Our Commitment to Accessibility
About 15% of people worldwide have some form of disability. That's over a billion people. In the US alone, 61 million adults live with a disability. These are potential customers, users, readers - people who deserve to access your website just like anyone else.
Web accessibility isn't charity work or compliance checkbox-ticking. It's good design. It's good business. And it's the right thing to do.
What Is Web Accessibility?
Web accessibility means designing and building websites that people with disabilities can use. This includes people who are:
- Blind or low vision - Using screen readers or magnification
- Deaf or hard of hearing - Needing captions for video content
- Motor impaired - Navigating with keyboard only or alternative input devices
- Cognitively different - Needing clear structure, simple language, consistent design
- Temporarily impaired - Broken arm, lost glasses, bright sunlight on screen
That last category is important. Accessibility features help everyone at some point. Captions help when you're in a noisy environment. Keyboard navigation helps when your mouse dies. Good contrast helps when you're outside on a sunny day.
The Legal Reality
Web accessibility lawsuits have exploded in recent years. In the US, thousands of lawsuits are filed annually under the ADA. Big brands like Domino's, Beyoncé, and countless others have been sued over inaccessible websites.
Courts have increasingly ruled that websites are "places of public accommodation" under the ADA, meaning they need to be accessible. Even if a lawsuit is settled quickly, legal fees alone can run tens of thousands of dollars.
In the EU, the European Accessibility Act requires many digital services to be accessible. Similar laws exist or are emerging in Canada, Australia, and other countries.
We're not lawyers and this isn't legal advice, but the trend is clear: accessibility is becoming a legal requirement, not just a nice-to-have.
The Business Case
Beyond avoiding lawsuits, accessibility makes business sense:
Larger audience. If 15% of people have disabilities, an inaccessible site is turning away up to 15% of potential customers.
Better SEO. Many accessibility practices also improve SEO. Proper headings, alt text, transcripts - search engines can read these. They can't watch your video or parse your badly structured HTML.
Better UX for everyone. Accessible design is usually just good design. Clear navigation, readable text, logical structure. These things help all users, not just those with disabilities.
Brand reputation. Companies that take accessibility seriously build goodwill. Companies that get sued for inaccessibility don't.
What We Do
Accessibility isn't something we bolt on at the end. It's built into our process from the start. Here's how:
Semantic HTML
We use HTML elements for their intended purpose. Headings (<h1>, <h2>, etc.) mark up headings in proper hierarchy. Navigation goes in <nav>. Main content goes in <main>. This gives screen readers and other assistive technology the context they need to understand page structure.
Keyboard Navigation
Every interactive element must be reachable and usable with keyboard only. Tab moves between elements in logical order. Enter and Space activate buttons and links. Arrow keys work in menus and widgets. Focus states are always visible.
Color and Contrast
We ensure text has sufficient contrast against backgrounds - minimum 4.5:1 ratio for normal text, 3:1 for large text. We never use color alone to convey information (like red for errors). There's always a secondary indicator.
Image Alt Text
Every meaningful image has alt text describing what it shows. Decorative images have empty alt attributes so screen readers skip them. This is basic but still often neglected.
Form Accessibility
Form fields have visible labels (not just placeholders). Error messages are clear and associated with their fields. Required fields are indicated. The form can be completed entirely with keyboard.
Video and Audio
Videos have captions. Audio-only content has transcripts. Neither autoplays (unless there's a clear reason and easy way to stop it).
ARIA When Necessary
ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes add additional context for assistive technology when native HTML isn't enough. We use these for complex components like modal dialogs, tabs, and accordions. But we don't over-use them - native HTML is almost always better than ARIA.
Our Testing Process
We test accessibility throughout development, not just at the end:
Automated testing - Tools like axe and Lighthouse catch many common issues automatically. We run these on every page.
Keyboard testing - We navigate the entire site using only keyboard to catch tab order issues, missing focus states, and trapped focus.
Screen reader testing - We test with VoiceOver (Mac) and NVDA (Windows) to experience what blind users experience.
Manual review - Automated tools catch maybe 30% of issues. Human judgment catches the rest - things like whether alt text is actually useful, whether the reading order makes sense, whether error messages are helpful.
The Standards We Follow
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is the international standard for web accessibility. It has three levels:
- Level A - Basic accessibility. The minimum to make a site usable at all.
- Level AA - The standard most laws and guidelines reference. This is our target.
- Level AAA - Highest standard. Not always achievable for all content, but we aim for it where practical.
We build all sites to at least WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance. This covers the vast majority of accessibility needs and satisfies most legal requirements.
Accessibility Isn't Perfect
We should be honest: perfect accessibility is hard to achieve. Some issues only appear in specific assistive technology. Some content types (like complex data visualizations) are genuinely challenging to make accessible. Edge cases always exist.
What we commit to:
- Building accessibility in from the start
- Testing with real assistive technology
- Fixing issues when they're found
- Continuous improvement over time
- Being responsive if users report problems
No site is ever 100% accessible to 100% of people. But that's not an excuse to not try. Every improvement helps someone.
What You Can Do
If you're not working with us but want to improve your site's accessibility, start here:
- Run your site through wave.webaim.org - it's free and catches common issues
- Try navigating your site using only keyboard
- Check your color contrast at webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker
- Review all images for meaningful alt text
- Look at your heading structure. That is it logical and hierarchical?
These basics will get you most of the way there. For deeper work, consider an accessibility audit from a specialist.
The Bigger Picture
Accessibility matters because people matter. Every person deserves equal access to information, services, and opportunities online. Building accessible websites is how we make that happen, one site at a time.
We're proud to make this a core part of how we work. It's not extra. It's not optional. It's just how we build things.