Website Accessibility for Business: Where to Start
Practical website accessibility for small businesses: contrast, keyboard use, alt text, forms, headings, testing, and why it matters for customers.
Accessibility means building a website that people can use regardless of disability, device or circumstance. That includes someone using a screen reader, someone who cannot use a mouse, someone with colour blindness, someone with a temporary injury and someone squinting at a phone in bright sunlight. It is the right thing to do, it widens your audience, and in a growing number of places the law expects it. You do not need to do everything at once; a few concrete steps remove the biggest barriers.
Why it matters to a business
Customers who cannot use your site cannot buy from you. Many accessibility improvements also help everyone: clear headings, readable text, descriptive links and well-labelled forms improve usability and often search performance. On the legal side, the European Accessibility Act applies requirements to certain products and services, including some ecommerce services, in EU member states from June 2025, and public sector bodies have had web accessibility obligations for longer. Whether and how it applies to you depends on your size and sector, so ask an adviser. The international reference most laws point to is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
The four principles
WCAG is organised around four ideas: content must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. In practice that translates into checks you can do yourself.
Text, colour and contrast
- Make sure text contrasts strongly with its background. WCAG AA asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text, and free contrast checkers will test your colours.
- Do not rely on colour alone to convey meaning, such as red for errors with no text or icon.
- Use a readable base font size and allow the text to be enlarged without breaking the layout.
- Avoid long blocks of centred or justified text, and keep line lengths reasonable.
Structure with real headings
Screen reader users navigate by headings. Use one main heading per page, then subheadings in logical order. Do not choose heading levels for their size; style handles size. Use proper lists for lists and tables only for data. Landmarks such as navigation, main content and footer help assistive technology jump around, and most modern themes provide them.
Images and media
Give meaningful images alt text that conveys their purpose: "Delivery van outside the warehouse" rather than "image1". Purely decorative images should have empty alt text so screen readers skip them. If an image contains text, repeat the text in the alt attribute or, better, in the page. Provide captions or transcripts for video and audio, and avoid auto-playing media with sound.
Keyboard access
Put the mouse aside and try to use your site with the Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter and arrow keys. Can you reach every link, button and form field? Is the focus indicator visible? Does the menu open and close with the keyboard? Is there a way to skip repeated navigation and reach the main content? Many sliders, popups and dropdowns fail here. If a feature cannot be made keyboard-friendly, replace it with a simpler pattern.
Forms that people can complete
- Every field has a visible label connected to it, not just placeholder text that vanishes.
- Required fields are marked in text, not only by colour.
- Error messages say what went wrong and how to fix it, next to the relevant field.
- Autocomplete attributes are set for common fields such as name, email and address.
- Buttons have descriptive text.
- CAPTCHAs offer an alternative for people who cannot solve visual puzzles.
Links and navigation
Link text should make sense out of context. "Read our pricing" beats "click here", because screen reader users often list all links on a page. Keep navigation consistent from page to page, and ensure target areas on touch screens are large enough to tap accurately.
Test in layers
| Method | What it finds |
|---|---|
| Automated checkers | Missing alt text, contrast failures, empty links; only part of the issues |
| Keyboard-only walkthrough | Traps, invisible focus, unreachable controls |
| Zoom to 200 percent | Layout breaks and hidden content |
| Screen reader test | Confusing order, unlabeled controls |
| Real users with disabilities | Issues no checklist anticipates |
Automated tools catch only a portion of problems, so treat a clean score as a start.
Make it part of your process
Choose themes and plugins that advertise accessibility support, and test them rather than trusting the label. Train whoever edits content on alt text and headings. Add an accessibility statement describing your efforts and a way to report problems. Fix issues in priority order: those blocking purchase or contact first.
A realistic first month
Week one: run an automated checker on your homepage, contact page and top product or service page, and fix contrast and missing alt text. Week two: do the keyboard walkthrough and repair navigation and forms. Week three: review headings and link text across your most visited pages. Week four: publish an accessibility statement and a contact route for feedback. Repeat the cycle on other pages each quarter. Progress beats perfection, and documenting what you fixed shows good faith.
Performance and hosting help too
Fast, stable pages are easier for everyone, including people on slow connections or older devices. Zebra Hosting plans include free SSL and Cloudflare CDN on hosted sites; see the CDN page. Pair that with the checks above, and review our WordPress hosting if you want a flexible base for an accessible theme.
