WCAG 2.2 in practice: the nine new success criteria, explained

A quick map before we start. Of the nine new criteria, two are Level A, four are Level AA, and three are AAA. If you target AA — the level virtually every policy asks for, and the EAA's EN 301 549 baseline once it adopts 2.2 — six new criteria affect you:

New WCAG 2.2 success criteria and their levels

Criterion	Level	One-line summary
2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum)	AA	The focused element can't be fully hidden by sticky UI
2.4.12 Focus Not Obscured (Enhanced)	AAA	…not even partially hidden
2.4.13 Focus Appearance	AAA	Focus indicators must be big and contrasty enough
2.5.7 Dragging Movements	AA	Anything draggable needs a non-drag alternative
2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum)	AA	Touch targets ≥ 24×24 CSS px (with exceptions)
3.2.6 Consistent Help	A	Help mechanisms appear in the same place on every page
3.3.7 Redundant Entry	A	Don't make users re-type what they already told you
3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum)	AA	No cognitive puzzles to log in
3.3.9 Accessible Authentication (Enhanced)	AAA	…no exceptions for object recognition

2.4.11 — Focus Not Obscured (Minimum)

When an element receives keyboard focus, it must not be entirely hidden by author-created content. The usual offenders: sticky headers, cookie banners, and chat widgets. Tab through a long form on a page with a sticky footer and watch where the focused field lands.

The cheap, robust fix is CSS:

html {
  scroll-padding-top: 5rem;    /* height of your sticky header */
  scroll-padding-bottom: 4rem; /* height of your sticky footer */
}

2.5.7 — Dragging Movements

Every drag interaction — sortable lists, sliders, kanban cards, map panning — needs a single-pointer alternative that doesn't require dragging. Not everyone can hold-and-move a pointer precisely; many people navigate with switches, head pointers, or tremoring hands.

• Sortable list → add "move up / move down" buttons (they can be in a menu).
• Slider → make it focusable and clickable along the track, or add a number input.
• Kanban card → add a "move to column…" action.

2.5.8 — Target Size (Minimum)

Interactive targets need at least 24×24 CSS pixels — or equivalent free space around them. Inline links in prose are exempt, as are targets where the small size is essential. The classic failure is an icon-button row at 20×20 with zero gap. You don't have to grow the icon; you can grow the hit area:

.icon-btn {
  /* visual size stays 20px; target becomes 24px+ */
  padding: 4px;
}

3.2.6 — Consistent Help

If you offer a help mechanism — contact link, phone number, chat widget, FAQ link — it must appear in the same relative place on every page in the set. This is a Level A criterion and almost free to pass: put help in the footer (or header) site-wide and don't move it.

3.3.7 — Redundant Entry

Within a single process, don't ask for the same information twice unless re-entry is essential (password confirmation is fine) or the previous value is no longer valid. Shipping address asked on step 2 must be selectable — not re-typeable — on step 4. Autofill the value or offer a "same as shipping" checkbox.

3.3.8 — Accessible Authentication (Minimum)

Logging in must not require a cognitive function test — memorizing, transcribing, or solving — unless an alternative or assistance exists. Concretely:

• Don't block paste in password fields. Password managers are the assistive technology here.
• Don't require transcription of codes the user can't copy (e.g., reading a code from one device and typing it on the same device).
• Traditional CAPTCHAs that ask users to identify distorted text fail; object-recognition CAPTCHAs ("select the bicycles") survive at AA but fail at AAA (3.3.9).
• Passkeys, magic links, and OAuth flows pass elegantly.

And one removal: 4.1.1 Parsing is gone

WCAG 2.2 removed 4.1.1 (Parsing) — modern browsers and assistive tech no longer choke on the markup errors it guarded against. Duplicate IDs and malformed nesting can still cause real failures, but they're now reported under the criteria they actually break, like 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.

How to adopt 2.2 without a project

Five of the six new A/AA criteria are pattern-level: fix the design system once (focus styles, target sizes, help placement, form autofill, auth flow) and every product page inherits the pass. That's also why automated, code-level checking works well for 2.2 — the failures live in components, not in content.