What Is Web Accessibility?
Web accessibility means designing and building websites so that people with visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive disabilities can use them effectively. An accessible website removes barriers so that everyone, regardless of ability, can read your content, navigate your pages, fill in your forms, and get in touch.
Accessibility is a fundamental part of building a website that works for real people. It shapes how readable, navigable, and usable your pages are for every visitor.
Why It Matters
Legal
Accessibility-related legal actions against websites are increasing globally. Many countries and regions already have legislation in place, or are actively introducing it, requiring businesses above a certain size to meet reasonable web accessibility standards. In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 applies. In the US, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been used in thousands of web-related cases. The EU Web Accessibility Directive and the European Accessibility Act are raising the bar further. Ignoring accessibility is increasingly a legal risk as well as a missed opportunity.
SEO
Accessible websites tend to rank better in search engines. That is because accessibility best practices (clear heading structure, descriptive link text, meaningful image alt text, and fast performance) align closely with what Google values. When you make your site easier for people with disabilities to use, you are also making it easier for search engines to understand and index.
User Experience
Accessible design benefits all users, including those with no disability. Good colour contrast makes text easier to read in bright sunlight. Logical navigation helps everyone find what they need faster. Readable typography reduces eye strain. When you design for accessibility, you raise the quality of the experience for every visitor.
Reach
Approximately 15% of the global population lives with some form of disability. That is roughly one in seven people. If your website is not accessible, you are potentially turning away a significant portion of your audience and your potential customers.
What Is WCAG 2.2?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 is the current international standard for web accessibility, published by the W3C in October 2023. It defines how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities.
WCAG is organised around four principles. Content must be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (POUR). Each principle contains specific success criteria rated at three levels: A, AA, and AAA.
For most businesses, Level AA conformance is the practical target. It is the level referenced by most legislation and industry standards, and it represents a meaningful, achievable level of accessibility without requiring perfection.
A Practical Accessibility Checklist for Small Businesses
You do not need to overhaul your entire website overnight. Start with these fundamentals and work through them systematically. If the terminology here is new to you, my primer on web accessibility basics covers what accessibility means and why it matters, and this guide picks up from there.
Colour Contrast
Body text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background colour. Large text (18pt or 14pt bold and above) requires at least 3:1. Poor contrast is one of the most common accessibility failures, and one of the easiest to fix.
Use the free WebAIM Contrast Checker to test your colour combinations before committing to them.
Alt Text
Every meaningful image on your website needs a descriptive alt attribute that conveys the purpose or content of the image. If an image is purely decorative (a background texture, a divider) it should have an empty alt attribute (alt="") so screen readers skip over it.
Good alt text is concise and descriptive: 'A small business owner reviewing a website on a laptop' rather than 'image1.jpg'.
Keyboard Navigation
All interactive elements (links, buttons, form fields, menus) must be fully usable with a keyboard alone, without requiring a mouse. Try navigating your own website using only the Tab, Enter, and arrow keys. If you get stuck, so will keyboard-dependent users.
Logical Heading Hierarchy
Use headings in order: H1 for the page title, H2 for main sections, H3 for subsections. Never skip levels or use headings purely for their visual size. A logical heading structure helps screen reader users navigate your page and helps search engines understand your content.
Descriptive Link Text
Link text should describe where the link goes or what it does. 'Learn about web design services' is helpful. 'Click here' tells a screen reader user nothing. Avoid generic phrases like 'read more', 'here', or 'this page'.
Form Labels
Every form field (name, email, phone, message) must have a visible, associated label. Placeholder text inside a field is not a substitute for a label; it disappears when the user starts typing. Proper labels help everyone, and they are essential for screen reader users.
Captions for Video Content
If your website includes video, provide accurate captions. Auto-generated captions from platforms like YouTube are a starting point, but they often contain errors, so review and correct them. Captions help users who are deaf or hard of hearing, users in noisy environments, and users who prefer to watch without sound.
What's New in WCAG 2.2?
WCAG 2.2 introduced several new success criteria worth knowing about:
- Minimum touch target size: Interactive elements must be at least 24×24 CSS pixels in size, making them easier to tap on touchscreens.
- Visible focus indicators: When a user navigates with a keyboard, the focused element must have a clearly visible focus indicator, not a faint outline.
- Consistent navigation: Navigation menus and repeated components should appear in the same order across pages, reducing cognitive load.
