Website Accessibility: Why It Matters and How to Achieve It

Web accessibility is the practice of designing and building websites that can be used effectively by people with disabilities. This includes people with visual impairments, hearing impairments, motor impairments, and cognitive differences. An accessible website does not just benefit users with disabilities — it typically results in better experiences for all users, improved SEO, and legal compliance. In many respects, accessibility is simply good web design applied universally.

The legal landscape around web accessibility has become increasingly serious. In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 requires that service providers make reasonable adjustments to ensure their services are accessible to people with disabilities, and this includes websites. Public sector organisations are required to comply with WCAG 2.1 AA standards under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations. Private sector companies have faced legal action for inaccessible websites in multiple jurisdictions.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the internationally recognised standard for web accessibility. WCAG 2.1 organises guidance around four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust — often abbreviated as POUR. Each principle is broken down into specific, testable criteria at three compliance levels: A, AA, and AAA. Level AA is the target for most business websites and the level specified in most legal and regulatory requirements.

Keyboard navigation is one of the most fundamental accessibility requirements. Many users with motor impairments, visual impairments, or personal preferences navigate websites entirely using the keyboard rather than a mouse. This means every interactive element — links, buttons, form fields, dropdown menus — must be reachable and operable using only the keyboard. The Tab key moves focus between interactive elements, and ensuring a logical tab order with visible focus indicators is a basic but critical requirement.

Alternative text for images is perhaps the most widely known accessibility requirement. Screen readers — software used by blind and visually impaired users to hear web content — announce the alt text of images as they encounter them. Alt text should describe the content and function of an image concisely. Decorative images used purely for visual aesthetic should have empty alt attributes so screen readers skip them appropriately.

Colour contrast is a critical accessibility consideration that affects not only people with colour blindness or low vision but also anyone reading on a screen in bright sunlight or on a low-quality display. WCAG 2.1 Level AA requires a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker and built-in Figma plugins make it easy to test your designs against these requirements during the design process.

Form accessibility is an area where many websites fall short. Proper form accessibility requires: explicit label elements associated with every form input, error messages that clearly identify the problem and suggest a solution, grouping of related fields with fieldset and legend elements, clear instruction about required fields, and sufficient time for users to complete forms without automatic timeout. Inaccessible forms can completely prevent disabled users from completing purchases or contact requests.

Video and audio content present specific accessibility challenges. Pre-recorded video content requires captions that convey not just speech but also relevant non-speech audio like sound effects. Audio-only content requires transcripts. Live audio and video should include real-time captions where possible. Captioning tools have improved dramatically and many platforms offer automatic captioning that can be reviewed and corrected at relatively low cost.

ARIA attributes are HTML attributes that provide additional semantic information to assistive technologies. ARIA roles, states, and properties can describe the function of complex custom components — like custom dropdown menus, modal dialogs, and dynamic content areas — that do not have native HTML equivalents. Used correctly, ARIA dramatically improves the screen reader experience of complex web applications. The first rule of ARIA is: do not use ARIA if you can use native HTML instead.

Building accessibility into your process from the start is dramatically more efficient than retrofitting it afterwards. Including accessibility criteria in design briefs, using accessibility checklists during development, conducting regular automated testing with tools like axe or Lighthouse, and including users with disabilities in your user research and testing programmes are the practices that make accessibility sustainable. An accessible website is simply a better website — for every user, on every device, in every context.