The standards and frameworks, explained

1. First, four kinds of document

Before any names, learn this. Every document in our field is one of four things, and people argue for hours because they are comparing a law to a technique.

The important relationship is the middle two. Laws are usually vague and standards are usually precise. A law says "your website must be accessible". That is impossible to test. So the law points at a standard, and the standard says "text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1". Now you can measure it. That pointing is the single most useful thing to understand about this whole field.

2. How they stack up

Picture four layers. Each one gets more specific as you go down.

Read it as a sentence. A right becomes a law, the law borrows a standard so it can be measured, and the standard is met using techniques. Every name below sits on one of those four layers.

3. Digital and web accessibility

WCAG 2.2

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This is the one you will use most, by a wide margin. It is written by the W3C and it covers content, meaning websites, web apps and anything delivered through a browser. Version 2.2 became the official recommendation in October 2023.

It is organised under four principles, remembered as POUR.

• Perceivable. People can sense the content. Images have text alternatives, videos have captions, contrast is strong enough.
• Operable. People can drive it. It works with a keyboard, nothing rushes them, nothing flashes dangerously.
• Understandable. People can make sense of it. Language is declared, behaviour is predictable, errors are explained.
• Robust. It survives contact with assistive technology. Names, roles and values are exposed correctly.

Under those four sit success criteria, each graded A, AA or AAA. A is the bare minimum, AA is what almost every law asks for, and AAA is excellent but not always achievable for all content. When someone says "we need to be compliant", they nearly always mean WCAG 2.2 level AA.

One more thing worth carrying into a meeting. Since 21 October 2025 WCAG 2.2 has also been an ISO standard, ISO/IEC 40500:2025. Nothing about the criteria changed, and it is still the same document. What changed is who can point at it. Plenty of governments and large buyers can only cite an ISO number in a procurement rule, and now there is one, which is how WCAG 2.0 spread after it became ISO/IEC 40500:2012. If a tender or a policy will not accept "a W3C recommendation", give it the ISO number instead. It is the same standard.

WAI-ARIA

Accessible Rich Internet Applications. A set of extra HTML attributes that describe custom widgets to assistive technology. If you build a tab set out of plain divs, a screen reader has no idea it is a tab set. ARIA lets you say role="tab" and aria-selected="true" so it does.

ARIA is a helper, not a replacement for good HTML. The official first rule of ARIA says that if a native HTML element already does the job, use that instead. A real <button> beats a div with role="button" every time, because the real one already handles focus and the keyboard for you. Badly used ARIA actively makes things worse, which is why the saying goes "no ARIA is better than bad ARIA".

ATAG 2.0

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines. This one is about the tools people use to make content, such as a CMS, a website builder, a rich text editor or a video editor. It has two halves and both are useful.

• Part A. The tool itself must be accessible, so a blind editor can use the CMS to publish an article.
• Part B. The tool must help the author produce accessible content, for example by prompting for alt text and refusing to let you skip heading levels.

This matters more than teams expect. If you fix one website you fix one website. If a client picks an ATAG friendly CMS, every article their staff publish for the next five years starts out better.

UAAG

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines. This covers browsers, media players and assistive technologies themselves. You will rarely be asked to implement it, because you are probably not writing a browser. It is useful for procurement and for understanding why a browser behaves the way it does.

4. ICT and software accessibility

EN 301 549

The European standard for accessible ICT procurement. Think of it as "WCAG plus everything WCAG does not cover". It applies not just to websites but to software, mobile apps, documents, hardware, self service terminals such as ATMs and ticket machines, and support services.

Its most important feature is that it contains WCAG rather than competing with it. The current published version, v3.2.1, takes WCAG 2.1 level AA and applies it to web content, documents and software. A revision that incorporates WCAG 2.2 has been expected for some time. If you meet WCAG for the web parts, you have already met a large chunk of EN 301 549, and then you deal with the extra clauses about hardware and biometrics.

ISO/IEC 30071-1

A code of practice for building accessibility into an organisation, rather than into a product. It is about process. Policies, roles, who signs off, how accessibility enters the development lifecycle, and how you keep it going after the launch party.

Use it when a client says "we fixed the site last year and it broke again". That is not a WCAG problem, it is a process problem, and this is the standard that addresses it.

