The World Wide Web Consortium moves closer to a global standard for testing web accessibility

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has proposed advancing Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format 1.1 to the status of a W3C Recommendation. This means the document is on track to become an official web standard.

The ACT Rules Format is about how to write rules that test whether websites are accessible. Web accessibility refers to the design of websites that enable people with disabilities, including those with visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive impairments, to use them effectively. This can include making sure text can be read by screen readers, that websites can be navigated using a keyboard, or that images include meaningful descriptions.

Testing accessibility can be done in two main ways. One is automated testing, where software checks a website for known accessibility problems. The other is manual testing, where people review a website using structured checklists and user scenarios. Until now, various tools and organisations have often described these tests in different ways, making it harder to compare or trust the results.

The ACT Rules Format provides a shared template for writing accessibility test rules. Each rule explains, in a clear and structured way, what is being tested, why it matters, how the test should be performed, and what counts as a pass or a failure. Because the format is standardised, the same rule can be used by different tools and testers and still mean the same thing.

This common format helps bring transparency and consistency to accessibility testing. It allows developers, auditors, tool makers, and regulators to understand exactly how a test works, rather than relying on black-box results from automated tools. It also makes it easier to share and improve testing methods across the accessibility community.

The document was developed by the W3C Accessibility Guidelines Working Group and has already gone through a testing phase as a Candidate Recommendation. The proposal to advance it to a W3C Recommendation indicates that the format has been sufficiently reviewed, implemented, and validated in practice.

If approved, ACT Rules Format 1.1 will become a stable reference for anyone involved in accessibility testing, supporting more reliable evaluations of websites and digital services. This, in turn, helps ensure that accessibility requirements are applied more consistently, contributing to a more inclusive web for everyone.