# WCAG Conformance Is Not a Usability Measure ## Claim A page can satisfy every applicable WCAG success criterion and still be unusable by the people those criteria exist to serve, because conformance tests whether required properties are present rather than whether a task can be completed. <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ## Scope & conditions - Holds most strongly for flows rather than pages: a form can have correct labels, contrast, and focus order and still be impossible to finish under a screen reader because the sequence makes no sense. - Does not imply WCAG is worthless. Conformance failures are near-certain usability failures; the converse is what fails. - Weakens where an organization has no conformance baseline at all — there, WCAG work is the highest-value thing available, and this claim is a refinement rather than a redirection. - The remedy this implies is testing with disabled people, which carries its own methodology requirements — see the linked note on recruitment. ## Evidence From the WordPress Accessibility Day 2025 session on running user testing with disabled people: the argument is that passing an audit and being usable are different measurements, and that only observed task completion establishes the second. ## Links - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/A Passing Automated Accessibility Score Is a Floor Not a Verdict]] — because extends; that note separates automated checking from manual review, this one separates manual conformance review from actual usability. Three tiers, not two. - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Recruit Accessibility Testers by Input and Output Needs Not by Diagnosis]] — because applies-in; if conformance is not the measure, testing is, and this is how to staff it. - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Accessibility for One Modality Is Not Accessibility]] — because extends; both describe a partial measure standing in for the whole. - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Accessibility & Disability Inclusion MOC]] — because applies-in; the conformance/usability gap is the central measurement problem in the practice. - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Events/WordPress Accessibility Day 2025 MOC]] — applies-in: the WP Accessibility Day 2025 map; Collins's talk is indexed there with the other testing sessions ## Tests / falsifiers - Run task-completion testing with assistive-technology users on a page verified conformant by manual audit. A high completion rate across a varied sample would weaken the claim substantially. - Compare defect lists from conformance audits against defect lists from moderated user testing on the same artifact; measure overlap. Low overlap supports the claim. ## Maintenance - Last tended: 2026-09-11 - Next review: 2026-12-11 ## Source - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Real Inclusion How to Run Insightful and Respectful User Testing With Disabled People]] — WordPress Accessibility Day 2025, Lucy Collins.