WCAG 2.1 AA
WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the conformance target named by the ADA Title II web rule. WCAG is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines from the W3C; version 2.1 was published in 2018, and Level AA comprises the 30 Level A criteria plus 20 more — 50 success criteria in total.
| Failure | What a family experiences | Fixed by |
|---|---|---|
| Text contrast below 4.5:1 | Light grey body text unreadable in sunlight or with low vision | Design system, once |
| Images with no alternative text | A screen reader announces "image" and nothing else | Whoever uploads, every time |
| Focus indicator removed | A keyboard user cannot tell where they are on the page | Front-end code, once |
| Form fields without labels | An enrolment form is unusable without a mouse and sight | Front-end code, once |
| Video without captions | A deaf parent cannot follow the superintendent's closure message | Whoever publishes, every time |
| Untagged PDF | The document is an image; nothing is readable | Authoring workflow |
| Content that breaks on zoom or narrow screens | Horizontal scrolling at 400% zoom, or on a phone | Front-end code, once |
| Colour used alone to convey meaning | A red "action required" row reads as an ordinary row | Design system, once |
| Link text reading "click here" | A link list gives no information out of context | Whoever writes, every time |
How the guidelines are organised
Four principles, usually remembered as POUR. Content must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Under those sit guidelines, and under those sit testable success criteria, each assigned a level.
Level A is the floor — without it, whole groups cannot use the content at all. Level AA is the conventional compliance target and the one named in the Title II rule. Level AAA includes criteria that cannot reasonably be met for all content, which is why no serious policy requires it site-wide; the W3C says so itself.
What 2.1 added over 2.0 is mostly about mobile and low vision: reflow without horizontal scrolling, non-text contrast for interface components and graphics, text spacing that survives user overrides, orientation not being locked, and identifying the purpose of input fields so autofill works. Those five sound minor and are responsible for a large share of the difference on a phone.
WCAG 2.2 was published in 2023 and adds further criteria. Districts should build to 2.1 AA because that is what the rule names, and treat 2.2 as the direction of travel.
What this means for school communications specifically
School communication is not a website. It is a stream of short documents produced quickly by non-specialists, and that changes which criteria bite:
- The newsletter. Heading structure, real text rather than an image of text, meaningful link text, alternative text on every photograph.
- The email. Contrast in the template, a plain-text alternative, and no critical information carried only in an image.
- The attached PDF. The most common failure by volume. If it was scanned, it is a picture.
- The embedded video. Captions, and a transcript where the audio carries the substance.
- The SMS. Effectively exempt as plain text, which is a genuine argument for putting the essential sentence in the text message rather than only in the attachment.
- The translated version. It needs the correct language attribute so a screen reader pronounces it properly, and the same structural care as the original.
Where Kastr is. We have not audited against WCAG 2.1 AA, have no Accessibility Conformance Report, and run no automated accessibility checks in CI. The parts of our product that reduce the risk are structural rather than certified: messages are text and translated text, we ship no attachments or file uploads at all, and translation is applied per family rather than by a widget bolted onto a page. That is a smaller surface, not a conformance claim.
Practical sequencing
Districts that make progress tend to do it in this order, because the first items are one-time engineering and the later ones are permanent habits:
- Fix the design system. Contrast, focus indicators, form labels and heading structure are set once in a template and stop recurring.
- Automate what can be automated. Machine testing catches roughly a third of issues — contrast, missing labels, missing alternative text — and catching a third continuously beats catching everything once a year.
- Test with a keyboard and a screen reader. Fifteen minutes on the five pages families actually use will find things no scanner reports.
- Change the authoring workflow. Alternative text, captions and tagged documents are produced by the person creating the content or they are not produced.
- Then buy an audit, when it will tell you something you do not already know.
Questions people actually ask
Is WCAG 2.1 AA legally required for schools?
The DOJ's ADA Title II rule adopts WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for the web content and mobile apps of public entities, with compliance dates in 2026 and 2027 depending on entity classification. Section 508 and various state laws apply in adjacent circumstances. Confirm the position for your district with counsel.
What is the difference between WCAG Level A, AA and AAA?
A is the minimum without which some people cannot use the content at all. AA adds requirements such as 4.5:1 text contrast, reflow without horizontal scrolling and visible focus, and is the standard compliance target. AAA includes criteria that cannot be satisfied for all content types, so it is not used as a site-wide requirement.
Do PDFs sent to families need to be accessible?
A PDF a district provides is web content for these purposes. A scanned document with no text layer is inaccessible by construction. The pre-existing document exception is narrow and does not cover documents families are being asked to use now.
Does a translated page have its own accessibility requirements?
Yes. The translated content needs the correct language attribute so assistive technology pronounces it correctly, and it carries the same structure, contrast and link-text requirements as the original. Translation and accessibility are frequently owned by different teams, which is why this is missed.
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