WCAG 3.0 is coming. What should charities and public sector teams do now?

No. WCAG 3.0 has not replaced WCAG 2. W3C says WCAG 2 will continue to be used for a long time, and that the detail of WCAG 3.0 may change before it is finalised. (W3C WCAG 3.0 Working Draft)

For UK public sector bodies, the existing website and mobile app accessibility regulations still apply. Government guidance explains the requirement to make services accessible and to publish and maintain an accessibility statement. (GOV.UK guidance on accessibility requirements)

So there is no reason to pause an accessibility programme while waiting for WCAG 3.0. Fixing known barriers remains the most valuable thing a team can do.

WCAG 2 gives teams essential, testable criteria. They help answer questions such as whether text has sufficient contrast, a form can be used with a keyboard, or a video has captions. Those checks remain important.

The WCAG 3.0 draft also asks teams to look more closely at the experience around those checks. Its developing topics include clear language, finding key information, understanding where you are in a process, preventing errors, retaining information and getting help. It proposes ways to assess some aspects through expert review and usability testing, alongside technical tests. The final requirements and reporting approach are still being worked out. (W3C WCAG 3.0 Working Draft)

Consider an online referral form. Every field might have a label and every button might pass a technical check. But a person may still abandon it because they do not know which documents they need, cannot save their progress, or receive an error message they cannot act on. Technical compliance tells us something important about that form. Watching someone try to use it tells us something else.

For organisations serving people at difficult moments, both kinds of evidence matter.

People do not always arrive at a service with time, confidence or a clear idea of what to search for. They may be looking for help while unwell, worried about money, caring for someone else or trying to make sense of unfamiliar terminology.

That changes the questions a team needs to ask. Can someone recognise that the service is for them? Can they understand their options without knowing the organisation’s internal language? Can they return to a form if they are interrupted? If they cannot complete it online, is another route easy to find?

These are questions about content, design and service decisions, as well as code. A content editor can make a difference by writing a useful heading. A service team can make a difference by explaining eligibility before a lengthy application begins. A designer can make a difference by showing each step clearly. Accessibility depends on all of them.

Keep testing against the standards that apply today. Continue to identify and fix barriers in your website, forms, documents and other digital content. Automated checks are useful for finding some issues, but they cannot tell you whether a person understood a decision or successfully completed a journey.

Review the journeys that matter most. Choose a small number of tasks people genuinely need to accomplish: requesting support, booking an appointment, making a donation, applying for a grant or finding urgent information. Follow each journey from its starting point through to a clear outcome. Note where people have to guess, repeat themselves or seek help.

Test with people who use your service. Include disabled people and people using assistive technology in research where possible. Give them realistic tasks and listen to how they interpret the content as well as how they operate the interface. Their experience can expose barriers a checklist does not reveal.

Make accessibility part of everyday publishing. A well-built website can become difficult to use when a new form, PDF, video or page is added. Give colleagues clear guidance, accessible templates and time to check their work. Make it easy for users to report a problem, and decide who will act on that feedback.

WCAG 3.0 is still taking shape and we should be careful about knowing exactly what its final requirements will be. Its direction does, however, offer a useful prompt, which is can the people who need this service actually use it to do what they came to do?

Ask that alongside the technical questions. It can help your team decide what to improve first, whose experience is missing from its research, and whether an apparently small barrier is standing between someone and essential support.

If you are reviewing where your organisation stands today, Ave’s accessibility self-assessment tool can help you identify areas to investigate and turn them into a practical plan for improvement. It’s completely free to use!