ISO 9241-171

Ergonomics guidance for accessible software design. ISO 9241 is a huge family about human and system interaction, and part 171 is the accessibility part. It is broader than the web, so it is a good reference for desktop applications, kiosks and installed software where WCAG does not map neatly.

ISO/IEC 29138 series

This one describes user accessibility needs rather than technical requirements. Part 1 lists the needs that different users have of a system. Part 3 shows how to map those needs against the clauses of any particular standard.

It is the answer to a question that comes up in every serious audit. "We passed the checklist, but did we actually meet anyone's needs?" This series gives you the vocabulary to answer that honestly.

5. Documents and content

PDF/UA, also known as ISO 14289

UA stands for Universal Accessibility. It defines what makes a PDF genuinely usable by assistive technology, which comes down to tagging. A tagged PDF knows that this line is a heading, that block is a table with these column headers, and this picture has this alt text. An untagged PDF is just ink positions on a page, and a screen reader can do almost nothing with it.

There are two live versions. PDF/UA-1 is based on PDF 1.7 and PDF/UA-2 is based on PDF 2.0. For our work the practical message stays the same. Export from the source document with a real export process, keep the tags, then check reading order.

EPUB Accessibility, also known as ISO/IEC 23761

The same idea for ebooks. It sets what an EPUB must do to count as accessible, and it also covers discoverability metadata, meaning the book itself carries a machine readable note about how accessible it is. That lets a reader search a library and filter for books they can actually read, which is a genuinely nice idea.

ISO/IEC 23859

Requirements and recommendations for making written text easy to read and understand. This is the plain language and easy read standard. It covers wording, structure and layout so that readers can find what they need, understand it and use it.

Pair it with WCAG. WCAG will tell you the contrast is fine. It will not tell you that the sentence is 60 words long and full of legal jargon. This standard covers that gap, and it matters enormously for people with cognitive disabilities, for people reading in a second language, and honestly for everyone who is in a hurry.

ISO/IEC 20071 series

A family of standards on individual interface components, where each part goes deep on one thing. The parts you are most likely to cite are these.

• Part 11. Guidance on text alternatives for images, which is alt text done thoroughly.
• Part 23. Visual presentation of audio information, meaning captions and subtitles.
• Part 5. Accessible user interfaces for accessibility settings, in other words making sure the accessibility menu is itself accessible.
• Part 20. Developing accessible audiovisual content.

You do not need to memorise the numbers. You need to know that when a client asks "how detailed should our alt text be, really?", there is an international standard with an answer, and quoting it ends the argument faster than an opinion does.

6. Built environment

ISO 21542

The international standard for accessibility and usability of the built environment. It is the closest thing to a worldwide reference for buildings. It covers the approach to the site, entrances, circulation inside, signage, lighting, sanitary facilities and, importantly, getting out safely in an emergency.

That last part is often forgotten. Plenty of buildings will happily let a wheelchair user in through a lovely accessible entrance, and have no plan at all for getting them out if the fire alarm goes and the lifts shut down. Evacuation is part of accessibility.

ISO 23599

Tactile walking surface indicators, which are those bumpy and ribbed tiles you feel underfoot. There are two types and mixing them up is a real safety problem.

• Warning or attention indicators use raised domes or blisters. They mean stop, something is about to change, such as a road edge or the top of a staircase.
• Guiding or directional indicators use raised bars running in the direction of travel. They mean follow me this way.

Laying guiding bars where a warning is needed can walk a blind person straight into traffic. When auditing, always check the type, the colour contrast against the surrounding surface, and whether the path actually leads somewhere sensible.

BS 8300

The British standard for designing an accessible and inclusive built environment. It comes in two parts. Part 1 covers the external environment, meaning parking, approach routes and getting to the entrance. Part 2 covers inside the building.

BS 8300 is prized because it explains why, not only what. It is based on user trials, so it tells you the reasoning behind a dimension, which makes it far more useful when you have to make a judgement call on an awkward existing building.

ADA Standards for Accessible Design

The American technical rules, most recently the 2010 edition. These are the numbers most people quote worldwide, partly because they are free to read online and written very clearly. They are American law, so they do not apply in the Maldives, but as a technical reference they are excellent and we use them constantly for worked examples.

