Accessibility has a reputation for being expensive, technical, and slow. Parts of it are. But a surprising share of the problems that lock people out of websites can be fixed in an afternoon, by someone who is not a specialist, without touching the design direction.
This list is for exactly that situation: a working site, limited time, and a wish to stop excluding people. Fix these ten things and you will have dealt with many of the barriers that appear most often. Then, if you want to go further, the full Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are the reference to work from.
Why bother?
Accessibility is partly about people with permanent disabilities, such as blindness, deafness, or limited mobility. It is also about someone with a broken wrist, a glaring screen on a train, a noisy open-plan office, or a slow connection. Good practice helps all of them, and it tends to help search engines and conversion rates too, because clear structure and clear language are good for everyone.
Accessible design is not a separate layer added at the end. It is the habit of asking, at each step, who might struggle with this and what would make it easier.
The ten fixes
1. Check your color contrast
Low-contrast grey text on a white background looks elegant and is hard to read. Aim for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text and 3 to 1 for large text. Paste your colors into the WebAIM contrast checker and adjust the ones that fail. Buttons, form borders, and icons that carry meaning need enough contrast too.
2. Write alt text that does a job
Every meaningful image needs a short text alternative that says what the image is for, not just what it shows. For a decorative flourish, use empty alt text so screen readers skip it. Avoid starting with ‘image of’ and avoid stuffing keywords; describe it the way you would to someone on the phone.
3. Make everything keyboard friendly
Put your mouse in a drawer and try to use the site with Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, and Space. Can you reach every link, menu, and form control? Can you tell where you are? A visible focus outline is not optional, so never remove it without replacing it with something clearer.
4. Label every form field
A one-minute test
Tab into each field and listen or look for its label. If you cannot tell what a field is for without seeing the placeholder, the label is missing or not connected to the input.
Placeholder text vanishes as soon as you type, and it is not a label. Give every field a real, visible label, connect it to the input, and mark required fields in words, not only with a red asterisk. Show clear error messages that say what went wrong and how to fix it.
5. Use headings as a map
Headings are how screen reader users skim a page. Use one H1, follow it with H2s for main sections, and H3s for subsections, without skipping levels to get a certain font size. Style the size with CSS and choose the level for meaning.
6. Make link text self-explanatory
‘Read more’ repeated six times is a puzzle when links are read out of context. Write links that make sense alone, such as ‘Read the pricing guide’, and keep the text consistent when two links go to the same place.
7. Give tap targets room
Tiny buttons are difficult for anyone with a tremor, a large thumb, or a bumpy bus ride. WCAG 2.2 sets a minimum target size of 24 by 24 CSS pixels, and larger, around 44 pixels, is more comfortable. Add padding rather than only enlarging the icon.
8. Do not rely on color alone
If the only difference between an error field and a normal one is a red border, someone with color blindness will miss it. Add an icon, a message, or an underline. The same goes for links inside text, charts with color-coded lines, and status labels.
9. Caption video and control motion
Add captions to videos, and a transcript for audio. Never autoplay sound. For animation, respect the visitor’s reduced-motion setting so that parallax and large moving elements stop for people who find them nauseating.
10. Let people zoom and resize
Do not disable pinch zoom. Check that the page still works at 200 percent zoom with no content hidden or overlapping, and that text can be enlarged in the browser settings without breaking the layout.
Test like a person, not only a tool
Automated scanners are useful, and they catch the mechanical problems: missing alt text, empty links, low contrast. They cannot judge whether alt text is useful or whether the page makes sense in reading order. After a scan, spend twenty minutes with your keyboard and a screen reader, such as NVDA on Windows or VoiceOver on a Mac or iPhone, and listen to a key page from top to bottom.
If you are rebuilding your site, fold these checks into the plan from the start; our guide to redesigning without losing search traffic shows where they fit. And if you want a plain-language overview to share with your team, the W3C’s introduction to accessibility is a good one.
What to do when you cannot fix something yet
Some problems need a developer, a new template, or a wider redesign, and that is fine. Write each one down, rank it by how many people it blocks and how badly, and schedule the worst first. In the meantime, offer another way in: a plain email address and a phone number on the contact page, and a text version of anything important that lives inside an image or a PDF. A documented plan and an honest fallback are far better than silence.
Keep it going
Pick one fix per week and put it in the calendar. Assign someone to check new pages before they go live. Publish a short accessibility statement that says what you support and how to report a problem. Progress beats perfection, and every barrier removed is a person who can now use your site.
It also pays to treat accessibility as part of quality, not a separate project. When someone reviews a new page for spelling and broken links, add contrast, headings, and keyboard use to the same checklist. Small habits repeated on every page do more than a one-off audit that nobody revisits.