Design By Lui Nobrega · Mar 11, 2026 · Updated Oct 26, 2026 · 5 min read

Accessibility: The Overlooked Advantage

About one in six people in the world lives with a significant disability, according to the World Health Organization. An accessible website works for them. It turns out it works better for everyone else too, including people on a phone in bright sun. It helps Google too. Here is what it means, what the official guidance says, and how to check your own site.

What accessibility means

Text dark enough to read outside in the sun. Buttons big enough for real thumbs. Photos with a short description attached. Forms you can fill out using only a keyboard. None of this is fancy. It is just careful work that most sites skip. The W3C points out that it also helps older people, someone with a broken arm, and anyone in bright sunlight or a place where they cannot play sound.

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It helps Google understand your site

Screen readers and search engines both rely on real text. A photo with no description is a blank to a blind visitor, and Google says it uses alt text, along with the image itself and the rest of the page, to understand what an image shows. Clear headings and plain text help people and search engines at the same time.

Helpful links

What the law says

The Americans with Disabilities Act covers businesses that are open to the public, under Title III. The Department of Justice's web guidance says the ADA applies to the goods and services those businesses offer online. For businesses, the DOJ has no regulation with detailed technical standards. They have flexibility in how they make their sites accessible, but they must do it, and the DOJ points to WCAG as helpful guidance. In 2024 the DOJ did adopt a rule that names WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the standard, but that rule is for state and local governments, under Title II. This is general information, not legal advice. For a question about your own business, talk to a lawyer.

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The standard to aim for: WCAG

WCAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, is the international standard from the W3C. The latest version is WCAG 2.2. It has three levels, A, AA and AAA. Level AA is the level the DOJ chose for government sites, and a sensible target for a small business site. The W3C encourages using the latest version.

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Check your own site in an afternoon

These checks will not prove your site is fully accessible. The W3C says a page can pass quick checks and still have serious barriers. They will show you the most common problems fast.

  1. Run your home page through WAVE. Type in your web address and look at the red errors and the contrast errors first. See: WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools (opens in a new tab)
  2. Do the keyboard test. Click in the browser's address bar, then put your mouse aside. Press Tab to move forward through the page and Shift and Tab to go back. On a Mac, you may first need to turn on keyboard navigation to all controls. The Easy Checks page shows how. See: Easy Checks: A First Review of Web Accessibility (opens in a new tab)
  3. As you tab, check that you can reach every link, button and form field, that you can always see which one is selected, that the order follows the page from top to bottom, and that you never get stuck in one spot.
  4. Fill out your contact form using only the keyboard, and send it.
  5. Check your text colors with the WebAIM Contrast Checker. Normal text needs a ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 against its background. See: WebAIM: Contrast Checker (opens in a new tab)

Add alt text to your photos

Alt text is the short description a screen reader reads out in place of a photo. Most website editors have a field for it, called alt text or alternative text, in the image settings.

  1. Open each image on your site and find its alt text field.
  2. Describe what the photo shows that matters on that page, in a few words. For example, "Owner Maria fitting a bridal gown". See: WebAIM: Alternative Text (opens in a new tab)
  3. Do not start with "image of" or "photo of". Screen readers already announce that it is an image.
  4. If an image is a link or a button, describe what it does or where it goes, not what it looks like.
  5. For your logo, your business name is usually enough.
  6. If an image is only decoration and adds no information, leave its alt text empty so screen readers skip it. See: An alt Decision Tree (opens in a new tab)

Common questions

Does the ADA apply to my small business website?

The DOJ's guidance says the ADA covers businesses open to the public, like shops, restaurants and medical offices, and that its requirements apply to the goods and services they offer online. Whether and how it applies to your business is a legal question. This is general information, not legal advice.

Is there one required technical standard for business websites?

Not in a DOJ regulation for businesses. The DOJ's guidance says businesses have flexibility in how they comply, and points to WCAG as helpful guidance. The 2024 DOJ rule that names WCAG 2.1 Level AA applies to state and local governments.

How do I check if my website is accessible?

Start with the free WAVE tool from WebAIM, then try using your site with only a keyboard, and check your text colors with a contrast checker. The W3C's Easy Checks page walks you through more. These quick checks find common problems but do not prove a site is fully accessible.

Sources and further reading

The takeaway

Accessibility is not a chore. It is better design. It reaches more customers, helps Google understand your pages, and the first checks take an afternoon: run WAVE, put your mouse away, and give every photo a short description.

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