Up to one in four U.S. adults lives with a disability, according to the CDC. Some of your customers can’t see low-contrast text, can’t use a mouse, rely on a screen reader, or find cluttered pages hard to follow. A website that works for all of them works better for everyone, including a visitor squinting at a phone in bright sunlight. Here is how we think about website accessibility, and what to do about it.
What are the best practices for website accessibility?
The benchmark most courts, regulators and auditors use is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), currently version 2.2. The target for a business website is Level AA. WCAG organizes everything under four principles, often shortened to POUR:
- Perceivable. Everyone can take in your content. Images have text descriptions (alt text), videos have captions, and text has enough contrast against its background.
- Operable. Everyone can use your site, with or without a mouse. Every link, button and form works from the keyboard, the focus outline is visible, and nothing flashes or moves in a way that can’t be paused.
- Understandable. Pages behave predictably. Headings are in order, links say where they go, form fields have visible labels, and error messages explain how to fix the problem.
- Robust. The code is clean enough that screen readers and other assistive technology can interpret it. That means real headings, buttons and lists instead of styled text pretending to be them.
What are the biggest accessibility offenders?
WebAIM, a respected accessibility nonprofit, tests the home pages of the top one million websites every year in its WebAIM Million report. Year after year, the large majority of pages have detectable failures, and the same handful of problems account for almost all of them:
- Low color contrast. Light gray text on white, or white text on a photo, is the single most common failure. WCAG AA asks for at least 4.5:1 for normal text.
- Missing or useless image descriptions. A screen reader can’t see a photo. With no alt text, it reads out a file name like “IMG_4021.jpg” or skips the image entirely.
- Form fields with no labels. Placeholder text that vanishes when you type is not a label. Screen reader users hear “edit text” and have to guess.
- Empty links and buttons. An icon-only button, such as a hamburger menu or a social media link, needs a name a screen reader can announce.
- Pages that require a mouse. Dropdown menus that open only on hover, sliders you can’t tab to, and pop-ups you can’t close with the keyboard lock out anyone who doesn’t use a mouse.
- Hard-to-read text. Tiny type, long unbroken paragraphs, justified text and decorative fonts are tiring for everyone and a barrier for people with low vision or dyslexia.
- Missing page structure. Skipped heading levels, no page language set and no “skip to content” link make a long page painful to navigate by ear.
- Unlabeled videos and audio. No captions or transcript leaves deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors out entirely.
What are some easy ways to improve accessibility?
You don’t need a rebuild to make a real difference. These changes are quick, and most take an afternoon or less:
- Check your contrast. Paste your text and background colors into a free contrast checker and darken anything that fails 4.5:1.
- Write alt text. Describe what each meaningful image shows in a short sentence. Leave decorative images empty so screen readers skip them.
- Try the Tab key. Open your site, put your mouse aside and press Tab. Can you reach everything? Can you always see where you are? Can you open and close the menu?
- Label every form field. Put a visible label above each field, and mark required fields in text, not just with a red color.
- Use real headings. One H1 per page, then H2s and H3s in order. Don’t pick a heading level because of how big it looks.
- Make links descriptive. “Read our hosting guide” beats “click here.”
- Enlarge and space your text. Aim for at least 16px body text, generous line spacing, and short paragraphs.
- Caption your videos. Most video platforms generate captions automatically. Review them for errors.
- Run a free scan. Google Lighthouse (built into Chrome) and tools like WAVE flag many of the problems above in minutes.
Is accessibility a one-click fix?
No. Accessibility is a spectrum, not a pass-or-fail stamp. There is no badge that makes a website “ADA compliant” forever, and a perfect automated score doesn’t mean a site is truly usable. Automated tools catch only a portion of the problems, because they can’t judge whether alt text is meaningful or whether a form makes sense when read aloud. A fix that satisfies the guidelines can still frustrate a real person.
A comprehensive accessibility overhaul usually looks like this:
- Audit. Automated scans plus a manual review against WCAG 2.2 AA: keyboard-only navigation, a screen reader walkthrough, zoom and text-resize checks, and a look at color, motion and media.
- Prioritize. Rank the issues by how badly they block people from key tasks such as contacting you, booking or buying.
- Fix. Update the design (contrast, type, focus styles), the code (headings, landmarks, labels, ARIA where needed), and the content (alt text, link text, captions, plain language).
- Test with real tools. Re-test with a screen reader and a keyboard, and ideally with people who use assistive technology every day.
