How can you make your website inclusive with ac­cess­ible web design?

Ac­cess­ible web design brings together good design, social re­spons­ib­il­ity and legal com­pli­ance. It shows how websites need to be built to meet legal re­quire­ments while making sure that everyone, re­gard­less of ability, can use them without barriers.

What is ac­cess­ible web design?

Ac­cess­ible web design means creating websites that everyone can use, re­gard­less of their physical, cognitive, or technical lim­it­a­tions. This includes making content available to people who are blind or visually impaired (for example, with the help of screen readers as well as those with motor dis­ab­il­it­ies or learning dif­fi­culties. Even people with temporary impair­ments or those who are in chal­len­ging en­vir­on­ments benefit. It’s not just about tech­no­logy. It’s also about design and layout. Ac­cess­ib­il­ity is a key part of inclusive digital com­mu­nic­a­tion.

Why is ac­cess­ible design important?

Starting in June 2025, the EU Ac­cess­ib­il­ity Act will require many digital products and services - including websites, apps, e-books, and online stores - to meet specific ac­cess­ib­il­ity standards. The goal is to ensure that everyone, including people with dis­ab­il­it­ies, can use digital services without barriers. Each EU country is adapting the directive into national law. In Germany, for example, through the Ac­cess­ib­il­ity Strength­en­ing Act (BFSG).

Important for UK companies: If your business offers digital services to customers in the EU - or plans to - these rules apply to you, too. That means ac­cess­ib­il­ity isn’t just an EU concern. It’s a global standard for reaching users and staying compliant.

The Web Content Ac­cess­ib­il­ity Guidelines (WCAG) serve as the main reference standard for com­pli­ance under these laws. They define how to make websites more ac­cess­ible in terms of design, structure, and func­tion­al­ity.

Beyond legal ob­lig­a­tions, ac­cess­ible websites offer numerous benefits: they expand audience reach, enhance brand repu­ta­tion, and improve the overall user ex­per­i­ence. Ac­cess­ib­il­ity also has a positive impact on search engine op­tim­isa­tion (SEO) and site per­form­ance.

What are the eight key prin­ciples of ac­cess­ible web design?

The Web Content Ac­cess­ib­il­ity Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) consist of 13 guidelines that are based on four fun­da­ment­al prin­ciples: per­ceiv­ab­il­ity, op­er­ab­il­ity, un­der­stand­ab­il­ity, and ro­bust­ness. When applying these prin­ciples to web design, several key design con­sid­er­a­tions are par­tic­u­larly important:

Checklist: Design-oriented WCAG guidelines at a glance

Tips for designers

Ac­cess­ible web design starts with visual and struc­tur­al planning. A flexible, re­spons­ive layout is not only a web design trend. It’s essential for making sure content displays correctly and works smoothly across different devices.

When it comes to colour schemes, colour should never be the only way to convey meaning. Status in­dic­at­ors, warning messages, and buttons should always be supported with icons or text, so users with visual impair­ments can navigate clearly and con­fid­ently.

In­ter­act­ive elements like buttons, links, and check­boxes need to be large enough and easy to recognise. The WCAG recommend a minimum size of 44 × 44 pixels, es­pe­cially to help users with motor impair­ments on touch devices.

Ty­po­graphy also plays a key role. A clear visual hierarchy, using font sizes, sub­head­ings, and emphasis, helps users find their way around. Sans-serif fonts tend to be easier to read, and suf­fi­cient line spacing (at least 1.5x) improves overall read­ab­il­ity.

Tools for testing ac­cess­ible web design

There are many tools available to help you check the ac­cess­ib­il­ity of your digital content. WAVE (Web Ac­cess­ib­il­ity Eval­u­ation Tool) and Ac­cess­ib­il­ity Insights are popular browser plugins that let you identify barriers directly in the frontend. For manual checks like colour contrast analysis, tools such as Contrast Checker are useful. Screen readers are also essential for testing how real users ex­per­i­ence your site. Keep in mind that automated tools can only catch a portion of ac­cess­ib­il­ity issues. A thorough manual review is essential to ensure full com­pli­ance.

What are some best practices and common mistakes?

Ac­cess­ible web design depends on thought­ful planning, technical precision, and a com­mit­ment to in­teg­rat­ing ac­cess­ib­il­ity through­out the design and de­vel­op­ment process. This approach is es­pe­cially be­ne­fi­cial for small and medium-sized busi­nesses (SMBs). Taking ac­cess­ib­il­ity into account from the beginning is far more effective as making changes later can be more com­plic­ated and expensive.

Best practices for ac­cess­ible web design

• Opt for reusable design com­pon­ents: Elements like buttons, forms, and nav­ig­a­tion bars should be designed with ac­cess­ib­il­ity in mind from the very beginning. This ensures con­sist­ency and reduces main­ten­ance.
• Use clear, simple language: Content should be easy to un­der­stand and concise, avoiding un­ne­ces­sary com­plex­ity.
• Aim for strong contrasts: Text and back­ground colours should have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for regular text and 3:1 for large text.
• Ensure keyboard ac­cess­ib­il­ity: All in­ter­act­ive elements should be operable by keyboard. Visible focus in­dic­at­ors are a must.
• Use alt texts con­sist­ently: All images, graphics, and icons should include de­script­ive alt texts for screen reader com­pat­ib­il­ity.
• Use an ac­cess­ible CMS: Many ac­cess­ible content man­age­ment systems like Plone, Contao, or papaya CMS offer built-in ac­cess­ib­il­ity features.

Common pitfalls to avoid

• Generic alt texts: Including alt texts such as ‘image123.jpg’, which don’t help users un­der­stand what an image is about or why it’s there.
• Poor contrast or colour choices: Using colours that are hard to dis­tin­guish for people with colour vision de­fi­cien­cies, without providing any ad­di­tion­al visual cues or markers.
• In­ac­cess­ible forms: Missing <label> tags, unclear error messages, and no visible focus in­dic­at­ors can make forms more difficult to complete.
• Un­struc­tured content: Headings not being used properly or lists being written as plain para­graphs.
• Complex nav­ig­a­tion without aids: Creating pages without ‘Skip to Content’ links or clearly iden­ti­fi­able nav­ig­a­tion paths makes it hard for users to find their way around.
• Automatic content without user control: Videos, an­im­a­tions, or sliders that start auto­mat­ic­ally and can’t be paused, stopped, or turned off are both dis­rupt­ive and in­ac­cess­ible to many users.

Con­clu­sion

Ac­cess­ible web design is essential for digital inclusion. From 2025 onwards it’s also a legal ob­lig­a­tion for many providers, including UK companies, doing business or targeting the EU. Busi­nesses that pri­or­it­ise ac­cess­ib­il­ity from the beginning not only stay compliant with the law but also gain a com­pet­it­ive edge. The WCAG offer clear guidelines, and a wide range of tools can support im­ple­ment­a­tion. For SMBs and agencies alike, it makes sense to build ac­cess­ib­il­ity into the design and de­vel­op­ment process from the very beginning.