WCAG 2.1 vs 2.2: What Changed and What You Need to Know

WCAG 2.2 dropped in October 2023. If you're still working off 2.1, here's what changed and whether you should care.

Short answer: yes, you should probably care. The new stuff addresses real problems.

The Big Picture

WCAG 2.1 had 78 success criteria. WCAG 2.2 has 86. That's 9 new ones, minus one that got removed (more on that later).

Most of the additions focus on things that genuinely annoy people: tiny tap targets, sticky headers hiding focused elements, CAPTCHAs that require solving puzzles, and forms that make you type the same address twice.

The New Rules Worth Knowing

Focus Can't Be Hidden (2.4.11)

You know when you're tabbing through a page and the focused element ends up behind a sticky header or cookie banner? That's now officially a failure.

Fix it with CSS:

html {
  scroll-padding-top: 80px; /* height of your sticky stuff */
}

This tells the browser to account for fixed elements when scrolling to focused items.

Drag-and-Drop Needs Alternatives (2.5.7)

If users can drag to reorder a list, they also need buttons to do the same thing. Not everyone can drag.

<li draggable="true">
  Item 1
  <button aria-label="Move up">↑</button>
  <button aria-label="Move down">↓</button>
</li>

Annoying to implement? A little. But some users literally cannot drag things.

Bigger Tap Targets (2.5.8)

Buttons and links need to be at least 24x24 pixels. Or if they're smaller, they need enough space around them so users don't accidentally hit the wrong thing.

button, a {
  min-height: 24px;
  min-width: 24px;
}

This one's been a problem forever. Tiny links crammed together are miserable on phones, and worse for people with motor impairments.

Text links inside paragraphs are exempt—you don't need to make every hyperlink into a giant button.

No Cognitive Tests for Login (3.3.8)

This one's a big deal. CAPTCHAs that require solving puzzles, remembering sequences, or transcribing warped text? Those fail WCAG 2.2.

What's still allowed:

What's not allowed:

People with cognitive disabilities get locked out by this stuff constantly. And honestly, bots solve CAPTCHAs better than humans now anyway.

Stop Asking for the Same Info Twice (3.3.7)

If someone already typed their shipping address, don't make them type it again for billing. Either auto-fill it or give them a "same as shipping" checkbox.

<label>
  <input type="checkbox" id="same-address">
  Billing same as shipping
</label>

This seems obvious but so many checkout flows still fail it.

Help Goes in the Same Place (3.2.6)

If you have a "Contact Us" link or chat widget, it should be in the same spot on every page. Users with cognitive disabilities especially rely on consistent layouts.

What Got Removed

4.1.1 Parsing is gone. It used to require valid HTML. Browsers have gotten good enough at handling malformed markup that it doesn't really matter for accessibility anymore.

You should still write valid HTML. It's just not a WCAG failure if you don't.

Should You Update to 2.2?

Probably yes.

Many laws still technically reference WCAG 2.1. But courts look at current standards, and 2.2 has been out long enough that "we're still on 2.1" is starting to sound like an excuse.

More importantly, the new criteria fix actual usability problems. Bigger tap targets, no puzzle CAPTCHAs, visible focus—this stuff makes sites genuinely better.

Run your site through ClearA11y to see where you stand on both 2.1 and 2.2 criteria. Better to find out now than from a lawyer.