Accessible Websites: What to Check and Why

Website Design

This article was updated in August 2026 for accuracy.

Building an accessible website ensures that no one is left out online. When every visitor can engage and enjoy the experience, you’re more likely to convert, rather than lose users upon arrival. Understanding the importance of accessible sites, how to audit your current one, and then using our actionable checklist, you’ll be on your way to ADA compliance, knowing your website meets ethical and legal standards.

More than 5,000 lawsuits were filed in 2025 related to digital accessibility and ADA non-compliance, a number that continues to trend upward.

Why Accessible Websites Matter

In the US, an astonishing 1 in 4 adults, more than 70 million people, have a disability that can impact their use of the web (Source: CDC). Yet 95.9% of popular websites fail basic accessibility checks, averaging 56 errors per homepage in 2026 (Source: WebAIM). With homepages becoming increasingly complex, roadblocks to site usability are typically encountered on 1 in every 26 page elements. These usability errors can significantly impact a company’s bottom line, turning away customers before they ever reach your contact form.

Legal action resulting from non-compliance is also on the rise. More than 5,000 lawsuits were filed in 2025 related to digital accessibility and ADA non-compliance, a 27% jump over the year before (Source: Seyfarth Shaw, UsableNet).

Accessible websites are more than an ethical choice. They help you avoid legal risk, improve brand perception, reach a wider audience, and enhance user experience for everyone.

What Is a Website Accessibility Audit?

An accessibility audit is like a “health check” for your site. It measures how well your design meets the WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards across four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. (WCAG 2.2 is the current version, and it’s the better target for new builds, but 2.1 Level AA remains the standard courts and the DOJ point to.)

Perceivable: Information and interface elements must be presented in ways that users can detect, whether through sight, sound, or touch.
Operable: All functionality must be usable through various inputs, such as keyboard navigation, without requiring interactions that users may not be able to perform.
Understandable: Content and interfaces should be clear, consistent, and predictable, allowing users to comprehend and navigate them easily.
Robust: Websites must be built to work reliably across a wide range of devices, browsers, and assistive technologies, both now and in the future.

To perform an accessible website audit, you’ll need a few tools. Most of these tools are free; some you probably already have:

Automated tools like WAVE, Axe DevTools, or Lighthouse scan your website for performance, SEO, and accessibility, providing actionable solutions. Keep in mind that automated scans catch only a portion of real accessibility issues, so a clean scan is a starting point rather than a finish line.
Screen readers, such as NVDA or VoiceOver, test whether your site can be read to users of a braille reader or other assistive devices.
Your keyboard. An easy test you can do on your website is to use the Tab and arrow keys to try to navigate to different elements of your website.
Your web browser’s inspect tool. Every website browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc.) comes with pre-packaged developer tools that allow you to directly inspect a website’s code. Use these to check your site’s structure, markup, and user flows to guarantee maximum accessibility.

Fully testing the website’s accessibility is a crucial component of any digital marketing strategy, ensuring you maximize your SEO score and enhance user experience.

Black boxes with red checks and red marker on white background.

Website Accessibility Audit Checklist

Whether your website is old or new, you can use this checklist to evaluate its accessibility and ensure that your users have the best possible experience.

Check layout functionality at 200% browser zoom to ensure that everyone, including those with visual impairments, can read your content comfortably.

Page Structure & Semantics

Proper page structure helps screen readers and keyboard navigators (and SEO bots) navigate easily through your website and absorb your content better.

Use HTML headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to establish a logical page structure. Think of these headings as boxes into which you organize your website’s content. Well-organized content is easier for everyone to enjoy.
Include semantic tags like <nav>, <main>, and <footer> so screen readers can easily identify sections of your website, making it easier to navigate from page to page.
Add a “Skip to main content” link at the top of each page. This helps keyboard navigators bypass repeated elements on your page and get to the good stuff.

Alt Text for Images

Alt text describes images to visitors using screen readers, making it easier for them to understand your website’s content.
Adding an empty alt tag (alt=””) for decorative elements will help screen readers skip to the content they are looking for.

Color Contrast

Ensure a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 between your text and background to guarantee comfortable readability.
Test colors with WebAIM’s free Contrast Checker.
Low contrast text is now the most common accessibility failure on the web, appearing on nearly 84% of homepages. If you fix one thing this week, fix this.

Keyboard Navigation

Using the Tab, Shift+Tab, and Enter keys, make sure you can reach every element on the website.
Check for Check for clear “focus” indicators, showing you which element on the screen you’ve selected.indicators, showing you which element on the screen you’ve selected.
Ensure a logical tab order through interactive elements.

Forms & Inputs

Clearly and consistently label each form field with the <label> element.
Provide clear and accessible error messaging so users can fully and correctly complete form fills.
Designate required fields clearly and consistently.

Responsive, Scalable Text

Use scalable typography units (rem, em) rather than fixed pixels to ensure your site adapts to any web-capable device.
Check layout functionality at 200% browser zoom to ensure that everyone, including those with visual impairments, can read your content comfortably.

Aria Roles

ARIA roles (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) are special HTML attributes that help assistive technologies, like screen readers, understand the purpose of elements on a web page, especially when those elements don’t use standard HTML tags.

Prioritize correct HTML use, and only use ARIA when absolutely necessary.
Avoid unnecessary ARIA attributes that can confuse assistive technology. Pages using more ARIA average more detectable errors, not fewer.

Where to Start

Once you’ve completed an accessible website audit, it’s time to improve your website’s accessibility. Some of these edits can feel out of reach, but no fear, you can still get started updating your site today.

Start with Quick Wins

Focus on easy fixes, such as missing alt text, form accessibility, and color contrast. Just six issue types account for 96% of all detected accessibility errors, and none of them require specialist knowledge. Browser tools like Axe DevTools and Lighthouse provide direct feedback, allowing you to easily identify the elements on your site that require the most attention.

Skip the Overlay

Accessibility widgets promise one-line compliance. In 2025, nearly a quarter of website accessibility lawsuits named sites that had one installed. Fix the code instead.

Use Your Resources

Don’t be afraid to reach out to your website design team to help make necessary changes to improve your site’s accessibility. They can also provide a comprehensive site audit, which may be necessary for highly complex websites or e-commerce sites.

Make Accessibility Part of Your Ongoing Strategy

Accessibility isn’t a one-time task. It belongs in your web design & development process, content strategy, and maintenance plan. At Kudzu Brands, we ensure accessibility is part of our website design, branding, and SEO workflows.

Courtenay Morgan

Courtenay is the agency’s Creative Content Director. Need an Oxford comma-obsessed, track-changing wordchopper? You’ve found her.