- Document. Publish an accessibility statement that says what standard you aim for and how to reach you if something doesn’t work.
- Maintain. New pages, plugins, photos and PDFs can quietly bring problems back, so accessibility has to be part of regular website care.
Be wary of “one-line fix” accessibility overlay widgets. They don’t repair the underlying code, they can interfere with the assistive technology people already use, and they haven’t protected businesses from complaints.
What are the customer and legal risks of ignoring accessibility?
Lost customers. A visitor who can’t read your text, work your menu or complete your contact form simply leaves, and often tells others. That is lost revenue, and for local businesses it is lost goodwill in the community you serve. Many accessibility improvements, such as clearer text and simpler navigation, also lift conversions and search performance for everyone.
Legal exposure. In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) doesn’t spell out technical rules for websites, and courts haven’t all agreed on how it applies. But many have treated business websites as places of public accommodation, and the ADA National Network points to WCAG as the practical yardstick. WebAIM’s summary of the ADA and the web covers the key court cases. More than 3,000 website accessibility lawsuits were filed in U.S. federal courts in 2025 alone, according to Seyfarth Shaw’s annual count, and small businesses are routinely sent demand letters that end in legal fees, a settlement and a forced fix on a deadline, which costs far more than building it right. Businesses selling to customers in the European Union face the European Accessibility Act, which has applied since June 2025 (very small businesses are exempt; see the W3C’s overview of EU policy). State and local laws add more.
We’re web designers, not attorneys, so this isn’t legal advice. The practical point is simple: documented good-faith effort toward WCAG 2.2 AA, plus a way for visitors to report problems, puts you in a much stronger position than doing nothing.
How can we improve accessibility on WordPress, and on a static site?
On WordPress
WordPress has solid accessibility foundations, but your theme and plugins decide the result. To improve it:
- Start with a theme labeled “accessibility ready,” and test it before you commit to it.
- Be careful with page builders, sliders, pop-ups and animated plugins. They are common sources of keyboard traps, missing labels and low contrast.
- Make sure your form plugin outputs real labels, and test the form with a keyboard.
- Add alt text in the Media Library, and use the heading blocks in order.
- Scan your key templates (home, a blog post, contact) with Lighthouse and WAVE after every theme or plugin update.
- Keep everything updated. Each plugin you add is one more thing that can break accessibility, speed and security at the same time.
On a high-performance static site
A hand-built static website gives you full control of the HTML, which is where most accessibility problems begin. With no plugins injecting markup, there’s far less to go wrong:
- Semantic HTML (real headings, lists, buttons and landmarks) is written by hand, so screen readers get a clean structure.
- Color contrast, focus outlines, text sizes and skip links are designed in once and apply everywhere.
- Fast pages are accessible pages. Visitors on older phones, slow connections or data caps benefit directly from small, quick pages.
- Menus, accordions and forms can be built with accessible patterns (keyboard support, ARIA states, reduced-motion settings) and tested once.
- Every page is checked as part of the build, and fixes go live in about a minute.
We rebuilt www.Pioneer.Media as a static site in October 2026, and its Google Lighthouse accessibility score rose from 84 to 97. That is a good score, not a finish line: we keep testing it with a keyboard and screen reader and fixing what we find.
Many of our clients are upgrading their websites to high-performance static websites, bypassing plugins, themes and extra software in favor of raw HTML, CSS and JavaScript code, which we have much more control over to audit the accessibility. The benefits in performance, design and accessibility have been impressive.
Key takeaways
- Aim for WCAG 2.2 Level AA. Build every page so it is perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.
- Fix the common offenders first. Contrast, alt text, form labels, link and button names, and keyboard access cover most real-world barriers.
- Treat accessibility as ongoing. It’s a spectrum you keep improving, not a one-time checkbox.
- Take the risk seriously. Inaccessible sites lose customers and invite demand letters (formal letters from a lawyer claiming your website violates the ADA and demands settlement).
- Your platform matters. WordPress works if you choose the theme and plugins carefully. A static site starts cleaner.
Not sure how accessible your website is?
We’ll review your site against WCAG 2.2 AA, show you the biggest problems, and make a plan to fix them. Call (865) 308-2887 or send us a message.
About the author
Leighton Smith is Pioneer Media’s website designer, web developer and webmaster, based in East Tennessee. As a solopreneur, he is each client’s one point of contact and has built hundreds of websites since learning to code in 2006.
