WCAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, is the international standard that defines how to make websites and apps usable for people with disabilities. Published by the W3C, it is the reference almost every accessibility law and contract points to when it asks for a site to be ‘accessible’.
The guidelines are built on four ideas, often remembered as POUR: content must be perceivable, operable, understandable and stable under different tools. In plain terms, that means a blind person can hear an image described, a keyboard user can reach every link without a mouse, text has enough contrast to read in bright sunlight, and the page keeps working with a screen reader or magnifier. It is the rulebook behind real accessibility, turning a vague wish to be inclusive into criteria you can actually check off one by one.
WCAG comes in three levels: A, AA and AAA. Level AA is the practical target, the one most regulations and procurement rules name, including the duties tied to the European Accessibility Act. You do not need to memorise the spec to benefit from it. Testing against AA during a UX audit catches most of the issues that would otherwise lock people out, frustrate paying customers and quietly expose you to legal risk you never saw coming.
At TopDevs we build to WCAG 2.1 AA by default, so the sites we ship stay open to every visitor and on the right side of the rules without a costly retrofit later. Baking it in from the first line is far cheaper than bolting it on once a complaint lands.
