Website accessibility is about making the site usable by people with different abilities and ways of interacting. Someone may use a keyboard, magnify the page, listen through a screen reader or need a clearer presentation of information. A business website should consider those experiences when it explains a service or asks a person to take action.
Start with the journeys that matter: finding your offer, understanding the details, making an enquiry and completing a purchase. A small barrier in one of those journeys can prevent someone from doing the very thing the website exists to support.
Understand the standard and the scope of a review
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, provide a recognised framework for accessibility. W3C’s WCAG overview explains the standards and their versions. For a project, agree the version and target level being assessed, the pages and features included and how the work will be tested.
A scanner score is useful evidence about the checks that tool performs. It is not a complete accessibility assessment or a guarantee that every customer can use the site. Be specific about the result: what was checked, what was found and what still needs attention.
Our website design process can consider accessibility alongside the layout and customer journey, helping the requirements influence the build from the beginning.
Make navigation work beyond a mouse
Try using the site with a keyboard. Move through links and controls, open the navigation, use any dialog and return to the page. The focused control should be visible, the order should make sense and the visitor should be able to leave an interface without getting stuck.
W3C explains the importance of visible keyboard focus. A neat visual design should still make it clear where the user is. This is particularly important when a menu or enquiry form opens over the page.
For a shop, include filters, product options and checkout in that review. For a service business, follow the route to an actual enquiry. A homepage check will miss features that appear later in the journey.
Help people read and understand the page
Clear headings help organise the information. Use them to describe the content that follows, rather than choosing a heading level simply because it produces a preferred font size. Links should explain their destination in context, and instructions should make sense without depending only on a position or colour.
Test enlarged text and a narrow viewport. The page should remain usable as content wraps, with important controls and information available. W3C’s guidance on reflow explains the need to accommodate enlarged content without unnecessary scrolling in two directions.
Contrast needs attention across ordinary copy, buttons and text placed over photographs. Also consider the language itself. A clear explanation of what happens next can be more useful than a clever label that makes someone stop and interpret it.
Give forms proper labels and useful feedback
A form label should identify the field in a way that remains available as the person types. Explain required information and provide errors that help the visitor correct the problem. A red outline alone may not explain which detail is missing.
The W3C forms tutorial covers labels, instructions, validation and notifications. These details help visitors understand both the task and its outcome. A success message should be available to assistive technology as well as visible on the screen.
In an enquiry form, ask for a manageable amount of relevant information. For a multi-step process, show progress and keep the back route predictable. Our development work considers the behaviour behind the design, including validation and what happens after submission.
Describe images according to their purpose
An informative image may need a useful text alternative. A purely decorative image may appropriately have an empty alternative so assistive technology can ignore it. An image that acts as a button needs a description of its function.
W3C’s images tutorial explains these distinctions. Adding a search phrase to every image is not an accessibility strategy. The description should help a person understand the information or action the image provides.
For product imagery, consider what matters to a buyer: shape, finish or the detail being illustrated. Important specifications should also exist as readable text, rather than appearing only inside an image. The same principle applies to service diagrams and charts.
Combine automated checks with manual use
Automated tools can identify useful issues at scale, including some missing labels and structural problems. Manual checks help examine behaviour, meaningful descriptions and whether a person can actually complete a task. Both belong in a sensible review.
W3C’s Easy Checks provides a useful starting point and explains that preliminary checks are not a comprehensive evaluation. For a fuller assessment, agree appropriate expertise, assistive-technology testing and involvement from users with relevant access needs.
- Choose representative pages and complete journeys.
- Record each issue with the affected page and practical impact.
- Prioritise barriers to essential tasks.
- Retest the fix in the context where the issue occurred.
- Check that shared templates have improved consistently.
Keep legal requirements in their proper context
UK public-sector websites and apps have specific accessibility requirements described in government guidance. Those rules should not be copied into an assertion that every private business has exactly the same obligations.
The Equality Act guidance is relevant to understanding wider responsibilities, including reasonable adjustments in applicable circumstances. The position depends on the organisation and service involved. Obtain appropriate advice where a particular legal question needs resolving, while continuing to address practical barriers on the website.
Make accessibility part of running the website
New content can introduce problems after an initial review. A photograph may arrive without a useful alternative, a document may be difficult to read or an embedded booking tool may change its behaviour. Give content editors clear guidance and include important journeys in ongoing checks.
Our website care can support a planned improvement process, while online shops need attention across browsing, product choices and checkout. If you want to understand where to begin, talk to us about the tasks your customers need to complete. A clear scope and useful evidence make the next improvements easier to prioritise.