Content Accessibility Guidelines for Mobile: WCAG2Mobile Explained

What is WCAG and why you must be aware

As stated by the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.3 billion people – about 16% of the global population – experience significant disability.

Therefore, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines were implemented in 1999, offering a clear and actionable framework on how to achieve accessible websites and apps to strengthen inclusivity and usage of digital products and services. WCAG is used all over the world, being referenced by other laws like the European Accessibility Act (EEA) or the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

In this blog post, we’ll explore what the directives and guidelines around (digital) accessibility are, discuss why it matters, and which principles lay the foundation.

Why you should care about mobile accessibility

Mobile accessibility is a necessity as 138 billion app downloads happened globally in 2023. Mobile continues to dominate how people interact with the digital world, ensuring accessible content on these platforms is essential. WCAG2Mobile offers a practical lens to apply the globally accepted WCAG standards for accessibility in mobile-first environments.

Accessibility is not just about doing the right thing from an ethical standpoint, but it is also a smart business, legal, and innovative strategy:

1. Legal Compliance: Companies must meet regulations like the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), Section 508, and international laws such as the European Accessibility Act (EAA) to avoid lawsuits, fines, or product bans.
2. Market Reach: 1.3 billion people globally live with a disability. Accessible products allow companies to serve a much broader customer base and increase user engagement.
3. Brand Reputation: Accessibility reflects social responsibility. By leading in inclusive design, companies following the guidelines build trust, loyalty, and a positive public image.
4. Innovation Driver: Many accessibility features (like voice control or screen readers) have led to mainstream innovations that benefit all users, not just those with disabilities and become state-of-the-art.
5. User-Centered Design: Accessibility improves usability for everyone - better contrast, voice input, and simpler navigation help users in varied situations (e.g., noisy rooms, bright sunlight, or temporary impairments).

By adhering to the accessibility guidelines, developers, designers, and content creators can contribute to a more inclusive digital world, ensuring everyone — regardless of ability — can access and benefit from mobile content. Moreover, it can support market growth as products and services are not limited to a specific user group. It can also benefit SEO through improved site usability for all users.

What is WCAG?

WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and is a set of standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to make websites and digital content accessible to people with disabilities.

History of WCAG

The history of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines go back to May 5 1999, when the first version, WCAG 1.0, was published by W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The goal was clear: To establish a formal standard to make the web more accessible to people with disabilities. Therefore, the first version included 14 guidelines with 65 checkpoints, that were categorized in three priority levels. The checkpoints focused on HTML and static websites.

On December 11, 2008 WCAG 2.0 was introduced as an updated version that recognized the major shifts in technology, including dynamic and mobile content. It therefore contained the POUR principles and testable success criteria at Levels A, AA, and AAA.
WCAG 2.0 even became ISO/IEC 40500:2012, making it globally recognized.

Nearly ten years later, WCAG 2.1 was released on June 5, 2018. It serves as an update to the previous version adding 17 new success criteria to improve accessibility for users with low vision, cognitive disabilities, and those using mobile devices. WCAG 2.1 is backwards compatible with the previous version.

On October 5, 2023 the new version WCAG 2.2 was introduced to offer further improvements regarding users with cognitive and motor impairments, including 9 new success criteria. This version as well is backwards-compatible with both previous versions. Following WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 helps ensure digital content works better for everyone, including users who rely on screen readers, keyboard navigation, or other assistive technologies.

Four Principles to achieve WCAG conformance on mobile apps

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provide clear recommendations to ensure content is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for all users, including those using assistive technologies. The so-called POUR principles ensure mobile apps are accessible:

• Perceivable: Information and user interface elements must be presented in ways users can recognize and understand, regardless of sensory limitations (e.g. good color contrast, appropriate screen size to content ratio…)
• Operable: Users must be able to interact with all controls and navigation using various input methods like keyboard or voice (e.g. voice command, text-to-speech tools, touchscreen gestures).
• Understandable: Content and interface behavior must be clear, predictable, and easy to follow for all users (e.g. consistent layout, clear CTA’s).
• Robust: Content must be compatible with a wide range of devices and assistive technologies, both now and in the future (e.g. app should work on different devices such as mobile and desktop).

