What is website accessibility and why does it matter?

Website accessibility means building your website so that people with disabilities can use it, whether they read the screen, listen to a screen reader or use only a keyboard. It often makes your website easier for everyone else too. And in the UK, a business that serves the public has a legal duty towards disabled customers.

Who web accessibility helps

Web accessibility covers a wide range of disabilities. The WCAG standard names, among others, visual, auditory, physical and speech disabilities, as well as cognitive, language, learning and neurological ones.

Many people without a disability benefit too:

• People on other devices. A phone or a smart watch has a small screen, and a phone, a watch or a smart TV each has its own way of tapping or clicking.
• Older people. Some people have limitations that come with age and don't think of them as a disability, and accessibility helps them as well.
• People with a temporary problem. A broken arm or lost glasses can make a website hard to use for a while.
• People in a difficult situation. Good contrast helps someone reading their phone in bright sunlight, and captions help in noisy and quiet places alike.

WCAG: the web accessibility guidelines and their four principles

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are recommendations for making web content more accessible. They're published by the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium. This article follows WCAG 2.2, which has 13 guidelines.

Each guideline comes with success criteria: specific points you can test your website against. Every criterion has one of three levels of conformance, where A is the lowest, AA the middle and AAA the highest.

The 13 guidelines are grouped under four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.

Perceivable

Visitors must be able to take in your content with the senses they use. In practice, images, icons and buttons need a text alternative that a screen reader can read out. Audio and video need captions or a transcript. Text and background colours need enough contrast, and text should still work when someone makes it twice as big.

Operable

Everyone must be able to use your website as well as look at it. Some people can't use a mouse and move around with a keyboard only, so every function of your website should be available from a keyboard. Visitors also need enough time to read and use your content. And content that flashes more than three times a second can cause seizures, so keep any flashing below that.

Understandable

Your content, and the way your website works, should be easy to follow. Pages should behave in a predictable, consistent way, and text should be written in clear language. When someone makes a mistake in a form, tell them what went wrong and help them correct it.

Robust

Your website and its content need to work with assistive technologies, such as screen readers, and stay compatible as those tools are updated. Anything you add yourself, such as an embedded widget or a form from another provider, is worth checking with a screen reader.

Is web accessibility a legal requirement in the UK?

Yes. A business that provides a service to the public has a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. For a website, that means taking reasonable steps to avoid putting disabled customers at a substantial disadvantage when they look for your information or buy from you. Public sector websites have extra rules, and their standard, WCAG 2.2 AA, is a useful target for any business website. If you sell to customers in the EU, a third set of rules may apply.

The UN's convention on disabled people's rights (UNCRPD) asks the countries that are party to it to give disabled people access to information and communications technology on an equal basis with others.

The Equality Act 2010

The duty to make reasonable adjustments comes from the Equality Act 2010. It means taking reasonable steps so that disabled people aren't put at a substantial disadvantage compared with other customers. Where the disadvantage concerns information, the steps include giving that information in an accessible format. Make sure your website works for disabled customers without them having to ask. The checks further down this article, from keyboard use to alt text, show you where it doesn't yet.

Public sector websites

Public sector websites and apps also have to meet the public sector accessibility regulations. The regulations came into force on 23 September 2018. They say that these websites and apps must meet accessibility standards and publish an accessibility statement.

The European Accessibility Act

The European Accessibility Act is an EU directive that sets accessibility requirements for a range of products and services, and ecommerce is one of them. EU countries have had to apply it since 28 June 2025. Microenterprises that provide services are exempt: businesses with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet of no more than €2 million.

The Act is EU law, not UK law. If you sell online to customers in EU countries, though, check first whether your business falls under that exemption. If it doesn't, the Act may cover your shop.

Why is web accessibility important for your business?

An accessible website means more people can visit and use it, and in ecommerce that includes buying from you. If you run an online shop, start with the checkout. Make sure a customer who only uses a keyboard can reach the basket, read the delivery costs and pay.

Clear website navigation, readable text and buttons that say what they do help people with disabilities. They often make shopping smoother for your other customers too.

Accessibility also overlaps with search engine optimisation (SEO). Google uses alt text, together with the rest of the page, to understand what an image shows. So the alt text you write for screen reader users helps Google too.

