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WCAG checklist download: 55 criteria for WCAG 2.2 AA

This free WCAG checklist tracks all 55 Level A and AA success criteria in WCAG 2.2: 31 at Level A and 24 at Level AA. Mark each one Pass, Fail or Not applicable, add notes, then download the audit as a CSV file for Excel, or as Markdown. Your results stay in your browser.

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WCAG 2.2 audit checklist

This is the audit tracker: every success criterion at your target level, with a status and notes for each, saved as you go. The WCAG 2.2 checklist guide is the separate plain-English list of 42 common checks.

The file starts blank, with every criterion Not checked, and holds your results once you record them. Markdown, copy and print are under Save, export and print. Or skip to the criteria, or set up the audit first.

Audit details

Both are optional. They go into the exported files, and they stay in this browser.

For example, the site and the month. Up to 200 characters.

The pages and flows you test. Up to 4,000 characters. How to choose them.

What to audit

Test against

Changing the target hides or shows criteria. It never deletes what you recorded.

For teams held to WCAG 2.0 or 2.1 by a policy: W3C says such authors "may need to continue to test and report 4.1.1". It adds one criterion to the count.

Progress

Counts cover every criterion in your target, whatever the filters show. A checklist records your own testing; it is not a conformance claim.

Save, export and print

Your audit saves in this browser as you go. Download a file to keep a copy or to share it.

To continue an audit, or to open one a colleague sent you. Rows in the file replace the status and notes of the same criteria, and the audit name and pages if the file has them.

Criteria

Filters change what you see here. They do not change the counts or the exported files. They are saved with your audit, so they are still on when you come back. A row stays where it is when you change its status, even if the status filter would now hide it. Each note holds up to 2,000 characters.

How to run an audit with this checklist

The checklist holds your results. The testing is yours, and the method to follow is W3C's WCAG Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM). It has five steps: define the scope, explore the product, select a representative sample, evaluate the selected sample and report the findings. W3C describes it as a supporting resource for WCAG that does not define additional requirements.

  1. Define the scope and choose a target

    Decide which site, product or set of flows the audit covers, put it in the audit name, and choose a target above. Level AA is the default: where a law or policy names a WCAG level it is usually AA (which level laws require). Level A is a subset of it. AAA adds 31 more criteria and is not meant as a blanket requirement (see the questions below). If a policy holds you to WCAG 2.0 or 2.1, also tick 4.1.1 Parsing.

  2. Explore the product and choose a sample

    List the kinds of page your site is built from: the home page, a content page from each template, search, forms, a checkout or account area, and any page with video, downloadable PDFs or custom widgets. Pick pages that cover each kind and enter them under "Pages in the sample". WCAG-EM gives guidance on structured and randomly selected samples for products where checking every page is not practical.

    WCAG applies conformance to whole pages and to complete processes, so test a checkout from its first step to its last rather than one step alone (WCAG 2.2, conformance requirements).

  3. Test each criterion across the sample

    Work down the list one principle at a time, and use the filters to give each person their own view. A practical split: developers or QA take the Automated and Partly automated rows with scanners and browser tools; editors or content owners take the rows that depend on content, such as text alternatives, captions, headings and link purpose; and one tester using only a keyboard, and a screen reader where one is available, takes the Manual rows. How to test website accessibility covers the techniques.

    Automated results are an input, not a verdict. W3C says "no tool alone can determine if a site meets accessibility standards" (W3C: evaluating web accessibility).

  4. Record one status and a note for each

    Give each criterion one status for the whole sample, using the table below. For a Fail, note the page and what you saw, so someone else can repeat the test. For a Not applicable, note why.

  5. Export and report

    Download the CSV for a spreadsheet, or the Markdown for a ticket, wiki page or pull request. Keep the CSV: you can import it here later to continue the audit. Reporting the findings is the last WCAG-EM step, and the export is your working record for it.

What the four statuses mean

The statuses in this checklist and when to use each
StatusUse it when
Not checkedYou have not tested the criterion yet, or you tested it and cannot decide. Put the open question in the notes.
PassYou tested the criterion on the pages in your sample and found no failure.
FailYou found at least one failure on a page in your sample. Note the page and the problem.
Not applicableNothing in the sample is covered by the criterion, for example 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) when no page has recorded video with sound. Note why.

Why Pass on a checklist is not a conformance claim

A Pass here records that you tested a criterion and found no failure. It does not show that a website conforms to WCAG, for reasons that come from WCAG itself.

  • Conformance covers whole pages. Under WCAG 2.2 a page cannot conform if part of it is left out, and a process conforms only when every page in it does. Your sample is a sample: the pages you did not test are unknown.
  • A formal claim has required parts. WCAG 2.2 makes conformance claims optional. A claim that is made must state the date, the guidelines and their version, the level met, a description of the pages covered and the web technologies relied on. The Markdown export records some of those facts, but this tool does not produce a claim.
  • The law decides what counts. Whether a site meets a legal requirement depends on the law and the facts, which no checklist or scanner can decide. GotAlt does not certify any site. This is general information, not legal advice; accessibility laws by country lists what each one names.

