Website Accessibility Checker

Website accessibility is the practice of making websites usable by people with disabilities, including visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments. Accessible websites work with assistive technologies like screen readers, provide alternative text for images, use proper heading structures, ensure keyboard navigation, and meet WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards.

When websites are accessible, they can be used by people with disabilities just as effectively as by people without disabilities. This includes people who are blind or have low vision, deaf or hard of hearing, have motor impairments that limit their ability to use a mouse, have cognitive disabilities that affect how they process information, or use assistive technologies like screen readers, voice recognition software, or alternative input devices.

Website accessibility is not just about compliance—it's about inclusive design and equal access to information and services. Accessible websites benefit everyone, not just people with disabilities. For example, captions on videos help people in noisy environments, keyboard navigation helps people with temporary injuries, and clear headings help everyone understand content structure.

How Website Accessibility Works

Website accessibility involves several key principles and practices:

1. Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive. This includes providing text alternatives for images, captions for videos, and ensuring content can be presented in different ways without losing meaning.
2. Operable: User interface components and navigation must be operable. This includes ensuring all functionality is available via keyboard, providing sufficient time for users to read and use content, and avoiding content that causes seizures.
3. Understandable: Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable. This includes making text readable, ensuring content appears and operates in predictable ways, and helping users avoid and correct mistakes.
4. Robust: Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies. This includes ensuring compatibility with current and future assistive technologies.
5. Assistive Technologies: Accessible websites work with assistive technologies like screen readers (JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver), voice recognition software, alternative keyboards, and switch devices that help people with disabilities interact with computers.
6. WCAG Compliance: Websites should follow WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards, which have three levels: A (minimum), AA (recommended), and AAA (highest). Most websites aim for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance.

Key Accessibility Features

Website accessibility serves many purposes: ensuring equal access to information and services for people with disabilities, complying with legal requirements (ADA, Section 508, EN 301 549), improving SEO (search engines favor accessible sites), providing better user experience for everyone, and expanding market reach to include people with disabilities. Understanding accessibility is essential for inclusive web design, legal compliance, and creating websites that work for everyone.

Website accessibility is not just a nice-to-have feature—it's essential for legal compliance, inclusive design, and business success. Here's why accessibility is crucial:

1. Legal Compliance

Many countries have laws requiring websites to be accessible. In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act require federal websites and many public-facing websites to be accessible. The European Union's EN 301 549 standard requires accessibility for public sector websites. Non-compliance can result in legal action, fines, and damage to reputation.

2. Inclusive Design and Equal Access

Accessible websites ensure equal access to information and services for people with disabilities. Approximately 15% of the world's population has some form of disability. By making websites accessible, you're including millions of potential users who would otherwise be excluded. Accessible design is simply the right thing to do and demonstrates social responsibility.

3. SEO and Search Rankings

Accessible websites often rank better in search engines. Many accessibility practices improve SEO: descriptive alt text helps image search, proper heading structure helps search engines understand content hierarchy, semantic HTML helps search engines parse content, and keyboard navigation helps search engines crawl pages. Accessible websites are often more discoverable and rank higher in search results.

4. Better User Experience for Everyone

Accessible design improves user experience for everyone, not just people with disabilities. Clear headings help all users understand content structure, keyboard navigation helps users with temporary injuries, captions on videos help users in noisy environments, and good color contrast helps users with temporary vision issues. Accessible design is simply good design.

5. Business Benefits

Accessible websites provide business benefits beyond compliance. Accessible sites reach more users, potentially increasing revenue by 15-20%, reduce legal risk from accessibility lawsuits, improve brand reputation as an inclusive company, and often provide better user experience that leads to higher conversion rates. Investing in accessibility is investing in your business.

6. Future-Proofing

Accessible websites are more future-proof and compatible with emerging technologies. As new assistive technologies emerge, accessible websites are more likely to work with them. Accessible design follows web standards, making websites more maintainable and compatible with future browsers and devices. Investing in accessibility now saves time and money later.

Our website accessibility checker makes it easy to analyze websites for accessibility issues. Follow these simple steps:

Proper website accessibility requires attention to detail and following best practices. Here are essential accessibility practices: