How do the ADA and Section 508 relate to WCAG?

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act explicitly adopts WCAG 2.0 Level AA (with later updates moving toward 2.1) as its technical standard for federal ICT. The ADA does not name a version in statute, but courts and the Department of Justice consistently treat WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the practical benchmark for Title III web accessibility.

What is the difference between Level A and Level AA?

WCAG defines three conformance levels. Level A is the minimum and covers the most fundamental barriers, such as text alternatives and keyboard access. Level AA adds stricter requirements like 4.5:1 contrast, captions, and resize support. Both ADA practice and Section 508 require meeting Level A and AA together.

How is the conformance score calculated?

The tool counts only the criteria you mark as applicable, ignoring any set to N/A. The score is the number of Pass items divided by the number of applicable items, expressed as a percentage. A single failed Level A criterion is still a real barrier even if the overall percentage looks high.

Does passing every item here guarantee legal compliance?

No. This is a structured self-assessment, not an audit. Real conformance requires testing with assistive technology, manual review by trained evaluators, and often a formal Accessibility Conformance Report (VPAT). Treat failures here as confirmed gaps and passes as candidates for verification.

Does this cover documents and mobile, not just web?

The WCAG success criteria apply across web pages, web applications, mobile apps, and electronic documents such as PDFs. The same criteria — text alternatives, contrast, keyboard operation, and so on — are interpreted for each platform, so use this checklist for any digital deliverable in scope.

ADA / Section 508 Accessibility Checklist

US accessibility law is anchored to WCAG. Section 508 adopts WCAG Level AA for federal information and communication technology, and ADA Title III enforcement treats the same standard as the practical bar for public-facing digital products. This checklist lets you self-assess against the core WCAG 2.1 A/AA criteria and produces a prioritised remediation list.

How it works

Each criterion is scored Pass, Fail, or N/A. The conformance score counts only the applicable items:

applicable = total criteria − (criteria marked N/A)
score      = passes / applicable × 100

Failures are grouped by WCAG level so that Level A barriers — the most fundamental — surface above Level AA refinements. A high percentage with even one open Level A failure still means a critical barrier remains.

Notes and tips

Self-assessment is the start, not the finish. Verify passes with a screen reader and keyboard-only navigation, and have trained evaluators confirm anything ambiguous before you record it as conformant. Document the result in a VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) when supplying US federal agencies. This checklist covers web, mobile, and document deliverables, since the same success criteria apply to all of them.