Website accessibility: why it matters for your business and where to start

Around one in four adults in the US lives with some kind of disability, according to the CDC. Some can’t see well. Some can’t use a mouse. Some are deaf or hard of hearing. Some find dense, cluttered pages hard to process. Add in older users, people on small phones in bright sunlight and anyone with a temporary injury, and “accessibility” covers a lot of your customers.

An accessible website is simply one that works for all of them.

Why it matters for business

• More customers. If people can’t use your site, they can’t book, buy or call
• Better SEO. Many accessibility basics, like clear headings, descriptive links and image alt text, also help search engines understand your pages
• Lower legal risk. In the US, website accessibility lawsuits under the ADA have become common, and small businesses get targeted too. In Europe, the European Accessibility Act now covers many online stores and services. Rules vary, so check what applies to you
• It’s the right thing to do. Simple as that

The standard to aim for

The widely used benchmark is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), level AA. You don’t need to memorize it. Most of what it asks for comes down to common sense.

Fixes to make first

Text and color

Make sure text has enough contrast against its background. Light grey text on white looks elegant and is hard to read for a lot of people. Keep body text a comfortable size and don’t rely on color alone to show meaning (like red for errors without any text).

Images

Add alt text that describes what matters in each meaningful image. “Dr. Smith consulting with a patient” is helpful. “IMG_4523” isn’t. Decorative images can have empty alt text so screen readers skip them.

Headings

Use proper heading structure: one main heading per page, then subheadings in order. Screen reader users jump between headings the way sighted people skim.

Links and buttons

“Click here” tells someone using a screen reader nothing. “Book a consultation” or “Read our pricing guide” does. Make buttons big enough to tap easily on a phone.

Keyboard use

Try using your site with only the Tab and Enter keys. Can you reach every menu item, button and form field? Can you see where you are on the page? If not, keyboard users are stuck.

Forms

Every field needs a visible label, not just placeholder text that disappears when you type. Error messages should explain what went wrong and how to fix it.

Video and audio

Add captions to videos and provide transcripts for audio. Avoid autoplaying video with sound.

A word on accessibility overlays

You may have seen widgets that promise to make your site compliant with one line of code. They can’t fix the underlying problems, and many accessibility experts and disabled users criticize them. They’re not a substitute for actually fixing your site.

How to check your site

Free tools like WAVE and the accessibility audit in Google Lighthouse will flag a lot of common issues. They won’t catch everything, so pair them with the keyboard test above and, ideally, a review by someone experienced.

Make it part of the process

Accessibility is much easier to build in than to bolt on. If you’re planning a new website or redesign, make it a requirement from the start. For an existing site, fix the big issues first and improve over time.

We build accessibility into our web development projects and can audit existing sites. Book a free call if you’d like us to take a look at yours.

This post is general information, not legal advice.