Website accessibility is about making sure everyone can use your website, including people with disabilities. It’s sometimes seen as a specialist concern for large organisations, but it matters just as much for small businesses, and it’s often easier to get right than people expect.
Who benefits from accessibility?
Around one in four adults in the UK has a disability. That includes people who:
- Are blind or partially sighted and use screen readers or magnification
- Have colour blindness
- Are deaf or hard of hearing
- Have limited dexterity and use a keyboard, switch or voice control instead of a mouse
- Have cognitive or learning disabilities, such as dyslexia
Accessibility also helps people with temporary impairments, such as a broken arm, and situational ones, like using a phone one-handed on a bus or in bright sunlight. And it helps older users, whose eyesight, hearing and dexterity may have changed.
Why it matters for your business
More customers
An inaccessible website quietly turns away potential customers. If someone can’t read your text, use your menu or submit your contact form, they’ll go elsewhere.
Better SEO
Many accessibility practices, such as clear headings, descriptive links, alt text for images and well-structured content, also help search engines understand your website.
Legal responsibilities
Under the Equality Act 2010, businesses providing services to the public must make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people aren’t put at a disadvantage. This is widely understood to apply to websites. Building to recognised accessibility standards is the most sensible way to meet that duty. (We’re not lawyers, so take legal advice if you have specific concerns.)
What is WCAG?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the internationally recognised standard for web accessibility. The current version is WCAG 2.2. It has three levels: A, AA and AAA. Level AA is the level most organisations aim for, and the level UK public sector websites are required to meet.
WCAG is built around four principles. Content must be:
- Perceivable: people can see or hear it, for example through text alternatives for images and captions for video.
- Operable: people can use it, for example with a keyboard alone.
- Understandable: content and controls are clear and predictable.
- Robust: it works with a wide range of browsers and assistive technologies.
Quick wins that make the biggest difference
Check your colour contrast
Light grey text on a white background might look stylish, but it’s hard for many people to read. WCAG AA requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text. Free online contrast checkers make this easy to test.
Add alt text to images
Alternative text describes an image for people using screen readers. Describe what’s important about the image in context. Purely decorative images should have empty alt text so screen readers skip them.
Use proper headings
Use one main heading (H1) per page, then H2s and H3s in a logical order. Screen reader users often navigate by headings, and they help everyone scan the page.
Write descriptive links
“Click here” and “read more” don’t make sense out of context. Use link text that describes where the link goes, such as “view our care plans”.
Label your forms
Every form field needs a visible label, not just placeholder text that disappears when someone starts typing. Error messages should explain clearly what’s wrong and how to fix it.
Test with a keyboard
Try using your website with only the Tab, Shift+Tab and Enter keys. Can you reach every link, menu and button? Can you see where you are on the page? If not, keyboard users can’t either.
Caption your videos
Add captions to videos, and transcripts to audio content.
Publishing an accessibility statement
An accessibility statement explains how accessible your website is, any known issues and how people can contact you if they have difficulty. It’s required for public sector websites and good practice for everyone. You can see ours on our accessibility statement page.
How we can help
Every website we build is designed and tested to WCAG 2.2 AA as standard. If you already have a website, we can audit it and fix the issues we find. Find out more about our accessible web design service.
