What web accessibility means in practice
Web accessibility means people with visual, hearing, motor or cognitive disabilities can use your website. In practice that means a blind visitor using a screen reader can fill in your contact form, someone who can’t use a mouse can reach every link with a keyboard, and a person with low vision can read your text against its background.
The standard most laws and courts point to is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the W3C. The current version is WCAG 2.2, and Level AA is the usual target. It covers things like color contrast, text alternatives for images, captions, keyboard access, visible focus, clear form labels and error messages, and touch targets large enough to tap.
We audit and fix existing sites, and we build new sites to WCAG 2.2 AA from the design stage through our UI/UX design and development teams.
ADA compliance for websites and the legal context
In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act doesn’t spell out technical rules for private business websites, but courts have heard many lawsuits claiming inaccessible websites violate Title III. For state and local government sites, a 2024 Department of Justice rule under Title II adopted WCAG 2.1 AA as the technical standard.
In the European Union, the European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 to many consumer-facing products and services, including e-commerce, banking and transport services. The harmonized standard EN 301 549 maps to WCAG. Very small service businesses have some exemptions. The UK has the Equality Act 2010, Canada has provincial laws such as Ontario’s AODA, and Australia has the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.
We’re developers, not lawyers. We can tell you how your site measures against WCAG and fix it, but for legal questions about your specific obligations, speak to a qualified attorney.
How our accessibility audit and remediation works
- Automated scan We run axe, WAVE and Lighthouse across your key templates to catch missing alt text, contrast failures, empty links and ARIA errors.
- Manual testing Automated tools catch only part of the issues. We test with a keyboard alone, with NVDA and VoiceOver screen readers, at 200 percent zoom and on mobile.
- Written report Every issue is listed with the WCAG success criterion, where it occurs, why it matters and how to fix it, ranked by severity.
- Code-level fixes We fix templates, components and content directly: headings, labels, focus order, contrast, ARIA, captions and accessible forms.
- Retest and statement We retest every fix and help you publish an accessibility statement with a contact route for users who hit a problem.
Common problems we fix
- Images and icons with no text alternative
- Light gray text that fails contrast ratios
- Forms with placeholder text instead of labels
- Menus and modals that trap or lose keyboard focus
- Skipped heading levels and missing page landmarks
- Videos without captions
- Buttons and links that only say “click here”
- Carousels that auto-play with no pause control
Why we don’t use overlay widgets
Accessibility overlays are scripts that add a toolbar to your site and claim to make it compliant automatically. They don’t fix the underlying code, they can interfere with screen readers users already rely on, and many accessibility advocates actively oppose them. We fix the site itself.
Accessibility also stays fixed only if new content follows the rules. We train your editors on alt text, headings and link wording, and our website maintenance plans include periodic rechecks.
Questions we get about website accessibility
Can you make my website fully ADA compliant?
There’s no official ADA certification for private websites, so nobody can honestly certify compliance. We can bring your site up to WCAG 2.2 AA, document what we tested and fixed, and help you keep it there.
Does the European Accessibility Act apply to my business?
It can apply to businesses outside the EU that sell covered products or services to EU consumers, such as online stores. Whether it applies to you depends on what you sell and your size, so check with a legal advisor. We can audit against the WCAG criteria that EN 301 549 references.
Is an automated scan enough?
No. Automated tools miss problems that need human judgment, like whether alt text is meaningful or whether focus order makes sense. Our audits always include manual keyboard and screen reader testing.
Does accessibility help SEO?
Several fixes overlap with SEO: descriptive alt text, proper headings, meaningful link text and captions all help search engines understand your pages. It also makes the site easier for everyone to use.
How is accessibility work priced?
It depends on the number of templates and how much needs fixing. Start with a free audit, and we’ll follow up with a fixed-price proposal for the full review and fixes.