Website accessibility: why it's good for business

Think about the customers who visit your shop. Some are young and quick with their phones. Some are older and need their reading glasses. Some have poor eyesight, shaky hands or can't hear well. In the shop, you help them naturally: you speak a little louder, read out a price, hold the door.

Website accessibility is the same idea online. It means building a website that everyone can use, whatever their abilities, age or device. This post explains what that involves and why it's good for business, not just the right thing to do.

Who accessibility helps

It's easy to imagine accessibility is only for a small number of people. In practice, it helps a lot of your customers:

• Older customers, whose eyesight, hearing or fine movement may be weaker
• People with low vision or colour blindness
• Blind people, who use screen readers that read pages aloud
• People who can't use a mouse or touchscreen easily, and use a keyboard or other devices instead
• People with temporary difficulties, such as a broken arm
• Everyone in tricky situations: reading in bright sunlight, holding a phone in one hand on a bus, on a cracked screen

Why it's good for business

More people can become customers

Every visitor who struggles with your website is a customer you might lose. In a family business, the person ordering the Diwali gift boxes might be the grandparent.

It improves the site for everyone

Clear text, good contrast, big buttons and simple layouts make a website easier for all visitors, not only people with disabilities.

It helps search

Many accessibility basics, like descriptive headings, image descriptions and clear link text, also help Google understand your pages. Accessibility is one of the four scores in Google Lighthouse.

It shows care

A website that works for everyone reflects a business that cares about everyone.

The basics every website should get right

1. Readable text

• Text large enough to read on a phone without zooming
• Strong contrast between text and background. Light grey on white looks elegant to a designer and is hard for many people to read.
• Short paragraphs and clear headings

2. Don't rely on colour alone

If a form shows mistakes only in red, someone with colour blindness may miss them. Add words or icons too, like “Enter your phone number” next to the field.

3. Image descriptions (alt text)

Every meaningful image should have a short text description, called alt text. Screen readers read it aloud, and it shows if an image fails to load. For example: “Box of assorted mithai with silver varq”, not “IMG_4821”.

4. Buttons and links that make sense

• Big enough to tap comfortably, with space between them
• Clear labels: “Book a table” rather than “Click here”
• Icon-only buttons, like a WhatsApp icon, should still have a hidden text label for screen readers

5. Works with a keyboard

Everything should be usable without a mouse: menus, buttons, forms. And it should be clear where you are on the page as you move through it.

6. Forms that are easy to fill

• A clear label for every field, not just placeholder text that disappears
• Helpful error messages next to the field
• No time limits that rush people

See WhatsApp buttons and enquiry forms.

7. Respect motion preferences

Some people feel unwell with lots of movement on screen. Well-built sites keep animation gentle and reduce it for visitors who've asked their device for less motion.

Standards

The widely used guidelines for web accessibility are called WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). They're detailed and technical, but the basics above cover much of what matters for a small business website. Some countries and sectors have legal requirements based on them; check what applies to you if you work with government or larger organisations.

How to check your own website

1. Run it through PageSpeed Insights and look at the Accessibility score and its suggestions
2. Turn up the text size on your phone and see if the site still works
3. Read it in bright sunlight
4. Ask an older relative to find your phone number and send you a WhatsApp from your site

Automated tests catch many problems, but not all. Real people trying your site catch the rest.

How we build

Accessibility is one of our six standards: readable contrast, keyboard-friendly and screen-reader friendly, so everyone can use your site. Every site we build is tuned to score 90+ on Lighthouse for accessibility, as well as performance, SEO and best practices. See how we build and our website development service.