If your website was built to WCAG 2.1 AA, review these new criteria and address any gaps.
The Legal Risk Is Real, and Small Businesses Are Not Exempt
Digital accessibility litigation is sitting at sustained high levels. In the United States, more than 5,000 web accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2025 (roughly a 37% increase on the previous year), and filings have continued at a similar pace through 2026, with hundreds of new cases each month. The trend has held long enough to plan around, and it is manageable. Accessibility now belongs on the same list as data protection and payment security, something you address deliberately rather than hope to avoid.
There Is No Small Business Exemption
A common misconception is that businesses with fewer than 15 employees are exempt. That threshold comes from ADA Title I, which deals with employment. Website accessibility claims are brought under Title III, which covers places of public accommodation and applies to businesses of all sizes. A sole trader with a public-facing website can be, and has been, sued. Headcount is not a shield.
Overlays and Widgets Are Not a Defence
Accessibility overlays, the one-line scripts that promise instant compliance, are heavily marketed to small businesses, and they do not deliver what they claim. Lawsuit data consistently shows that large numbers of defendants had a third-party accessibility widget installed at the time they were sued. Overlays do not fix the underlying code; they attempt to patch it in the browser after the page has loaded, which leaves the original problems in place. Courts have not accepted them as a defence.
Warning
Which Standard Actually Applies
There is no single legislated technical standard for private websites in the US, so courts typically reference WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the practical benchmark for ADA compliance, while WCAG 2.2 Level AA is regarded as current best practice. Because 2.2 builds on 2.1 rather than replacing it, working towards 2.2 AA covers both, which is exactly what the checklist above is aimed at.
Most Sites Genuinely Do Have Issues
A substantial majority of websites fail basic automated accessibility checks, which means the problems on a typical small business site are real rather than hypothetical. It is also worth knowing that a meaningful share of lawsuits target businesses that have already been sued once before. Settling a claim does not remove your exposure if the underlying barriers are still there. Fixing the site does.
A Calm, Practical Response
The work that reduces legal exposure is the same work that makes your site better for real customers. Prioritise the issues most commonly cited in complaints:
- Keyboard navigation (every menu, link, button, and form control reachable and usable without a mouse).
- Text alternatives for images (meaningful alt text where the image carries information, and empty alt text where it is purely decorative).
- Sufficient colour contrast (particularly for body text, button labels, and link states).
- Properly labelled form fields (every input associated with a visible label, not just placeholder text).
- Correct heading structure (one page title, then nested sections in order, with no levels skipped for visual effect).
Start by running an automated scan with a tool such as WAVE or Axe DevTools to catch the obvious failures, and check your palette with the WebAIM Contrast Checker. Then test manually with a keyboard, because automated tools only surface a portion of real problems. Working through the list in that order gives you a defensible record of progress and a website that more people can actually use.
When I take this on, I fix contrast, focus states, labels, and heading order in the markup itself, as part of my accessible web design work rather than as a patch bolted on afterwards.
Free Tools to Test Your Website
You do not need expensive software to start testing. These free tools will help you identify the most common issues:
- WAVE Accessibility Evaluator is a browser extension from WebAIM that overlays accessibility information directly on your page, highlighting errors and warnings visually.
- WebAIM Contrast Checker lets you enter your foreground and background colours to instantly check whether they meet WCAG contrast requirements.
- Axe DevTools is a Chrome extension that runs automated accessibility checks and reports issues with clear explanations and guidance on how to fix them.
Automated tools catch roughly 30–40% of accessibility issues. Manual testing, including keyboard navigation and screen reader testing, is needed to catch the rest.
WordPress Users
If your website runs on WordPress, you have some useful options:
- WP Accessibility plugin by Joe Dolson adds a range of basic accessibility improvements to your site, including skip links, ARIA landmark roles, and fixes for common theme issues. It is free and well-maintained.
- When choosing a theme, look for themes that explicitly advertise WCAG AA compliance. Not all themes that claim to be 'accessible' have been properly tested, so check reviews and documentation carefully.
Accessibility is an ongoing commitment rather than a one-time fix. Start with the checklist above, use the free tools to identify issues, and make improvements incrementally. Every step you take makes your website more welcoming and more effective.
I build accessibility into the design and markup from the start, so contrast, labels, and focus states do not have to be retrofitted later. Send the project brief with your site URL and the issues you have already found.
