What is the difference between AA and AAA Standards?

AA and AAA refer to different conformance levels within the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which define how accessible a website is for people with disabilities.

AA is the most commonly targeted standard and is widely considered the practical baseline for accessibility compliance. It addresses the biggest barriers for users, such as color contrast, keyboard navigation, form labels, captions for video, and predictable navigation. Most legal and regulatory expectations reference WCAG AA because it balances accessibility impact with implementation feasibility.

AAA is the highest and most stringent level. It includes all AA requirements plus additional criteria that can be difficult or impractical for many websites to meet consistently, such as very high color-contrast ratios, sign language interpretation for video, and stricter limits on reading level. Because of this, AAA is rarely required and is typically treated as an aspirational goal rather than a compliance requirement.

In short:

• AA = realistic, widely accepted accessibility standard

• AAA = advanced, aspirational level that goes beyond typical legal expectations