Website accessibility: the basics every site owner can check
What an accessible website means in practice and five simple checks you can do yourself: contrast, keyboard use, alt text, labels and headings.
An accessible website is one that people can use whatever their abilities or devices. That includes people with low vision, people who cannot use a mouse, and anyone reading on a small screen in bright sunlight. Good accessibility also tends to make a site clearer for everyone.
This article is a practical starting point, not legal advice. For the requirements that apply to your business, ask a lawyer or the relevant authority.
Five checks you can do yourself
- Contrast. Text must stand out clearly from its background. Pale grey text on white is the most common problem. Free contrast checkers show whether a colour pair is readable.
- Keyboard. Put the mouse aside and press Tab. You should be able to reach every link, button and form field, in a sensible order, and see where you are.
- Image descriptions. Images that carry meaning need a short text alternative. Decorative images should have an empty one so screen readers skip them.
- Form labels. Every field needs a visible label, not only a placeholder that disappears when you type. Error messages should say what went wrong and how to fix it.
- Headings. Use headings in order, one main title and sections below it. People using screen readers move through a page by headings.
Other things worth checking
- Links say where they lead, not just “click here”.
- The page works when zoomed to 200%.
- Videos have captions where speech matters.
- Nothing important depends on colour alone.
Where to go next
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the common reference for these checks. Automated tools find only part of the problems, so a quick manual pass with the keyboard is valuable. If you would like a site built with these points in mind, see website development in Bratislava or write to me.