If you're about to build a new website, plan accessibility in web design from the first page. Fixing problems later, on a finished website, costs much more.

With Aida AI Website Builder, you describe your business to get a complete website. Then you can edit most parts of each page yourself, such as the text, the layout and the photos.

How to check your website's accessibility

Web accessibility testing should combine an automated checker, checks by hand and, where you can, feedback from disabled and older users. Test again every time you add a new feature, because accessibility is something you keep up rather than finish.

Automated checkers

A free automated web accessibility checker can test your website for you. Well-known ones include WAVE, Lighthouse from Google and Axe. You don't need to install anything for WAVE: you enter a page's web address on its website. Lighthouse runs in Chrome DevTools, the developer tools in the Chrome browser. Checkers like these are quick and a good place to start.

A clean report doesn't mean your website is accessible, though. If you only test automatically, you'll miss some issues, so your own checks by hand matter just as much.

Manual checks

You don't need to be a developer for these. Open a few important pages, such as your homepage, a product page and your contact form, and check them one by one:

• Keyboard. Put the mouse away and use Tab to jump from one element to the next. You should reach every link, button and form field, and always see which one you're on.
• Link text. Read your links on their own, the way many screen reader users scan them, without the text around them. A link such as "See delivery costs" still makes sense, while "Click here" doesn't.
• Colour contrast. Check that text and buttons stand out clearly from their background.
• Alt text. Check that every image has a text description unless it's just decoration. That includes charts and diagrams.
• Forms. Each field label should make clear what to enter, and required fields should be marked.
• Zoom. Zoom in with your browser. The text and buttons should get bigger and still be readable and usable.

Testing with real users

If you can, ask a few disabled and older users to try a real task, like finding a product and paying for it. Then watch where they get stuck. Try to include people who use assistive technology, such as a screen reader or speech recognition software.

Quick fixes that make your website more accessible

In many cases, small adjustments are enough to make a website more accessible. Many websites built with template-based builders already follow key practices, such as proper headings, so the fixes below are mostly about the content you add and the colours you choose.

Colour contrast

Text that doesn't stand out enough from its background is too hard for some people to read. At level AA, WCAG wants normal text to have a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 or higher against its background, and large text 3:1 or higher. A contrast checker, such as the one from WebAIM, lets you enter your text and background colours. You then adjust them until the ratio is high enough. Our guide to colours for your website goes into choosing a colour scheme.

Alt text

Alternative text, usually just called alt text, is a short description that tells people what an image is for. A screen reader reads it out to someone who can't see the image. Write it for the person, not for search engines. "Red wool jumper, front view" is useful, while a string of keywords makes for a poor experience.

A background image that only decorates the page doesn't need alt text. You can usually check and add alt text in the content management system (CMS) you use for your website, so go through your images there.

Headings and page structure

GOV.UK's accessibility guidance notes that screen reader users often jump through a page's list of headings to reach the content they need. Screen readers don't recognise text as a heading when it's only bold or bigger, so set each heading as a heading. Give each page a clear title too. Then set the language of the page, so a screen reader pronounces the words correctly.

Buttons and calls to action (CTAs)

Buttons and calls to action are where your visitors act, especially in an online shop. Each one should work for every visitor:

• A label should say what the button does. Instead of a vague label such as "Submit", use one such as "Add to basket" or "Go to checkout", so people know what happens next.
• Don't use colour as the only way to show what a button does or that a field has an error. Add a word or an icon as well.
• When someone zooms in, buttons should stay readable and keep working, without hiding anything they need to finish a form.

Keyboard access

On top of the keyboard test above, visitors should be able to press buttons and tick checkboxes with the space bar, and follow links with Enter. The element in focus needs a visible focus indicator, so people who use a keyboard always know where they are on the page.

Captions and transcripts

Videos, such as product demos and tutorials, need captions: a text version of what is said and heard, shown with the video. Audio, such as a podcast, needs a transcript that people can read separately. Both help people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, and anyone watching without sound.

Pick one important page today, run an automated checker on it and try the keyboard test. Fix what you find there, then move on to the next page. Starting a new website instead? Build your website and write clear text and button labels as you create each page.