How the checklist works: method and sources

  • The criteria. The list is WCAG 2.2: 86 success criteria, 31 at Level A, 24 at Level AA and 31 at Level AAA, counted from the W3C Recommendation, plus the removed 4.1.1 Parsing row. Numbers, names and levels are W3C's. The list is generated from the same data as our WCAG 2.2 criteria page, so the two agree.
  • The summaries and the "can software test it?" ratings are GotAlt's own. They are not part of WCAG, and other testers may rate some criteria differently (how we rated them).
  • The targets. Level AA conformance needs every Level A and Level AA criterion (WCAG 2.2 conformance requirements), which is 31 plus 24, so 55. Levels are cumulative, so AAA is all 86.
  • 4.1.1 Parsing was Level A in WCAG 2.0 and 2.1. WCAG 2.2 removed it because assistive technology no longer needs to parse HTML directly (W3C Understanding 4.1.1). The option adds it back for teams whose policy still names 2.0 or 2.1.
  • Saving. Statuses, notes and the audit details are saved in this browser's local storage, which MDN says is kept across browser sessions and, in a private window, cleared when the last private tab closes. The script that runs this page contains no code that makes network requests, so nothing you enter is sent to GotAlt.
  • The CSV file starts with four rows that record what was tested (the audit name, the target, the export date and the pages in the sample), then a blank row, then the header row and one row per criterion, with CRLF line ends. To sort or filter in a spreadsheet, select the table from the header row down. A field with a comma, a quote or a line break is wrapped in double quotes, and a quote inside it is doubled, as RFC 4180 describes. The file is UTF-8 with a byte order mark, because Microsoft says Excel opens a UTF-8 CSV normally when it was saved with one. The first column holds the number and name together, such as 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum), so no cell is a bare number: Microsoft says Excel changes some entries that look like dates and that this cannot be turned off.
  • Formulas. A spreadsheet can run a cell that starts with =, +, - or @ as a formula. A note that starts with one of those characters, or with a tab, gets a leading tab in the CSV, which is the Excel mitigation OWASP recommends. Importing removes it again.
  • Import reads the Criterion, Status and Notes columns of a comma, semicolon or tab separated file, matches rows on the criterion number, and restores the audit name and the pages from the first rows. It tells you how many rows it used, which criteria in scope the file had no row for, why it skipped any row, and when it widened the target because the file includes AAA criteria. A file that ends inside a quoted cell is reported as possibly damaged. A workbook saved as .xlsx is not a CSV: in Excel, use Save As and choose a CSV format first.
  • The Markdown file is a table with a link to each criterion on this site, the audit name, the target, the date and the pages in the sample. The characters Markdown acts on, such as pipes, brackets and asterisks, are escaped in a note and a line break becomes a line break tag, so a note cannot break the table or add a link.

What this tool can't do

  • It does not test your site. It records what you found. For a first pass, the free scan runs 16 rule-based checks across up to three pages, and the accessibility bookmarklet checks the page you are looking at.
  • A Pass is your judgment. It is not a conformance claim, a certificate or a legal opinion, and the checklist cannot tell whether your testing was thorough.
  • It keeps one status per criterion for the whole sample. To track page by page, keep one audit per page: download the CSV for a page, start a new audit for the next, and import a file to return to an earlier one. Or record the page in each note.
  • It lists criteria, not techniques. For how to meet or test one, follow its W3C Understanding link.
  • The testability ratings are ours, and a "Can software test it?" label of Automated still leaves edge cases for a person.
  • Your audit lives in one browser. Clearing site data, or closing a private window, deletes it, and another browser or device starts empty. Two people cannot edit one audit at the same time; share a file instead.
  • Spreadsheet programs differ. The CSV follows RFC 4180 and carries a byte order mark, but how a program opens a CSV depends on its version and regional settings. If every column lands in one cell, open the file through the program's text import and choose the comma as the delimiter.

WCAG checklist FAQ

How is this different from the WCAG 2.2 checklist guide?

The guide is a plain-English list of 42 common checks, each in one sentence, for learning what to look for. This tool is the audit tracker: every success criterion at your target level, with a status and notes you can save, filter, export and import. Use the guide to learn and the tracker to record.

Is this the same as a VPAT or an ACR?

No. ITI publishes the VPAT as a template, and a VPAT with documented testing results is called an Accessibility Conformance Report, or ACR (ITI: VPAT). This checklist is a working tracker for your own audit. Its exports are not a VPAT or an ACR and do not claim conformance, though your results can feed one.

How many criteria are in WCAG 2.2 AA?

55: 31 at Level A and 24 at Level AA. Level AA conformance means meeting all the Level A and Level AA criteria (WCAG 2.2 conformance requirements). WCAG 2.2 has 86 in all, with 31 more at Level AAA.

Do I need to meet Level AAA?

Usually not as a blanket target. W3C's note says "It is not recommended that Level AAA conformance be required as a general policy for entire sites" (WCAG 2.2), because some content cannot meet every AAA criterion. You can still select Level AAA here to see all 86 and pick the AAA criteria that suit your content, such as 1.4.6 Contrast (Enhanced).

Can I share my results?

Yes, by exporting a file. Download a CSV, which opens in Excel and other spreadsheet programs, or a Markdown file for a ticket, wiki or pull request, and send it. Whoever receives the CSV can import it into this page to continue the audit. There is no shared online workspace, so two people cannot edit one audit at the same time.

Is my data stored?

Only in your own browser. Statuses, notes, the audit name and the list of pages are saved in this browser's local storage on your device. GotAlt never receives them: the script behind this page has no code that sends anything. Clearing site data, or using a private window, removes the audit, so download a CSV if you want to keep it.

My policy names WCAG 2.1 or 2.0. Can I still use this?

Yes. W3C states that content that conforms to WCAG 2.2 also conforms to WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1, so the list covers what an older policy asks for, with one exception: tick "Also include 4.1.1 Parsing", because authors held to 2.0 or 2.1 by policy may still need to test and report it. The list also goes beyond an older policy: the criteria marked "New in 2.2", and for a 2.0 policy the ones added in 2.1. A note saying which of your rows are extra keeps the results clear. Which WCAG version the law requires explains how to find your version.

See what software can find before you test the rest

The free scan reads your pages and reports what rule-based checks can see: 16 checks across up to three pages, no signup. The rest of the rows are for a person, which is what this tracker is for.

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