The process of identifying and resolving barriers that prevent users with disabilities — visual, hearing, motor, cognitive — from accessing and using a website effectively. Accessibility improvements make the site usable by the widest possible audience, support WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) compliance and reduce legal risk.
Approximately 20% of the UK population has a disability of some kind. An inaccessible website excludes a significant proportion of potential customers. Accessibility improvements also benefit all users: better colour contrast aids users in bright sunlight, keyboard navigation benefits power users, clear structure benefits users with slower cognitive processing.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), published by the W3C, define success criteria for web accessibility across four principles: Perceivable (content can be perceived by all users), Operable (interface can be operated by all users), Understandable (content and operation are understandable) and Robust (content can be interpreted by assistive technologies). WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the widely accepted compliance benchmark.
Missing or inadequate alt text on images, insufficient colour contrast between text and background, interactive elements that cannot be reached or operated by keyboard alone, missing form labels, video content without captions or transcripts, focus indicators removed from interactive elements by CSS, and page structure that doesn’t make semantic sense to screen readers.
A structured review combining automated scanning tools (Axe, WAVE, Lighthouse) with manual expert review and testing with assistive technologies (screen readers such as NVDA on Windows, VoiceOver on macOS and iOS). Automated tools identify approximately 30–40% of WCAG failures; manual review is required to identify the remainder.
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) requires websites of businesses selling to consumers in the EU to meet WCAG 2.1 AA from June 2025. While UK businesses are not directly subject to UK domestic accessibility legislation for most private sector websites, businesses selling to EU consumers through their website should comply with the EAA requirements.
By creating documents with proper semantic structure (tagged headings, lists, tables), ensuring all images within documents have alt text, using sufficient colour contrast, providing accessible forms within PDFs where required, and verifying accessibility using Adobe Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker. An accessible HTML page alternative is preferable to a complex PDF for most content.
The ability to navigate and operate all website functionality using only a keyboard (Tab to move between interactive elements, Enter to activate, arrow keys to navigate dropdowns and menus). Many disabled users navigate without a mouse — using keyboard, switch access or voice control software that emulates keyboard input. A website unusable by keyboard is inaccessible to these users.
By ensuring text meets WCAG minimum contrast ratios: 4.5:1 for normal text (AA), 3:1 for large text (AA), and 7:1 for normal text (AAA). Using a contrast checker tool (WebAIM Contrast Checker, Figma Able plugin) to verify all text and icon colour combinations against their backgrounds before and after design changes.
A public page documenting the website’s current accessibility compliance level, known accessibility limitations and the steps being taken to address them, an email or contact method for users to report accessibility problems or request content in an alternative format, and the date of the most recent accessibility review.