WCAG 3.0 is an active W3C Working Draft in development by the AGWG. Requirements, assertions, the conformance model and reporting tiers are still being developed and may change. The latest published draft is the 10 September 2026 Working Draft; this site follows the editors’ draft, which also includes exploratory provisions.
Remove or replace the phrase with a simpler alternative.
Check that no meaning is lost.
Check that a technology in the accessibility support set meets ‘No unnecessary words.’
Expected results
#3 or #4 is true.
W3C Working Group Status
W3C Maturity Status:developing
Track / Group:text-and-wording
The draft records no open editors' notes on this provision.
W3C Threads on This Provision
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WCAG 2.2 Criteria That Map Here
From this site's reviewed WCAG 2.2 → WCAG 3 map. The map is
an interpretation, not a W3C mapping: W3C has not published one yet.
No mapping recorded. No WCAG 2.2 criterion in
this site's map is recorded as a predecessor of this provision.
Sentences do not include unnecessary words.
:::except-when
- text content is:
* poetic,
* scriptural,
* artistic, or
* expressive rather than informational.
:::
:::example
* redundant modifiers such as ‘free gift’ and ‘past history’
* double negatives to express a positive such as ‘She didn't see nothing’ (which can be shortened to ‘She saw nothing’)
* indirect phrasing such as ‘at this point in time’ (which can be shortened to ‘now’)
* noun versions of verbs, such as ‘take into consideration’ (which can be shortened to ‘consider’)
:::
:::note
Automated tools can help content authors identify unnecessary words in many languages, including Arabic, English, Hindi, Mandarin, and Russian.
:::