The WCAG-EM, or Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology, is a framework designed to help organizations assess how well their websites meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). It provides a structured process for evaluating web accessibility:
- Define the scope of the evaluation – defining what is included in the evaluation; the goal of the evaluation; and the WCAG conformance level (A, AA, AAA).
- Explore the website – identifying key web pages; key functionality; types of web content, designs, functionality, etc.; required web technologies.
- Select a representative sample – guidance on structured and randomly selected web pages when it is not feasible to evaluate every web page on a website.
- Evaluate the selected sample – determining successes and failures in meeting WCAG; accessibility support for website features; and recording evaluation steps.
- Report the evaluation findings – aggregating and reporting evaluation findings; making evaluation statements; and calculating overall scores.
WCAG-EM is widely used to ensure digital content is accessible to people with disabilities and to support compliance with accessibility standards.