Overview
WCAG 2.2 shipped in October 2023. Store owners keep asking whether the standard they are auditing against just went stale. Short answer: no. WCAG 2.1 AA remains the legal benchmark, and 2.2’s additions are small enough to adopt on top. This page covers exactly what changed and what it means for a store.
Background on how the standard works is in WCAG 2.1 for Shopify.
What 2.2 is
WCAG versions are additive: 2.2 keeps everything from 2.1 and adds nine success criteria, six at the A and AA levels and three at AAA. It also retires exactly one criterion, 4.1.1 Parsing, which modern browsers made obsolete. Conform to 2.2 AA and you conform to 2.1 AA automatically.
The new AA criteria that matter for stores
- 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured. Your sticky header or cookie banner must not completely hide the element that has keyboard focus. Stores with sticky everything fail this constantly.
- 2.5.7 Dragging Movements. Anything drag-based, like price range sliders or image comparison tools, needs a non-drag alternative such as input fields or buttons.
- 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum). Touch targets need to be at least 24 by 24 pixels. Tiny quantity steppers and close buttons are the usual offenders.
- 3.3.7 Redundant Entry. Do not make users re-type information within the same session. “Billing same as shipping” must be a checkbox, not a second identical form.
- 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication. Login cannot require a memory puzzle. Password fields must allow paste and password managers.
Notice the pattern: 2.2’s additions target mobile and cognitive accessibility, which is exactly where ecommerce UX lives. These are good product decisions even before they are compliance ones. Fixing them also tends to lift conversion for every customer, not just those using assistive technology.
Which version to target
Legally: 2.1 AA. The DOJ’s 2024 rule adopted 2.1 AA. Settlements cite 2.1 AA. Courts reference 2.1 AA. That is where your audit should anchor, and where ours does.
Practically: 2.1 AA plus the five criteria above. The additions cost little, mostly touch-target sizes and form logic, and they future-proof you for when legal language catches up. Settlement agreements have already started referencing 2.2 in some cases, so the gap is closing.
Example
A store’s mobile product page has a sticky add-to-cart bar. Under 2.1 it passes. Under 2.2, tabbing to the size selector puts keyboard focus underneath the sticky bar, which is a 2.4.11 failure. The fix is one line of scroll-padding CSS. Cheap to fix now, and the kind of detail that shows up in a complaint later once plaintiffs’ firms start citing 2.2.
Common mistake
Waiting for “WCAG 3” before doing anything. WCAG 3 has been years away for years. It is a research project, not a deadline, and no date exists for it becoming a standard anyone enforces. The enforceable standard today is 2.x, the failures that trigger lawsuits are the same ones from the common failures list, and both are fully knowable right now.