The following examples show how to reference WCAG 2.1 in various situations. For additional guidance, see Referencing and Linking to WAI Guidelines and Technical Documents.
Please note that the following language for referencing WCAG 2.1 can be inserted into your own documents.
Information references
When referencing WCAG 2.1 in an informational fashion, the following format can be used.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, W3C World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation XX Month Year (https://www.w3.org/TR/YYYY/REC-WCAG21-YYYYMMDD/, Latest version at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/)
When referring to WCAG 2.1 from another standard with a "should" statement
When referencing WCAG 2.1 from within a should statement in a standard (or advisory statement in a regulation), then the full WCAG 2.1 should be referenced. This would mean that all three levels of WCAG 2.1 should be considered but that none are required. The format for referencing WCAG 2.1 from a "should" statement therefore, is:
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, W3C World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation XX Month Year. (https://www.w3.org/TR/YYYY/REC-WCAG21-YYYYMMDD/)
When referring to WCAG 2.1 from another standard with a "shall or must" statement
When citing WCAG 2.1 as part of a requirement (e.g., a shall or must statement in a standard or regulation), the reference must include the specific parts of WCAG 2.1 that are intended to be required. When referencing WCAG 2.1 in this manner, the following rules apply:
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Conformance at any level of WCAG 2.1 requires that all of the Level A Success Criteria be met. References to WCAG 2.1 conformance cannot be for any subset of Level A.
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Beyond Level A, a "shall or must" reference may include any subset of provisions in Levels AA and AAA. For example, "all of Level A and [some specific list of Success Criteria in Level AA and Level AAA]" be met.
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If Level AA conformance to WCAG 2.1 is specified, then all Level A and all Level AA Success Criteria must be met.
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If Level AAA conformance to WCAG 2.1 is specified, then all Level A, all Level AA, and all Level AAA Success Criteria must be met.
Note 1: It is not recommended that Level AAA conformance ever be required for entire sites as a general policy because it is not possible to satisfy all Level AAA Success Criteria for some content.
Note 2: The sets of Success Criteria defined in WCAG are interdependent and individual Success Criteria rely on each other's definitions in ways which may not be immediately obvious to the reader. Any set of Success Criteria must include all of the Level A provisions.
Examples
To cite only the Level A Success Criteria (Single-A conformance):
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, W3C World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation XX Month Year, Level A Success Criteria. (https://www.w3.org/TR/YYYY/REC-WCAG21-YYYYMMDD/)
To cite the Levels A and AA Success Criteria (Double-A conformance):
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, W3C World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation XX Month Year, Level A & Level AA Success Criteria. (https://www.w3.org/TR/YYYY/REC-WCAG21-YYYYMMDD/)
To cite Level A Success Criteria and selected Success Criteria from Level AA and Level AAA:
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, W3C World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation XX Month Year, Level A Success Criteria plus Success Criteria 1.x.x, 2.y.y, … 3.z.z. (https://www.w3.org/TR/YYYY/REC-WCAG21-YYYYMMDD/)
Example of use of a WCAG reference in a "shall or must" statement.
All Web content on publicly available Web sites shall conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, W3C World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation XX Month Year, Level A Success Criteria plus Success Criteria 1.2.3, 2.4.5-6, 3.1.2 (https://www.w3.org/TR/YYYY/REC-WCAG21-YYYYMMDD/)
Referring to content from WCAG support documents
Techniques, which are listed in Understanding WCAG 2.1 and described in other supporting documents, are not part of the normative WCAG 2.1 Recommendation and should not be cited using the citation for the WCAG 2.1 Recommendation itself. References to techniques in support documents should be cited separately.
Techniques can be cited based on the individual Technique document or on the master WCAG 2.1 Techniques document. For example, the technique "Using alt attributes on img elements" could be cited as
"Using alt attributes on img elements," W3C World Wide Web Consortium Note. (URI: {URI of technique})
or
W3C World Wide Web Consortium (200x): WCAG2.0 HTML Techniques (URI: {URI of HTML Techniques})
Techniques are not designed to be referenced as "required" from any standard or regulation.Standards and regulations should not make any specific technique mandatory, though they may choose to recommend techniques.