7. Tourism

ISO 21902

Accessible tourism for all. This is a big deal for the Maldives specifically, so it is worth knowing well. It sets requirements across the whole tourism chain, not one building at a time. Policy, destination management, transport, accommodation, restaurants, excursions, events, booking, information and staff training all sit inside it.

The reason it exists is the weakest link problem. A resort can build perfect accessible villas, and it means nothing if the guest cannot get information before booking, cannot board the transfer boat, and cannot reach the restaurant on sand. ISO 21902 asks you to look at the whole journey from the moment someone starts dreaming about a trip to the moment they get home.

8. Laws and regulatory frameworks

UN CRPD

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in 2006. It is the treaty that sits above everything else. Two articles come up in our work again and again. Article 9 is accessibility, covering the physical environment, transport, information and communications. Article 21 is access to information, covering the right to receive information in accessible formats.

The Maldives signed the CRPD on 2 October 2007 and ratified it on 5 April 2010, and the Disability Act, Law Number 8/2010, came the same year. That matters for us. When a Maldivian client asks "is any of this actually required here?", the honest answer is that the country has committed at treaty level and has national law, even though there is no dedicated national web accessibility standard yet. That gap is exactly where our advisory work sits.

There is now something more concrete to point at. The CRPD Committee reviewed the Maldives for the first time at its 33rd session and adopted its concluding observations on 25 August 2025, published as CRPD/C/MDV/CO/1. That is a set of formal recommendations to this country, on the record, from the body that oversees the treaty. In a room where the argument has been going in circles, it is a much stronger thing to cite than a general appeal, and it is worth reading before your next conversation with a ministry. The laws page has the reference.

Americans with Disabilities Act

The 1990 US civil rights law. It bans discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, public services and places of public accommodation. It is the most litigated accessibility law in the world by a large margin, and thousands of web accessibility lawsuits are filed under it every year.

Section 508

A US procurement rule. It requires federal agencies to buy and build accessible ICT. The difference from the ADA in one line. The ADA is about not discriminating against people. Section 508 is about what the government is allowed to purchase. Section 508 now aligns with WCAG.

European Accessibility Act

An EU directive whose obligations began to apply on 28 June 2025. It is important because it reaches into the private sector. It covers e-commerce, banking, e-books, transport ticketing, telecoms and consumer computing hardware.

It also reaches outside Europe. If you sell to consumers in the EU, it can apply to you regardless of where you are based. There is an exemption for micro enterprises, meaning fewer than 10 staff and either turnover or a balance sheet total under two million euro. Read that exemption carefully before you rely on it, because it only covers services. A micro enterprise that makes or sells a covered product is still on the hook for the product rules, and only gets lighter paperwork.

EU Web Accessibility Directive

The earlier and narrower EU rule, covering public sector websites and mobile apps. It requires conformance and also an accessibility statement, plus a feedback route so people can report problems. The pairing is easy to remember. Web Accessibility Directive is public sector. European Accessibility Act is private sector.

9. How they all interconnect

Here is the whole picture in one paragraph. The CRPD creates the right. Countries write laws to deliver it. Those laws do not contain measurements, so they point at standards. The standards for digital work almost all point back at WCAG. The standards for buildings mostly descend from the same body of human measurement research. Techniques and guidance sit underneath, showing you how to actually do it.

A few specific links worth memorising, because they explain most confusion.

• EN 301 549 contains WCAG. They are not rivals. Meeting WCAG gets you most of the way through the web parts of EN 301 549.
• Section 508 and the EU both point at WCAG. This is why WCAG has become the world's common language even in countries with no law of their own.
• ATAG feeds WCAG. A tool that follows ATAG makes it much easier for ordinary staff to produce content that passes WCAG.
• ARIA serves WCAG. ARIA is one technique for satisfying WCAG criteria about name, role and value.
• PDF/UA, EPUB and ISO 23859 fill WCAG's gaps. WCAG was written for web content. These handle documents, books and plain language properly.
• ISO 21542 and BS 8300 are cousins. One is international, one is British, and they cover the same subject with different levels of explanation.
• ISO 21902 sits above the building standards and asks whether the whole service works, not just the structure.

Which one do I reach for?

10. Confusions to clear up now