Standards & laws
Most accessibility laws around the world point at the same technical baseline: the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Rather than each writing their own rules from scratch, legislators reference WCAG — directly, or through a regional standard such as Europe's EN 301 549. These pages map the issues you'll meet across the Academy to the specific rules that govern them, so you can see at a glance which laws a given fix helps you satisfy.
WCAG is the common core
WCAG 2.2 Level AA is the de-facto technical baseline that most accessibility laws reference — either directly, or indirectly via a harmonised standard like EN 301 549. The legal standards rarely redefine what "accessible" means at the code level; instead they mostly add scope (who must comply, and to which products and services) and process (timelines, monitoring, accessibility statements and enforcement). Get the WCAG layer right and you've done the bulk of the work for nearly every regime below.
| Standard | Region / scope | Relationship to WCAG | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| WCAG 2.2 (W3C) | Global, technical standard | The source specification, defined at three levels (A, AA, AAA). | All web content and applications. |
| EN 301 549 | European Union | Harmonised standard; incorporates WCAG 2.1 AA (moving to 2.2). | Public-sector bodies and, via the EAA, many private digital products and services in the EU. |
| Section 508 | USA (federal) | Incorporates WCAG 2.0 AA by reference. | US federal agencies and the vendors that supply them. |
| Section 504 (Rehabilitation Act) | USA | Predates WCAG; in practice enforced against the WCAG benchmark. | Programs and activities that receive US federal funding. |
| ADA | USA | No codified technical standard historically; courts and the DOJ reference WCAG. | Places of public accommodation (businesses) and employers. |
| ADA Title II | USA (state & local government) | DOJ 2024 rule sets WCAG 2.1 AA as the standard. | US state and local government web and mobile services. |
| AODA | Canada (Ontario) | Requires WCAG 2.0 Level AA. | Ontario public-sector and large private organisations. |
| ACA (Accessible Canada Act) | Canada (federal) | Aligns to WCAG and EN 301 549. | Federally regulated entities in Canada. |
| EAA (European Accessibility Act) | European Union | Relies on EN 301 549 and, through it, WCAG. | Consumer products and services — e-commerce, banking, e-books, transport — from 2025. |
| UK Equality Act 2010 | United Kingdom | WCAG 2.x AA is used as the practical compliance benchmark. | Service providers and public bodies in the UK. |
| Israeli Standard 5568 | Israel | Based on WCAG 2.0 Level AA. | Israeli websites and services, public and many private. |
| PDF/UA-1 & 2 (ISO 14289) | Global | Document accessibility standard that complements WCAG for PDFs. | Accessible PDF documents. |
The WCAG 2.2 success criteria
Every standard above ultimately points at the same testable checkpoints. Browse them all, filtered by principle, level, or keyword.
Standard reference pages
WCAG 2.2
The W3C technical standard nearly every law references.
EN 301 549
The EU harmonised ICT accessibility standard.
Section 508
US federal ICT — incorporates WCAG 2.0 AA.
ADA & ADA Title II
US civil-rights law; WCAG as the benchmark.
European Accessibility Act
EU consumer products & services, from 2025.
AODA
Ontario, Canada — WCAG 2.0 AA.
Israeli Standard 5568
Israel — WCAG 2.0 AA, with RTL in practice.
PDF/UA
ISO 14289 — accessible PDF documents.
Fixes by topic
Head to Learn to browse fixes by topic and see which laws every pattern helps you satisfy.