Bridging Digital Wellbeing and Accessibility: An Analysis of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

The W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), first released in 1999, have over time expanded their focus on cognitive and learning disabilities, including attentional needs. User attentional needs are also a focus of digital wellbeing, a research area which aims to help users spend their time well using technology, reducing overuse and increasing meaning. However, the overlap and potential synergies between WCAG and DWB have not yet been measured. We use an expert coding method to classify all requirements from the main versions of WCAG (1.0, 2.2, and 3.0 draft) with respect to their secondary effects on digital wellbeing and attention-capture design patterns. We note that an increasing proportion of WCAG requirements promote digital wellbeing, although in some cases WCAG may play a merely enabling role, a limited role, or a negative role. Our findings bring forward a link between accessibility and digital wellbeing which has not been previously established.