Web accessibility is the practice of designing and developing websites and web applications so that people with disabilities can use them effectively. This includes users with visual, auditory, motor, cognitive, and neurological disabilities.
The web was designed to be universally accessible — but poor implementation excludes an estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide who live with some form of disability.
Why Web Accessibility Matters
Ethical and Business Case
Approximately 26% of adults in the US have some type of disability. Inaccessible websites exclude these users from your content, your products, and your services. Beyond ethics, this is a business opportunity: the disability market represents $490 billion in disposable income in the US alone.
Legal Requirements
In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been interpreted by courts to apply to websites. ADA website accessibility lawsuits exceeded 4,600 in 2023 — targeting businesses of all sizes across retail, hospitality, healthcare, and finance.
Who is at risk: Any business with a public-facing website that sells products or services. This includes e-commerce, SaaS, local businesses, and professional services.
SEO Benefits
Accessibility and SEO are deeply aligned. Most accessibility best practices directly improve search engine performance:
| Accessibility Practice | SEO Benefit |
|---|---|
| Alt text on images | Image search ranking, crawler understanding |
| Semantic HTML headings | Content structure signals for crawlers |
| Descriptive link text | Anchor text relevance signals |
| Keyboard navigability | Improves Core Web Vitals (INP) |
| Captions on video | Text indexing of video content |
| Fast, simple layouts | Better Core Web Vitals scores |
WCAG: The Accessibility Standard
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), published by the W3C, are the internationally recognized technical standard for web accessibility. The current version is WCAG 2.1. WCAG 2.2 added additional criteria in 2023.
Conformance Levels
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| A | Minimum accessibility — must have |
| AA | Standard compliance — most legal references require this |
| AAA | Enhanced accessibility — aspirational for most sites |
WCAG 2.1 AA is the level required by most government mandates (EU Web Accessibility Directive, Section 508) and the level courts reference in ADA cases.
The Four WCAG Principles (POUR)
- Perceivable — Information must be presentable in ways users can perceive (alt text, captions, color contrast)
- Operable — Interface must be navigable by keyboard and assistive technology (focus management, no seizure-inducing content)
- Understandable — Content and UI must be understandable (readable language, predictable navigation, form error guidance)
- Robust — Content must be interpretable by current and future assistive technologies (semantic HTML, ARIA)
Common Accessibility Failures
These are the most frequently cited accessibility issues across the web:
- Low color contrast — text not sufficiently distinct from background
- Missing alt text — images without descriptive alternatives
- No keyboard navigation — users who cannot use a mouse are blocked
- Missing form labels — form fields without associated label elements
- Inaccessible PDFs — documents not tagged for screen readers
- Videos without captions — audio content inaccessible to deaf users
- Links with non-descriptive text — "click here" or "read more" without context
- Auto-playing audio/video — unexpected sound that interferes with screen readers
Accessibility Testing Tools
- WAVE (wave.webaim.org) — free browser extension, visual overlay of accessibility issues
- Axe DevTools — browser extension for developers, integrates with CI pipelines
- Lighthouse — built into Chrome DevTools, includes an accessibility audit
- NVDA / VoiceOver — test with actual screen readers on real pages
- Colour Contrast Analyser — verify foreground/background contrast ratios
How Moydus Helps
Moydus builds websites and web applications with accessibility built into the development process — semantic HTML, keyboard navigation, ARIA labels where needed, sufficient color contrast, and image alt text. We conduct accessibility audits on existing sites and remediate failures that create legal exposure or exclude users. Accessibility is not a checkbox — it is a quality standard.
Contact us for an accessibility audit or accessible rebuild.