Accessibility sounds like a compliance topic for large organisations. In practice it is much simpler: making sure everyone who visits your website can read it, use it and get in touch, whether they have poor eyesight, use a keyboard instead of a mouse, rely on a screen reader, or are just holding a phone in bright sunlight.
Done well, it makes a website better for everybody. Here is what it involves, and where most small business sites fall short.
Why it is worth your time
Roughly one in four people in the UK report a disability, according to the government's Family Resources Survey, and many more have temporary or situational limits: a broken wrist, a small screen, a slow connection, or older eyes that struggle with pale grey text. If any of them cannot use your contact form, you lose the enquiry.
There is also a legal side. UK businesses that offer services to the public have a duty under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments, and that includes their website. And search engines tend to reward the same things accessibility needs: clear structure, descriptive text and fast pages.
Text people can actually read
- Contrast. Light grey text on a white background looks elegant and is hard to read for many people. Body text needs strong contrast against its background.
- Size. Body text on a phone should be comfortably readable without zooming. If you find yourself squinting at your own site, so do your customers.
- Plain language. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea per paragraph. It helps people with reading difficulties, people reading in a second language and people in a hurry.
Images and video
Every meaningful image needs a short description (alternative text) that a screen reader can read out: "Slate roof replacement on a farmhouse near Diss" rather than "IMG_2041". Purely decorative images should be marked as decorative so they are skipped. Videos need captions, which also help everyone watching with the sound off.
Navigation and structure
- Headings in order. One main heading per page, then logical sub-headings. Screen reader users jump between headings the way sighted people scan a page.
- Links that make sense on their own. "Read our roofing case study" works; "click here" and a page full of "read more" do not.
- Everything usable with a keyboard. Try pressing Tab through your site. You should always see where you are, and every menu, button and form field should be reachable.
- Buttons big enough to tap. Small icons crowded together are frustrating on a phone for everyone.
Forms
Forms are where accessibility problems cost you money directly. Every field needs a visible label, not just placeholder text that disappears when you start typing. Error messages should say what went wrong and how to fix it, in words, not only with a red border. And the form should work entirely with a keyboard.
Common myths
"Accessible sites look boring." They do not. Good contrast, clear type and generous spacing are simply good design.
"It is expensive." Built in from the start, it costs very little. Retrofitting an inaccessible site later is what gets expensive.
"Nobody who uses my site needs it." You cannot know who left without getting in touch.
How we approach it
On the websites we build, accessibility is part of the build rather than a check at the end: proper headings, labelled form fields, visible focus outlines for keyboard users, descriptive link text, sufficient contrast and tap targets of a sensible size. We test with automated tools and by hand, using only a keyboard.
A five-minute check you can do
- Put your mouse aside and use Tab and Enter to reach your contact form and send it.
- Zoom your browser to 200 per cent and see whether anything breaks or overlaps.
- Read your home page on your phone outdoors.
- Look at your images and ask whether each one would make sense described in a sentence.
If any of those were harder than they should be, your visitors are finding it hard too. We are always happy to take a look.