set of guidelines, written by the W3C (the organisation that maintains web standards), describing what a website needs to do so that people with disabilities can actually use it. That includes people who are blind or partially sighted, people who can't use a mouse, people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and people with cognitive differences like dyslexia or ADHD.
Two things worth knowing straight away. First, WCAG itself is not a law — it's a standard. But laws around the world point at it: it's the benchmark courts and regulators use in ADA cases in the US, and it underpins the European Accessibility Act and UK public-sector rules. When someone asks whether your store is "accessible," WCAG is almost always the measuring stick. Second, it's a checklist of specific, testable requirements — not a vague aspiration. That's good news, because it means you can find out exactly where you stand.
The 2.2 is simply the version number. WCAG has been updated over the years — 2.0, then 2.1, then 2.2 (published in 2023). Each version adds requirements but keeps the old ones, so a store that meets 2.2 also meets 2.1. When in doubt, aim at the current version: 2.2.
The AA is the level. Every requirement in WCAG is graded A, AA, or AAA:
So when you see "WCAG 2.2 AA," read it as: the current version of the standard, at the level the law cares about.
The guidelines are organised under four principles — content should be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. For an online store, that boils down to things like:
Version 2.2 added a few requirements that matter to shops specifically — for example, the thing you've focused with your keyboard mustn't be hidden behind sticky headers or cookie banners, tap targets need to be big enough to press reliably, and login shouldn't depend on puzzles some customers can't solve.
Here's what a lot of tools won't tell you: automated testing can only detect roughly 57% of accessibility issues. A scanner can catch missing alt text, poor contrast, and unlabelled form fields — but it can't judge whether your alt text actually describes the product, whether your page reads in a sensible order, or whether a real person can get through your checkout with a screen reader. Those need human review. So a clean scan is a good sign, but it is not proof of full WCAG 2.2 AA conformance — and anyone who tells you otherwise, or sells "one-click compliance," is selling you a story.
You don't need to memorise the guidelines. A sensible path for a busy store owner looks like this: run an automated scan to surface the detectable issues, fix those first (they're usually the quickest wins and the most common lawsuit triggers), then get human eyes on the things a scanner can't judge — ideally a proper audit of your key pages and checkout. Accessibility isn't a one-off certificate; it's a state you maintain as your store changes. But every fixed issue is a real improvement for real customers, starting immediately.
Claresto checks your store against WCAG 2.2 AA and explains what it finds in plain English — what's wrong, why it matters, and how to fix it. Scan your store free →
WCAG 2.2 AA sounds intimidating, but it's really just a long checklist of ways to make sure every customer can browse, choose, and pay. You don't have to fix everything overnight — you just have to know where you stand and start.