Web Accessibility: Make Important Tasks Usable by More People
Accessibility is about whether people with different abilities can understand and use the website. It should be tested directly, not inferred from a design checklist or a search ranking.
Use meaningful structure and native controls
Build headings, landmarks, links and buttons with semantic HTML. Associate form labels with fields and ensure that the page hierarchy makes sense when read without visual styling.
Test keyboard and focus behaviour
Navigate using Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, Space and Escape where appropriate. Ensure focus remains visible, dialogs manage focus correctly and no menu or carousel traps the user.
Check contrast, zoom and alternatives
Verify text and control contrast, readability at increased zoom and useful alternative text for informative images. Decorative images should generally be skipped by assistive technology.
Make errors and status messages understandable
Explain form errors in text, identify the affected field and help users recover. Do not rely only on colour or assume that a visual confirmation will be announced by a screen reader.
Combine tools with human testing
Automated checks can catch some issues, but they cannot fully judge task clarity or whether instructions make sense. Test important journeys manually and involve people who use assistive technology when possible.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Choosing a tactic before defining the audience's task.
- Relying on a surface score without checking the real experience.
- Making changes without testing the full user journey.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where should a small team start?
Choose one important user journey, record the current experience and test a focused improvement before expanding the work.
How should progress be measured?
Set a baseline and choose a few metrics tied to the intended outcome. Combine performance data with user feedback and document limitations.
Should every website use the same approach?
No. Adapt the design and implementation to the audience, content, technology, resources and applicable requirements.