A website passes the accessibility checks that matter most when 18 things are true: contrast is strong enough to read, images carry meaningful alt text, everything works from a keyboard, forms are labelled and forgiving, headings describe the page structure, and media has captions or transcripts. This checklist walks through all 18 in priority order, with a free test for each — no specialist software required for the first pass.
Accessibility is usually framed as a legal obligation, and in many markets it increasingly is one. But the commercial framing is more persuasive day to day: the visitors affected by low contrast, unlabelled buttons and keyboard traps include your oldest customers, your customers on phones in bright sunlight, anyone with a broken arm or a sleeping baby, and every search engine trying to understand your page. Accessible sites are simply usable sites, measured honestly.
Seeing the Page: Contrast, Text and Layout (Checks 1–5)
1. Text contrast at least 4.5:1 for body text (3:1 for large headings) — light grey text on white is the most common failure on modern sites, and it fails your best customers first. 2. Text resizes to 200% without content overlapping or disappearing. 3. Nothing is conveyed by colour alone — a form error shown only as a red border is invisible to colour-blind users; add an icon or a sentence. 4. Tap targets are at least roughly 44px — small links packed together punish every thumb, not just unsteady ones. 5. Layout survives a narrow screen and landscape phone without horizontal scrolling.
Test free: browser zoom to 200%, a contrast checker from the free tools page's colour utilities (the Color Picker helps sample the exact colours), and simply squinting at your homepage in daylight on a phone — low-tech, brutally informative.
| Check area | The check | Free test |
|---|---|---|
| Contrast | Body text ≥ 4.5:1 against its background | Contrast checker + daylight phone test |
| Alt text | Every informative image described; decorative ones emptied | Screen reader or alt-text viewer extension |
| Keyboard | Full journey possible with Tab / Enter / Esc | Unplug the mouse and try to buy something |
| Headings | One H1, logical order, no skipped levels for styling | Headings outline extension |
| Forms | Visible labels, clear errors, no time-out traps | Submit the form empty and wrong on purpose |
| Media | Captions on video, transcripts for audio | Watch your own video muted |
Understanding the Page: Alt Text, Headings and Links (Checks 6–11)
6. Alt text describes the image's information, not its file name — 'Team fitting a heat pump in a Leeds semi' , not 'IMG_2043'. 7. Decorative images have empty alt so screen readers skip them instead of announcing clutter. 8. One H1 per page, with headings in order — a screen reader user navigates by headings exactly as a sighted user scans them. 9. Link text says where it goes — pages of 'click here' are useless read aloud in a list, and vague for everyone else too. 10. Page titles are unique and descriptive — the first thing announced on arrival. 11. Language is declared in the page code so pronunciation is right, which matters doubly on bilingual sites.
These checks overlap happily with SEO: unique titles, descriptive links and structured headings are the same work our meta tag analysis guide covers from the ranking side.
Where accessibility failures most often appear on small sites (illustrative ranking) — hover or tap each bar for details.
Using the Page: Keyboard, Forms and Motion (Checks 12–18)
12. The whole journey works by keyboard, including menus, pop-ups and checkout — and 13. a visible focus outline shows where you are (deleting the outline for aesthetics strands keyboard users completely). 14. No keyboard traps — Esc closes dialogs. 15. Forms have persistent visible labels, not placeholder-only fields that vanish as you type, and 16. errors are described in words with the field named and the fix suggested, keeping the user's entries intact. 17. Autoplay and moving content can be paused, and flashing content is avoided entirely. 18. Time limits warn and extend rather than wiping a half-finished application.
Test free: complete your own most important journey — enquiry, booking, purchase — using only Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter and Esc. Every place you get lost or stuck is a place real customers are being lost today.
Accessibility Is a Publishing Habit, Not a Project
The template fixes get you most of the way once; the rest is habit. Every new image needs its alt text written at upload, by the person who chose the image and knows what it shows — alt text written retrospectively in bulk by someone guessing is barely better than none. Every new video needs captions ordered with it, not as a someday task. Every new form needs its labels and error messages checked at build, not after the first complaint.
Put three lines in your team's publishing checklist — alt text, heading order, link text that makes sense — and the site stays accessible as it grows instead of drifting back. The businesses that struggle treat accessibility as a one-off remediation project every few years; the ones that do not, treat it as hygiene. Hygiene is cheaper, and it is the difference between a site that is accessible on audit day and one that is accessible every day.
What to Fix First on a Real Budget
Work in the order of visitor impact, not checklist order. Contrast and tap targets first — they affect everyone, everywhere. Then keyboard operation and focus visibility, then forms (your money pages), then alt text and headings as an ongoing publishing habit, then media captions. Most of these are one-off template fixes on a modern site: paying once to fix the template repairs every page built on it, which is why accessibility belongs in any redesign brief from day one — see the real costs in our website redesign cost guide. Build it into launch, too: the website launch checklist pairs naturally with this one.
Pick three checks from part one and run them on your homepage today — fifteen minutes, no tools to buy. Whatever you find, the Asad Webs blog has the redesign and launch guides to fix it properly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common website accessibility failure?
Low text contrast — pale grey text on white backgrounds — followed by missing or useless alt text. Both are quick to detect with free checkers and are usually one template fix.
Is website accessibility a legal requirement?
In many jurisdictions it is, or is becoming one for businesses of certain sizes and for public-sector suppliers. Requirements vary by country, so treat this checklist as good practice and take legal advice for your specific obligations.
Does accessibility help SEO?
Much of the work overlaps: unique descriptive titles, structured headings, meaningful link text and text alternatives all help search engines understand pages. Accessible publishing habits are good publishing habits.
How do I test accessibility without special software?
Zoom to 200%, navigate by keyboard only, watch your video muted, submit your form wrong on purpose, and view the page in bright daylight on a phone. Those five free tests find most real-world failures.
Do I need to fix everything at once?
No. Fix contrast, targets and keyboard operation in the template first — one change, every page improved — then forms, then build alt text and captions into your publishing routine.
Be the first to share a useful question or thought.