Business owners think of accessibility as something that applies to other people’s websites, the big, complicated sites with government contracts to worry about.
It doesn’t work like that. Every website has visitors who struggle with something, whether that’s ageing eyesight, a broken arm making a mouse difficult to use for a fortnight, or a genuine long-term disability, and a site that works for them tends to work better for everyone else too.
Why this matters more than it used to
More people are searching, browsing, and buying on mobile than ever, often in poor light, on a cracked screen, or while doing three other things at once. Accessible design isn’t really a separate discipline from good design, it’s what good design becomes once you stop assuming every visitor has perfect eyesight, a steady hand, and full attention to spare. Get it right, and you’ll likely find your site’s easier for absolutely everyone to use, not just the people it’s technically written for.
Is there a rating system for this?
Yes, and it’s worth knowing the basic shape of it, since you’ll see it mentioned anywhere accessibility comes up. The rules almost everyone works to are called WCAG, short for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and they’re graded across three levels.
Level A is the minimum, covering the basics that stop a site being unusable for someone, such as being able to navigate it with a keyboard at all.
Level AA is the standard most businesses should be aiming for, and it’s also the level required by law for UK public sector websites. It covers things like proper colour contrast and readable text sizes, the kind of fixes that make a real difference for most visitors.
Level AAA is the highest standard, adding extras like sign language translation for video content, and it’s rarely expected outside specialist services, so it’s not something a small business needs to chase.
For most small businesses, aiming for AA is a sensible, achievable target, and everything in this article will get you a good way towards it.
The basics worth knowing
Contrast between your text and background. We covered this in the colour guide, but it bears repeating here, since pale grey text on white might look elegant and still be unreadable for a good portion of your visitors. Running your colours through a contrast checker takes thirty seconds and catches this before it costs you a sale.
Text that isn’t too small to read. Sixteen pixels is a sensible minimum for body text on a website, and if you’re tempted to go smaller to fit more onto a page, that’s usually a sign the page needs restructuring, not shrinking.
Alt text on your images. This is a short written description added behind the scenes to every image on your site, so a screen reader can describe it to someone who can’t see it, and so Google understands what the image shows. A simple line like “woman drinking coffee at a café table” does the job.
Links that make sense on their own. A page full of “click here” links tells a screen reader user nothing about where each one goes. Writing a link as “read our pricing guide” instead does the same job for everyone, while actually being useful to someone navigating by ear.
A site that works without a mouse. Some visitors navigate entirely by keyboard, tabbing from one link or button to the next, so it’s worth checking that every part of your site can still be reached and used that way, not just clicked.
What this looks like in practice
A couple of quick before-and-afters, since it’s easier to picture with real wording in front of you.
Link text. Instead of “Click here to see our opening hours”, try “See our opening hours”. It’s shorter, it reads more naturally, and it tells a screen reader exactly where the link leads without needing any surrounding context.
Image alt text. Instead of leaving an image untitled, or with a default file name like “IMG_4092”, describe what’s actually there: “wooden shop counter with fresh bread on display” tells both a screen reader and Google what the photo is showing.
Button wording. Instead of a plain “Submit” on a contact form, try “Send your message”. It removes any doubt about what pressing it will actually do, which helps every visitor, not only the ones using assistive technology.
Free tools to check your own site
You don’t need to guess whether any of this is working, since a couple of free tools will check it for you directly.
WAVE is the easiest place to start. Put in your web address, and it overlays your actual page with icons showing exactly where the problems sit, missing alt text, poor contrast, confusing link wording, right where they appear on the page itself.
Google Lighthouse comes built into Chrome, so there’s nothing to install. Right-click anywhere on your page, choose “Inspect,” find the “Lighthouse” tab, and run an accessibility check to get a score out of 100 along with a specific list of what’s holding it back.
You don’t need to overhaul everything at once
Accessibility isn’t a box you tick once and forget, but it’s also not something you need to solve in a single afternoon. Fixing your contrast, writing proper alt text, and tidying up your link wording will get most small business sites a long way, and each one is a small, manageable change rather than a full rebuild.
If you’d like a second pair of eyes on how accessible your site currently is, we’re happy to take a look.