Accessibility Standards and Regulations
What to know
Accessibility law and policy operate at several layers, and exam questions often test which layer governs a given situation. At the international level, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) establishes broad rights; Article 9 addresses accessibility. At the regional level, the European Accessibility Act and the EU Web Accessibility Directive set requirements for public-sector and certain commercial websites. National statutes vary: the ADA in the United States (with Title II for public entities and Title III for places of public accommodation), Section 508 for US federal procurement, and the AODA in Ontario, Canada. Technical standards translate law into testable criteria: WCAG 2.x (A/AA/AAA) and, in the US, the Section 508 ICT Refresh, which incorporates WCAG 2.0 AA by reference.
Traps
- Conflating law (a legal obligation) with standard (a technical benchmark). A site can fail WCAG and still be the subject of a legal complaint, or pass WCAG and still be unusable.
- Assuming WCAG conformance equals legal compliance; courts and regulators consider reasonable accommodation and undue burden.
- Mixing levels: AA is the common legal target; AAA is rarely mandated wholesale.
Rule of thumb
Ask: who is the obligated party, in which jurisdiction, and what standard is incorporated by reference? Map answers to a matrix before choosing an answer option.
Worked example
A US federal agency procures a web app. The binding technical benchmark is the Section 508 ICT Refresh, which points to WCAG 2.0 Level AA. A question claiming "WCAG 2.1 AAA is required" is a distractor.