Accessibility in Web Design: Why It Matters and How to Get It Right

Web accessibility means designing and building websites that can be used by everyone — including people with visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive impairments.

In 2025, accessibility is not optional. Here's why — and what to do about it.

Why Accessibility Matters

Legal Requirements

Under the Equality Act 2010, UK businesses have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments so that services — including websites — are accessible to disabled people.

Public sector organisations must comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA. While private sector requirements are less prescriptive, the direction of travel is clear.

Commercial Sense

• Around 1 in 5 people in the UK have a disability of some kind
• People with disabilities have collective spending power exceeding £250 billion in the UK
• Ignoring accessibility means ignoring this market

SEO Benefits

Good accessibility practices overlap significantly with good SEO:

• Alt text for images (helps screen readers AND Google Image Search)
• Clear heading structure (helps assistive technology AND Google's understanding of content)
• Keyboard navigation (helps impaired users AND ensures crawlability)
• Clear, simple language (helps all users AND readability scores)

Key WCAG Principles: POUR

Perceivable

Content must be presentable in ways all users can perceive:

• Text alternatives for non-text content
• Captions for videos
• Sufficient colour contrast (4.5:1 for normal text)

Operable

Users must be able to navigate and operate the website:

• Keyboard navigation (some users can't use a mouse)
• Skip navigation links
• No time-limited content without options to extend

Understandable

Content and operation must be understandable:

• Readable language (appropriate reading level)
• Predictable page behaviour
• Error messages that help users correct mistakes

Robust

Content must be interpretable by different assistive technologies:

• Valid HTML
• Proper ARIA labels
• Semantic markup

Practical Accessibility Checklist

• [ ] Alt text on all images
• [ ] Sufficient colour contrast
• [ ] Keyboard navigation works
• [ ] Form inputs have labels
• [ ] Videos have captions
• [ ] Font size is legible (minimum 16px for body text)
• [ ] Links are clearly identifiable
• [ ] Page has a logical heading structure

Accessibility at OWD

All websites we build follow WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines as standard. Get in touch to discuss your accessibility requirements.