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Your product cleared an accessibility review last year, and now an enterprise buyer’s procurement team is flagging the same login screen, data grid, and drag-to-reorder pipeline that make it sellable.
WCAG 2.2 became the current standard in October 2023, and buyers increasingly name it in their requirements. Six of the nine new criteria land on the design and engineering teams who build the product. Each is a call made inside everyday product design services and engineering, fixable long before a procurement audit forces it.
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A keyboard user tabs through your app, and the field they land on scrolls up under a sticky header, a cookie banner, or a chat widget. Focus moved correctly, but they can no longer see where they are.
Criterion 2.4.11 (Level AA) requires the focused control to stay at least partly visible when content you added, such as a sticky header, would otherwise hide it.
Sticky toolbars and floating support buttons cause most of these failures in B2B apps, where long forms and dense tables push focus behind fixed UI. A control that stays partly visible still passes, so the goal is keeping any fixed content from hiding the active field completely.
Test it by tabbing slowly through a full page and watching the bottom edge of every sticky region, then adjust scroll padding or the stacking order wherever the active field drops out of sight.
Criterion 2.5.8 (Level AA) sets a floor for how small a tappable target can be. Any control must reach 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or come with enough spacing around it so neighboring targets don’t overlap.
Dense B2B interfaces break this in predictable places:
Handle this in your design system. Set a minimum target size token for interactive controls and apply it everywhere, then grow the hit area with padding without changing the visible icon. Automated scanners catch some undersized targets, and a quick manual pass over your busiest screens finds the rest.
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Criterion 2.5.7 (Level AA) covers any feature that relies on dragging, and B2B products use it heavily through Kanban boards, sortable priority lists, reorderable table rows, and range sliders.
Users with motor impairments, tremors, or limited trackpad control can manage a single tap or click, but a sustained drag across the screen leaves them unable to finish the task.
You meet the criterion by adding a single pointer path to the same action, so a draggable row also gets up and down buttons or a move to menu, and a slider gains a paired number input.
Test it by trying the feature with a single click or tap only, and confirm the same result is reachable without holding and dragging. The drag stays available for anyone who prefers it, and nobody loses access to the underlying function.
Criterion 3.2.6 (Level A) asks for one thing. When the same help options repeat across pages, they appear in the same relative place each time, so support links, contact details, a help chat trigger, or a self-service search stay put for users who need assistance.
B2B products break this as they grow. The marketing site puts support in the footer, the app shell tucks it behind an avatar menu, and a settings page hides it under a submenu. Pick one location per surface and keep it consistent, then document that position in your design system so new pages inherit it automatically. Users with memory or attention difficulties benefit the most, and your support team fields fewer confused tickets.
Criterion 3.3.7 (Level A) targets multi-step flows that ask for the same information twice, and onboarding wizards and multi-stage procurement forms are the usual offenders when they re-request a billing address or an account name the user typed a step earlier.
When a later step needs data from an earlier one, present it automatically or offer it for selection. A user who reaches the final step should see earlier details carried forward and ready to confirm.
The exception is narrow: you can ask again when re-entry protects security, such as confirming a password, or when the earlier answer is no longer valid. Autofilling remembered details cuts errors and drop-off across the long forms B2B onboarding depends on.
Criterion 3.3.8 (Level AA) removes cognitive function tests from authentication.
Buyers notice this one fast, because it appears on the first screen anyone sees. A login that forces users to transcribe a one-time code from memory, solve a puzzle, or retype characters they cannot paste will fail.
Creates a barrier | Accessible alternative |
CAPTCHA puzzles with no other route | Checkbox or token-based verification |
Blocking paste in password fields | Password manager and copy-paste support |
Transcribing a one-time code from memory | Autofill, email links, or passkeys |
Support at least one sign-in route that carries no memory or transcription load. Procurement questionnaires raise this criterion more than any other new item, so an accessible sign-in also clears a recurring sales blocker. Passkeys and password manager compatibility satisfy the criterion and shorten the path into the product, and a slow first screen is a common place where new users quietly leave.
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The six items above cover the new Level A and AA criteria. The last item, Focus Appearance (2.4.13), is a Level AAA criterion, one level beyond what most buyers check. It earns a place here because it costs almost nothing once your design system already defines focus styles centrally.
The criterion sets a plain target for the focus indicator itself. Make it at least as large as a 2 pixel thick outline around the control, with a contrast ratio of 3 to 1 against the colors next to it.
Custom components that strip the browser default and replace it with a faint 1 pixel line cause most failures. Define one strong focus style as a token and apply it across every control, which keeps the indicator consistent across light and dark themes where a hard-coded color can fail on one of them.
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