WCAG 3 Conformance vs. Bronze, Silver, Gold: How to Claim a Tier
When “pass” and “grade” show up in the same document, it’s tempting to put them on one line: the passing mark is the lowest grade, and the grades climb from there. Most exams work that way. WCAG 3’s conformance and Bronze, Silver, and Gold are easy to read the same way. On October 16, I gave a talk, What the WCAG 3.0 Draft Asks of Evaluation Methods, at a meeting of the Digital Accessibility Standardization Forum’s service subcommittee. In the Q&A, someone asked: “What’s the difference between meeting conformance and Bronze, Silver, Gold? And what do you have to do to get them?” I couldn’t answer it well with only the materials I’d prepared, and I’ve regretted that since. So I went back to the WCAG 3 Working Draft published on September 10, 2026, with just that one question in mind. WCAG 3 is the standard W3C is building to succeed WCAG 2.2, and a Working Draft is one that isn’t final yet. ...
