About ACT Rules

This set of Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules provides guidance for developers of automated testing tools and manual testing methodologies for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. It is part of a series of technical guidance published by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to support WCAG 2.1. For an introduction to WCAG, supporting technical guidance, and educational material, see Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview.

WCAG 2.1 itself is a stable document that does not change. This set of ACT Rules is updated periodically to cover more current best practices and changes in technologies and tools.

ACT Rules are informative — that means they are not required. The basis for determining conformance to WCAG 2.1 is the success criteria from the WCAG 2.1 standard — not the ACT Rules.

This set of ACT Rules is not intended to be used as a stand-alone resource. Instead, it is expected that developers of automated testing tools and manual testing methodologies will usually use How to Meet WCAG 2.1: A customizable quick reference to read the WCAG success criteria, and follow links from there to specific topics in Understanding WCAG 2.1, specific techniques, and ACT Rules.

For important information about ACT Rules, please see the Understanding ACT Rules for WCAG Success Criteria section of Understanding WCAG 2.1.