Website Accessibility: A Practical Guide for Business Owners

Web accessibility often sounds like a technical compliance issue—something for specialists to worry about. But at its core, accessibility is simply about ensuring everyone can use your website, regardless of how they interact with it. And that has direct business implications.

An estimated 16% of the global population lives with some form of disability. In the UK, that's over 14 million people with spending power—the "purple pound"—worth approximately £274 billion annually. If your website excludes these users, you're excluding a significant market segment.

What Is Web Accessibility?

Web accessibility means designing and building websites that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with. This includes users who are:

• Blind or have low vision: May use screen readers that convert text to speech, or screen magnifiers to enlarge content.
• Deaf or hard of hearing: Need captions for video and audio content.
• Motor impaired: May navigate using keyboard only, voice commands, or specialised input devices rather than a mouse.
• Cognitively impaired: Benefit from clear language, consistent navigation, and reduced distractions.

Accessibility also helps many others: people using mobile devices in bright sunlight, those with temporary injuries, older users with changing abilities, and anyone in situational limitations like a noisy environment.

The Legal Landscape

Beyond the business case, there are legal requirements. In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 requires service providers (including websites) to make "reasonable adjustments" for disabled people. The EU's European Accessibility Act, coming into force in 2025, will require many products and services—including e-commerce—to meet accessibility standards.

Lawsuits over inaccessible websites have increased dramatically. In the US, web accessibility lawsuits exceeded 4,000 per year. The UK has seen similar trends. While small businesses are less likely to be targeted than major corporations, the risk exists—and the reputational damage can exceed the legal costs.

More importantly, legal compliance is the floor, not the ceiling. Meeting minimum requirements doesn't mean you've created a good experience for disabled users.

Understanding WCAG

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the internationally recognised standards for web accessibility. They're organised around four principles—websites should be:

Perceivable: Information must be presentable in ways users can perceive. This means text alternatives for images, captions for videos, and content that can be presented in different ways without losing meaning.

Operable: Users must be able to operate the interface. All functionality should be available via keyboard, users should have enough time to read and interact, and navigation should be straightforward.

Understandable: Information and operation must be understandable. Text should be readable, pages should behave predictably, and users should be helped to avoid and correct mistakes.

Robust: Content must be robust enough to work with current and future technologies, including assistive technologies like screen readers.

WCAG has three conformance levels: A (minimum), AA (recommended for most websites), and AAA (highest). Most organisations aim for AA compliance, which balances accessibility with practicality.

Common Accessibility Issues

Many accessibility problems are surprisingly common—and fixable. Here are issues we frequently encounter:

Missing Alternative Text

Images without alt text are invisible to screen readers. Users hear nothing, or worse, the filename ("IMG_3847.jpg"). Every meaningful image needs descriptive alt text explaining what it shows. Decorative images should have empty alt attributes so screen readers skip them.

Poor Colour Contrast

Light grey text on a white background might look elegant, but users with low vision can't read it. WCAG requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text. Tools like WebAIM's Contrast Checker make this easy to verify.

Keyboard Navigation Failures

Many users can't use a mouse. They navigate using Tab to move between interactive elements and Enter to activate them. If your website has elements that can't be reached or activated via keyboard—perhaps a custom dropdown or modal—those users are stuck.

Missing Form Labels

Form fields need associated labels so screen readers can announce what information is required. Placeholder text isn't sufficient—it disappears when users start typing and isn't reliably announced by all assistive technologies.

Unclear Link Text

"Click here" and "Read more" tell screen reader users nothing about where the link goes. Links should be descriptive: "View our pricing plans" rather than "Click here for pricing."

Missing Heading Structure

Screen reader users often navigate by headings to understand page structure and jump to relevant sections. Pages need a logical heading hierarchy—H1 for the main title, H2 for major sections, H3 for subsections—not headings chosen for visual size.

Testing Your Website

Several approaches help identify accessibility issues:

Automated testing: Tools like WAVE, axe, or Lighthouse can scan pages for common issues. They're quick and catch obvious problems, but they can't assess everything—they might confirm alt text exists without knowing if it's actually useful.

Keyboard testing: Navigate your entire site using only the keyboard. Can you reach everything? Can you see where the focus is? Can you operate all interactive elements? This simple test reveals many issues.

Screen reader testing: Using a screen reader (NVDA and VoiceOver are free) reveals how your site sounds to blind users. It's initially disorienting but hugely educational.

User testing: Nothing replaces testing with actual disabled users. Their feedback reveals issues automated tools miss and helps prioritise what matters most.

Practical Steps Forward

Accessibility isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. Here's how to make meaningful progress:

Start with an audit: Understand your current state. What issues exist? How severe are they? This prioritises your efforts.

Fix critical issues first: Some issues completely block access—keyboard traps, missing alt text on essential images, inaccessible checkout flows. Address these before less severe problems.

Build accessibility into process: It's cheaper to build accessibility in from the start than retrofit it later. Include accessibility in design reviews, development standards, and content guidelines.

Train your team: Everyone who touches the website—developers, designers, content editors—should understand accessibility basics relevant to their role.

Iterate continuously: Accessibility isn't a one-time project. New content and features need ongoing attention. Regular audits catch regressions.

Getting Help

If your website has accessibility issues—or you're not sure—we can help. We offer accessibility audits that identify issues and prioritise fixes, and we build accessibility into every website we create.

Get in touch to discuss an accessibility review or to ensure your next project is inclusive from the start.