The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0 Working Draft published on September 10 changes the shape of conformance, and the shape matters more than the content. The draft's own note: this update moves leveling from conformance to reporting. There is one conformance point. Below and above it are six reporting tiers. Tier 1 means the physical harm and risk requirements are met. Tier 2 adds the barrier requirements. Tier 3 is conformance, adding friction, with every core requirement met. Tiers 4 through 6, bronze, silver, and gold, add supplemental requirements and assertions.
The requirements themselves carry tags: physical harm, risk, barrier, friction. A barrier can stop someone from proceeding. Friction hinders them, and several frictions can become a barrier. The working group says plainly that the draft still has several years of work, and WCAG 2.2 remains the compliance target.
So why act on a draft. Because the reporting model will change how accessibility is discussed with legal and product long before the standard is final. A report of forty issues at one level tells a product manager nothing. A report that says two barriers, one risk, and thirty-seven frictions tells them what to fix first and why.
My view is that a design system team should start tagging its component audit findings by impact now, with the draft's four categories. The vocabulary is ready today.
How does your team rank accessibility findings when there are more than it can fix?
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