Web accessibility is the practice of making websites usable by everyone, including people who are blind or have low vision, are deaf or hard of hearing, have motor impairments or have cognitive disabilities. It covers how content is structured, how it works with screen readers and keyboards, how colors and text are chosen, and how media is captioned. The main technical standard is the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Core practices
Most accessibility issues on marketing sites come from a familiar set of problems that are straightforward to prevent.
- Use semantic HTML: headings in order, real buttons and links, lists and tables.
- Provide text alternatives for meaningful images.
- Ensure everything works with a keyboard and shows a visible focus indicator.
- Meet color contrast requirements for text and controls.
- Label every form field and describe errors in text.
- Caption videos and provide transcripts for audio.
- Avoid content that flashes or moves without a way to pause it.
Legal context
Requirements vary by country and sector. In the US, accessibility lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act regularly involve websites, and a 2024 Department of Justice rule set WCAG 2.1 AA as the standard for state and local government sites. In the EU, the European Accessibility Act has applied since June 2025 to many products and services, including e-commerce and some digital services, with national laws implementing it. Get legal advice for your situation.
Accessibility, conversion and SEO
Accessible sites are easier for everyone to use: clear labels, good contrast and predictable navigation help all visitors, not only those using assistive technology. Many accessibility practices, such as descriptive headings, alt text and real link text, also make content easier for search engines and AI systems to parse, though accessibility is not itself a named ranking factor.
Example
Fixing a demo form for keyboard users
Hypothetical expense tool Moorlandia tests its site with only a keyboard and finds the demo form's custom dropdown cannot be opened without a mouse. It replaces the component with a native select element, adds visible focus styles and confirms with a screen reader that labels and errors are announced.
Common mistakes
Relying only on overlays
Third-party widgets that claim to fix accessibility automatically do not repair underlying code problems and are criticized by many accessibility practitioners. Fix the source.
Testing only with automated tools
Automated checkers catch some issues, but many, such as confusing focus order or poor alt text, need manual testing.
Questions
Run an automated checker, then test key pages with a keyboard and a screen reader. Fix forms, navigation and contrast on your most important conversion pages first.
