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WCAG 2.1 – Cookie Banners Accessibility to Enhanced User Experience

The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, is a global group of accessibility professionals working to make the internet more accessible. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and related resources with input from people and organisations worldwide. 

What is WCAG?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a set of technical guidelines for improving the accessibility of websites, web content, and web applications on desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices for people with auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and visual disabilities. 

WCAG principles: 

WCAG consists of four principles: 

Perceivable: The users should be able to perceive all of the information and components presented. 

User-operable: The user must operate the interface, and the navigation components should be user-operable. 

Understandable: The user should easily understand all of the information and how to operate the interface. 

Robust: Content must be accessible and strong enough to be interpreted reliably by a wide range of user agents, including advanced devices. 

Purpose of the guidelines: 

The guidelines are mainly for web content developers, web authoring tool developers, and relevant professionals. However, it is beneficial for firms and organisations, especially employees who contribute to their digital properties, to have general awareness and understanding of WCAG and how it benefits not only persons with disabilities but also all users. 

Seers WCAG 2.1 assessability banner 

Our privacy management platform aims to comply with the WCAG 2.1 criteria for all layers of cookie banners. This implies that all default cookie banners comply with these requirements and are updated when needed. 

“If you create a cookie banner to handle your privacy notifications, it must be accessible for everyone.”

What’s new in the Seers WCAG 2.1 banner? 

We have updated and modified the following aspects of our banner in the latest release: 

  • Subtle improvements have been made in the colour contrast to meet the colourblind and visually impaired requirements by increasing the difference on the banners. 
  • The headings are structured correctly.
  • Justify has been removed to make the text more readable. 
  • Word and letter spacing have been increased. 
  • The logos and images have been removed. 

These steps will prepare your cookie banner for WCAG 2.1 compliance. 

Impact of using WCAG 2.1 compliant banner: 

By creating an engaging user experience, businesses can significantly increase opt-in rates while also enhancing the transparency of their processing operations. 

There are different essential points to consider when creating an accessible, user-friendly cookie banner for your website: 

  • Accessibility: To maintain compliance with accessibility requirements as well as privacy rules, your cookie banner content must be accessible, particularly to individuals who use screen readers or other accessibility assistants. 
  • Transparency: It is an essential aspect of the user experience. A transparent user interface can be a deciding factor in terms of opt-ins and compliance. 

Conclusion: 

All aspects of a website must be accessible and WCAG-compliant for it to be accessible. If your cookie banner isn’t compliant, your website isn’t compliant. All layers of Seers cookie banner have been tested and passed the .net developer with wcag experience compliance requirements for all of our plans. For configuration guide, read the support article here.