What Is WCAG 2.2, and What Changed from 2.1?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 became a W3C Recommendation in October 2023. It is fully backwards-compatible with WCAG 2.1 — everything that conformed to 2.1 still conforms — and it adds nine new success criteria. One criterion from earlier versions, 4.1.1 Parsing, was also removed because modern browsers handle the parsing edge cases it covered.

If you already conform to WCAG 2.1 AA, moving to 2.2 AA means checking your product against six new criteria (the AA and A ones); the remaining three are Level AAA.

The new Level A & AA criteria

• 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) — AA. When a component receives keyboard focus, it must not be entirely hidden by other content, such as a sticky header or a cookie banner.
• 2.4.12 Focus Not Obscured (Enhanced) — AAA. The stricter version: no part of the focused component may be hidden.
• 2.4.13 Focus Appearance — AAA. Sets a minimum size and contrast for the focus indicator itself.
• 2.5.7 Dragging Movements — AA. Any action that uses dragging must also work with a single pointer without dragging — for example, a sortable list should also offer up/down buttons.
• 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) — AA. Interactive targets must be at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or have enough spacing around them, with some exceptions for inline links.
• 3.2.6 Consistent Help — A. If a help mechanism (contact link, chat, FAQ) appears on multiple pages, it must appear in the same relative order.
• 3.3.7 Redundant Entry — A. Do not force users to re-enter information they already provided in the same process; auto-populate it or let them select it.
• 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) — AA. Do not require a cognitive function test (like solving a puzzle or transcribing characters) to log in, unless an alternative exists.
• 3.3.9 Accessible Authentication (Enhanced) — AAA. The same principle with fewer exceptions.

What this means for a real audit

Most of these criteria are about making existing interactions robust, not adding features. In our audits, the two that most often surface new issues are:

1. Target Size (2.5.8) — icon-only buttons, close (×) controls, and densely packed toolbars frequently fall below 24×24px.
2. Focus Not Obscured (2.4.11) — sticky headers are everywhere, and they routinely cover a focused element when you tab down a long form.

Both are cheap to fix once found, and both are hard to catch without testing keyboard focus on a real page — which is exactly why automated-only scans miss them.

In short: WCAG 2.2 is an incremental, additive update. If you are commissioning a new audit in 2026, ask for it against 2.2 AA — there is no reason to target the older version.