WCAG 2.2 explained, plainly

WCAG 2.2 was published by the World Wide Web Consortium in October 2023, and Australian government services and Disability Discrimination Act compliance work increasingly reference it as the operating standard. This guide covers what changed, what each new success criterion actually requires, and how content teams can incrementally bring an existing site up to AA conformance without a full rebuild.

What is new in 2.2

WCAG 2.2 is fully backwards-compatible with 2.1. If a site conforms to 2.2 it also conforms to 2.1 and 2.0. Nine new success criteria were added across Levels A, AA and AAA, and one criterion (4.1.1 Parsing) was removed because modern browsers no longer require it.

The new criteria largely respond to gaps that emerged for users with cognitive disabilities, low vision and limited dexterity. Several address the gap between desktop-era patterns and mobile interaction, particularly drag actions, tap target sizing, and visible focus indicators that survive content density.

The nine new success criteria, in plain English

2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum), AA

When a user tabs to an element, the element must not be entirely hidden behind another element such as a sticky header, cookie banner or floating chat widget. Partial obscuration is allowed, but the focused control must be at least partially visible.

How this fails most often: a sticky header at 80px tall covers the focused element when the page is scrolled to it via keyboard. Fix: add scroll-padding-top: 80px; to the html element so anchored navigation accounts for the header.

2.4.12 Focus Not Obscured (Enhanced), AAA

Same as the minimum, but the focused element must be entirely visible, not partially. Worth meeting for AAA conformance and for any service-design context where the audience includes screen-magnification users.

2.4.13 Focus Appearance, AAA

The focus indicator must meet specific size and contrast thresholds: at least 2 CSS pixels thick around the focused control, with a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 against adjacent colours. The default browser focus ring (a thin blue dotted line) often fails this in modern browsers and themes.

2.5.7 Dragging Movements, AA

Anything that requires a drag motion (a slider, a kanban card, a map pan) must also have a single-pointer alternative. Reorder lists must offer up/down buttons. Sliders must accept arrow key input. Map zoom must offer plus and minus buttons.

2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum), AA

Interactive targets must be at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, unless they are inline within a block of text, in a sentence or list of links, or are equivalent to a control that is at least 24 by 24 pixels elsewhere on the page. The earlier 44 by 44 recommendation in WCAG 2.5.5 (AAA) is unchanged.

This is the criterion that catches the most existing sites on audit. Pagination controls, footer link grids, mobile menu toggles and small icon buttons frequently fall under 24 pixels.

3.2.6 Consistent Help, A

If help mechanisms (contact details, a chat widget, a frequently asked questions link, a self-service portal link) appear on multiple pages, they must appear in the same relative order each time. The intent is to support users who navigate by remembered location.

3.3.7 Redundant Entry, A

Information a user has already provided in a process should not be requested again unless re-entry is essential, the previously entered information is no longer valid, or the information is sensitive. Common failures: shipping and billing address forms that do not offer a "same as shipping" option, or multi-step flows that drop entered values on a back navigation.

3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum), AA

Authentication must not require a cognitive function test (memorising a password, recognising and counting objects, solving a puzzle) unless an alternative is provided. Common alternatives: password manager support (do not block paste into password fields, ever), magic-link email auth, single sign-on, or biometric authentication.

3.3.9 Accessible Authentication (Enhanced), AAA

Same as the minimum, with the additional restriction that recognition tests on personal content (selecting your own photo from a grid) are also disallowed without an alternative.

The criterion that was removed

4.1.1 Parsing was retired in WCAG 2.2. The criterion required documents to have correctly nested elements and unique IDs, but modern browsers parse and recover from malformed HTML reliably enough that the criterion no longer represents a real-world barrier. Sites tested under 2.1 that previously failed 4.1.1 should still fix the underlying markup issues, but they no longer count against AA conformance.

Where this lands in Australia

The Australian Government's Digital Service Standard requires services to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. As at 2026, official guidance has not yet been updated to mandate 2.2, but the Digital Transformation Agency, several state governments, and most enterprise procurement frameworks already reference 2.2 as the working target. New tenders increasingly include 2.2 AA as the baseline.

For a fuller treatment of how this maps to legal obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, see DDA compliance and WCAG AA in Australia.

If you only fix three things first

Across the audits we run, three of the new criteria account for the majority of the failures we see on existing Australian sites. If you have limited engineering time, prioritise these:

1. 2.5.8 Target Size. Audit your pagination, mobile menu, social icons, and any icon-only buttons. Most fail. Fix is usually a single padding adjustment in CSS.
2. 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured. If you have a sticky header, add scroll-padding-top to the root element. Five-line fix, zero design change.
3. 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication. Confirm your login forms allow paste into password fields and your sign-up flow does not include a cognitive captcha without a non-cognitive alternative.