Accessibility Report · W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 3.0)
WCAG 3.0 readiness & draft “Gold” self-assessment
EmailVerifyerAPI is built not just to pass checks, but to adapt to the person using it. This report assesses the product against the emerging W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 3.0), specifically its outcome model, functional-needs coverage, and the process assertions that the draft’s higher tiers require.
Honest disclaimer. WCAG 3.0 is a W3C Working Draft, not a finished standard. Its Bronze / Silver / Gold rating model is still evolving and is not yet certifiable, meaning no product can make a formal “WCAG 3.0 Gold” conformance claim today. The rating below is a good-faith self-assessment against the draft’s intent, layered on top of verified WCAG 2.2 Level AAA conformance. Full Gold also expects usability testing with people with disabilities, which we recommend as the next step.
Overall rating
How WCAG 3.0 is different
WCAG 3.0 replaces 2.x’s binary pass/fail with guidelines → outcomes → methods, organised around functional needs and scored on a scale rather than true/false. Conformance is expressed as Bronze, Silver, or Gold. Bronze is roughly today’s baseline, while Silver and Gold add documented assertions about process, including plain language, personalization, and testing with real users.
Guidelines & outcomes
Representative WCAG 3.0 draft guidelines mapped to the outcomes delivered across the EmailVerifyerAPI surfaces.
| Guideline | Outcomes delivered | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Text & non-text alternatives | Every control has an accessible name; decorative graphics are hidden; image placeholders describe expected content. | Gold |
| Clear meaning (plain language) | Plain-language summaries added to legal pages; concise, common-word UI copy; jargon avoided or explained. Supplementary “In plain language” blocks supply a simpler alternative to dense content. | Gold |
| Contrast & use of colour | Text ≥7:1; never colour alone; a user High-contrast mode pushes to maximum. | Gold |
| Adapting & personalising | A persistent panel lets users set text size, contrast, motion, a high-legibility font, link highlighting, larger targets and a reading ruler, which are all saved per device. OS settings (dark mode, reduced motion, forced colours) are also honoured. | Gold |
| Keyboard & pointer | Full keyboard operation, no traps; a 3px focus indicator that stays clear of sticky headers; ≥44px targets. | Gold |
| Structure & navigation | Landmarks, ordered headings, breadcrumbs, skip links and consistent help/identity across pages. | Gold |
| Errors & forms | Errors announced via live regions, described in plain language with an icon (not colour), and easy to recover from; correct autocomplete. | Gold |
| Motion & time | No time limits; entrance/parallax motion is removed for reduced-motion users and pinned to its visible end-state. | Gold |
| Authentication & cognitive load | No cognitive-function test; paste, password managers and providers supported. Reading level of legal text is the one open item (see below). | Silver |
Functional-needs coverage
WCAG 3.0 organises accessibility around what people need to do. How each need is supported:
Blindness
Semantic landmarks, names/roles/values, live status messages, skip links.
Low vision
≥7:1 contrast, text-size and zoom controls, high-contrast mode, 80-char measure, reflow to 320px.
Colour vision
Never rely on colour alone: icons, text labels, and underlines back every colour cue.
Motor
≥44px targets (52px in “larger buttons”), full keyboard control, generous spacing.
Cognitive
Plain-language copy & summaries, readable-font option, reading ruler, predictable navigation, reduced motion.
Vestibular
Reduced-motion media query and a manual “Reduce motion” switch disable entrance/parallax animation.
Photosensitivity
No flashing content; no rapid or strobing animation anywhere in the product.
Speech / device-independent
No speech-only interactions; everything works by keyboard, pointer or touch.
Process assertions
Silver and Gold conformance rests on documented assertions about how accessibility was achieved, rather than relying only on automated tests. These are self-asserted by the EmailVerifyerAPI team.
Personalization provided
A user-facing preferences panel ships on every page with seven adaptations, persisted locally.
Plain-language review
Key flows use short, common-word copy; legal pages carry plain-language summaries as a simpler alternative.
Keyboard walkthrough
Primary tasks (verifying, navigating, opening/closing menus, and using the panel) were exercised by keyboard with a focus trap and Esc-to-close.
Reduced-motion path verified
Entrance animations confirmed to resolve to their visible end-state under both the media query and the manual switch.
High-contrast path verified
The high-contrast mode was checked on light and dark surfaces so text never inverts to low contrast.
Contrast tokens computed
Text colours were recomputed to ≥7:1 against white and documented in the token source.
Semantic structure audited
Landmarks, heading order and form labelling reviewed across page templates.
Forced-colors support
Focus rings and control borders remain visible in OS high-contrast / forced-colors mode.
Single enforcement layer
Accessibility is centralised in accessibility.css + a11y-prefs.js, loaded last on every page, so it can’t be silently overridden.
To fully substantiate Gold
- Usability testing with people with disabilities (the key Gold expectation): run moderated sessions with screen-reader, low-vision, motor and cognitive-disability participants and record the findings as assertions.
- Reading level (legal text): a plain-language editor pass to bring full legal copy, not just the summaries, to a lower-secondary reading level.
- Jargon glossary: link first uses of terms like “catch-all”, “SMTP”, “MX” and wrap abbreviations in
<abbr>. - Dense dashboard targets: a few compact toolbar controls sit below 44px to preserve density (they meet the 24px floor and enlarge under “Larger buttons”).
This is an engineering self-assessment against a draft standard, not a certification or a formal VPAT®. It builds on the verified WCAG 2.2 Level AAA work delivered through colors_and_type.css and accessibility.css. References: W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0 Working Draft. Re-assess after significant content or component changes, and after user testing.