🧪ACT Task Force (AG Working Group) and ACT Rules Community Group
ACT: Accessibility Conformance Testing
A shared format for writing accessibility test rules, so two tools testing the same criterion reach the same answer.
1.1ACT Rules Format Recommendation (Feb 2026)
37WAI-approved rules
16Implementation reports
Reviewed 8 October 2026. Publication dates are checked against the W3C
documents themselves every week, and rule counts against the WAI rules data.
Every fact links to a source at the bottom of the page.
In plain English
ACT exists because tools disagree. The ACT Rules Format is a W3C Recommendation that says how a test rule must be written: what it applies to, what it expects, its assumptions and worked pass and fail examples. Rules written in that format are then checked against real tools.
Two groups share the work. The ACT Rules Community Group writes rules, which have no formal W3C standing. The ACT Task Force in the AG Working Group maintains the format and reviews rules for approval, which needs at least one tool or methodology to implement the rule fully. Approved rules are still informative and are not required to determine WCAG conformance.
Recent Task Force work includes a glossary review, a new resizing rule, and an impact review of ARIA 1.3 on existing rules (ACT issue 2400), which found the impact small.
How it connects to WCAG
WCAG 2.2
ACT rules map to WCAG 2 success criteria and to ARIA. When a tool says it implements an ACT rule, you can read the rule to see exactly what it tests and, just as usefully, what it assumes and leaves out.
WCAG 3 draft
The rules list maps only to WCAG 2 and ARIA today. There are no ACT rules for WCAG 3 provisions yet, which fits a draft where nothing has reached refining status. ACT is on the agenda for the TPAC 2026 session on 29 October. The 1.1 changes for subjective applicability and the cantTell outcome are the kind WCAG 3's less binary provisions would need, though no group has said so.
What the future holds
Each item says how firm it is: something that has happened, a plan the group has stated,
a proposal not yet agreed, or this site's own reading of where things are heading.
Ongoing
Proposed rules move to approved as tools implement them. Counts on this page refresh weekly from the WAI rules data.
Planned by the group
29 Oct 2026
ACT is on the agenda for the TPAC 2026 session in Dublin.
Planned by the group
After ARIA 1.3
Rules updated for ARIA 1.3 changes such as names no longer required on dialog, and possible push-back on the braille attributes.
Proposed, not yet agreed
Open question
When ACT rules start being written for WCAG 3. That likely waits until WCAG 3 provisions stabilise.
This site's reading
What this means for your team
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Start now
Useful whatever happens next
Ask your testing tool vendor which ACT rules it implements.
The implementation reports show which rules each tool fully or partly matches, which tells you where its results can be trusted.
Use ACT rule examples to settle disputes.
Each rule has passed and failed examples. They are a neutral reference when a tool and a tester disagree.
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Cheap hedges
Low cost, likely to pay off
Treat proposed rules as signals, not verdicts.
They are community rules without formal standing until approved.
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Wait
Too early to build for
Do not build WCAG 3 test suites yet.
There are no ACT rules for WCAG 3, and the provisions are still changing.