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.
Long-form text - a page of continuous prose in paragraphs of 300 words or more - has a summary that is identifiable both visually and programmatically, uses concise sentences, and gives access to explanations of any uncommon words it uses. Where the text runs across several pages, only the first needs one.
Why It Matters
A summary is how a reader decides whether to spend the effort, and for people with cognitive disabilities or limited reading stamina it is often the only part they can get through.
Research is needed to determine the number of words that trigger the summary requirement and whether this threshold varies for different languages. If you are aware of research in this area, please email public-agwg-comments@w3.org.
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A summary is available for long-form text content and:
* is identifiable visually and programmatically,
* uses concise sentences, and
* provides access to explanations of any uncommon words that are used in the summary.
:::ednote
Research is needed to determine the number of words that trigger the summary requirement and whether this threshold varies for different languages. If you are aware of research in this area, please email public-agwg-comments@w3.org.
:::
:::applies-when
* a page/view with continuous long-form text content that is organized in paragraphs and has 300 or more words.
:::
:::except-when
* long-form text content continues on multiple pages/views, only the first page/view requires a summary.
:::