Furthermore, there are three levels of conformance for WCAG, whereas each level builds on the previous one:

• WCAG Level A: The minimum level of accessibility, covering basic features needed for a wide range of users to access content.
• WCAG Level AA: The mid-range level, addressing the biggest and most common barriers for users with disabilities and therefore, recommended to comply to by W3C.
• WCAG Level AAA: The highest and most comprehensive level, providing enhanced accessibility.

Most laws and policies, including the European Accessibility Act, require WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the standard for accessibility.

What is WCAG2Mobile?

As of June 2025, the WCAG2Mobile guidance (official title “Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.2 to Mobile Applications”) is in the final stages of development by the W3C’s Mobile Accessibility Task Force (MATF).

WCAG2Mobile is a guidance document representing an adaptation of WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 Level A and AA to address the unique usability and accessibility challenges found in mobile interfaces (including web, hybrid and native apps). It builds on the existing WCAG guidelines by translating them into actionable practices for smartphones, tablets, and other handheld devices (e.g. by replacing "web page" with "screen").

Mobile applications present unique accessibility challenges due to factors like touch interfaces, varying screen sizes, and device orientations. WCAG2Mobile addresses these by emphasizing several aspects. Here is an assortment of 5 important ones:

• Touch Target Size: Ensuring interactive elements are large enough for users with motor impairments (Level AA).
• Device Orientation: Supporting both portrait and landscape modes to accommodate user preferences and assistive technologies (Level AA).
• Gesture Alternatives: Providing alternatives to complex gestures, such as offering single-tap options for multi-finger actions (Level A).
• Consistent Navigation: Maintaining uniform navigation patterns across screens to increase predictability (Level AA).
• Redundant Entry: Minimizing the need for users to re-enter information by utilizing autofill and data retention features (Level AA).

WCAG2Mobile helps bridge the gap between general accessibility principles and the specific needs of mobile environments. It offers developers and designers practical insights into implementing accessibility features that cater to the nuances of mobile platforms. Success Criteria are clearly communicated and intent behind explained on the WCAG 2.2 Understanding Docs website.

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Mobile accessibility in action: What corporations like Google and Apple do

Corporations like Google and Apple are at the forefront of integrating mobile accessibility features, ensuring their products are inclusive and compliant with standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Here is a short overview of relevant accessibility aspects in mobile they implemented:

Cognitive and Motor Accessibility

Google:

• Voice Access: Provides hands-free control of Android devices through voice commands, assisting users with motor impairments.
• Action Blocks: Lets users create customizable home screen buttons for common actions, simplifying device interaction for those with cognitive disabilities.

Apple:

• Assistive Access: Introduces a simplified interface with high-contrast buttons and large text labels, aiding users with cognitive disabilities in navigating iPhone and iPad.
• Eye Tracking: Allows users to navigate iPad and iPhone using only their eyes, utilizing the front-facing camera and on-device machine learning.

Hearing Accessibility

Google:

• Live Caption: Automatically captions media playing on the device, including videos and podcasts, benefiting users with hearing impairments.
• Sound Amplifier: Enhances and amplifies ambient sounds, assisting users in noisy environments or with hearing difficulties.

Apple:

• Live Captions: Offers real-time transcription of audio content across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, aiding users who are deaf or hard of hearing.
• Personal Voice: Allows users at risk of speech loss to create a synthetic voice that closely resembles their own, enhancing communication.

Visual Accessibility

Google:

• Lookout: Utilizes the device's camera to identify objects and text, offering auditory feedback to assist users with visual impairments.
• TalkBack: An Android screen reader that provides spoken feedback, enabling blind and low-vision users to interact with their devices.

Apple:

• Magnifier App: Transforms the device into a digital magnifying glass, helping users with low vision to see objects and text more clearly.
• VoiceOver: A screen reader that provides auditory descriptions of on-screen elements, facilitating navigation for blind users.

Besides the implementation of accessibility within their applications, both companies cater developer tools to support testing for optimized accessibility:

• Apple’s Accessibility Inspector
• Google's Accessibility Scanner

Both also demonstrate strong commitment to accessibility, continuously updating and introducing features that cater to a diverse user base.

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