Introduction
Accessibility has been a website criteria since 1995. It’s nothing new. It became a fresh buzzword around 2017 after Winn Dixie was sued for website accessibility issues. Accessibility companies have been using it as a buzzword ever since.
Make no mistake: accessibility is important in web design today, but it’s nothing new. Accessibility means sites should be readable by screen readers, usable by visually impaired users, and usable by those with limited hand movement.
The first Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were published in 1999. The specifications for website code (Hypertext Markup Language, HTML) have long included accessibility and have been updated regularly. That’s important in meeting current accessibility standards today: create a site that meets current HTML standards, and you start with the foundations of good accessibility.
WCAG Conformance Levels
Website accessibility can be complicated. The standards are detailed in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and they are extensive, technical, and boring.
One of the first questions to consider is what level of WCAG conformance to use. Conformance levels are A, AA, or AAA. Generally, level AA is accepted as “correct” for most sites. Start there. It’s probably fine for most sites, but it’s not necessarily that simple. The decision could require an assessment of your potential legal exposure and a detailed review of your site.
Automated audits make some assessment “simple”, but they are not adequate for confirming a site meets a particular WCAG conformance level. A thorough assessment requires human testing.
It’s a Legal Issue
Website accessibility is a legal issue. Is it legally significant for you? I don’t know. A teenager’s lawn cutting site has little risk of legal action while an international retailer has a higher risk. In between is everybody else with different legal risks.
That’s why, wholly and truly, if you want a thorough assessment, you should consult a qualified attorney about your potential liability AND about current case law, legislation, and regulation. The legal landscape changes every year. If you’re concerned about your legal issues, consult a qualified attorney who keeps up on this. Ask for advice about the WCAG level you should implement on your site.
American Bar Association Article on “Recent Developments and Risk Mitigation Best Practices”
In August 2025 the American Bar Association published an article called Digital Accessibility Under Title III of the ADA: Recent Developments and Risk Mitigation Best Practices. It’s an academic article, and some people might appreciate the detail and sources cited. Find it here:
American Bar Business Law Today Accessibility Article, August 2025
It’s a Website Issue
Accessibility is a website issue. You certainly want all users to have easy access to your site. To do that, your site should meet best practices in HTML and WCAG. The technical details are in the code, and they’re boring:
- Headlines should be organized based on their semantics, not their visual style.
- A
tableelement should have a caption, plus a title or headline immediately preceding them. - Images should have descriptive
alttags. - Luminance contrast of text and background should be at least 4.5:1.
- Large text should have a contrast of at least 3:1.
- The
formelement should have proper labels and tab order. - Links should have proper tab order.
- And lots more… lots more.
The current specifications for accessibility (WCAG 2.2) are over 18,000 words with specialized language about code, colors, perception, user interfaces, and lots more. Some of it applies to all sites, some of it applies in limited situations.
You’ll never be sold accessibility compliance services with these boring specifications, but this is where accessibility is implemented on websites.
Thorough understanding of thorough conformance is complicated. If you need thorough conformance, you might need a specialist involved with your website project. It’s a specialized field.
What’s a Small Business To Do?
First, some history: Since 1994, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has managed and published the standards for website code and lots more. The standards have included accessibility since then and have been updated along the way. So we all have the same source for how to build a website correctly.
Create Your Site to Current HTML Standards
A good start is a site that meets current HTML standards as much as possible. This is the foundation of good accessibility as well as good search engine optimization (SEO). I’ve found that sites with high compliance to HTML standards usually get high marks in automated accessibility testing. It doesn’t solve every possible accessibility issue, but it’s the right foundation. Start with this approach.
If you use online HTML checkers, don’t expect perfect results. Almost all sites have some errors and warnings. It might take some expertise to interpret the results. You can check a site’s HTML with this free tool:
Visit the W3C Markup Validation Service
Accept Some Design Limitations
As a general rule, good accessibility means some limitation on visual design and whiz-bang features. It helps to avoid animations, subtle colors, and text that appears or disappears. Complicated menus make navigation difficult for those with limited physical movement. Animations and flashing graphics can trigger seizures. Expect some restrictions on visual design to achieve some levels of accessibility.
Make Sure Writers and Editors Know How They Affect Accessibility
Content created by writers and editors can break accessibility rules. Therefore, for ongoing conformance, the writers and editors of your site should know how to create content that conforms to standards.
Use Accessibility Evaluation Tools to Assess Your Site
Free tools are available to test a site. (See the links below.) Use them to get a good but basic assessment. The automated tools are not adequate for a thorough review, but they are a good place to start.
Consider Hiring Legal and Technical Specialists
Beyond the basics and some automated evaluation tools, accessibility gets into minute details, some legal, some technical.
Consider the size of your business. A bigger business is more likely to be have more money and more likely to be the target of legal action. When should you be concerned? I don’t know. Consult a qualified attorney.
Consider the conformance level you need and the technical details you should prioritize. An attorney might give you some advice on this, and a website accessibility specialist can evaluate your site and help you implement your decisions.
A very basic site with virtually no visual design could easily conform to standards, but business sites are rarely that basic. Thorough WCAG conformance while maintaining a good design is complicated. If you need thorough conformance, budget for it, and hire the right people.
Accessibility Evaluation Tools
Here are a few tools I use regularly plus an extensive list maintained by the organization that develops accessibility standards.
Lighthouse in PageSpeed Insights and Chrome
Start with Lighthouse. Lighthouse is a handy tool to audit your website for accessibility and some important SEO factors. It gives an overall assessment as well as details about how to improve your site.
Lighthouse is available at PageSpeed Insights, a free service by Google. It “reports on the user experience of a page on both mobile and desktop devices, and provides suggestions on how that page may be improved.” It includes an assessment of accessibility.
Lighthouse is also available in Chrome. Here’s a short video that shows how to use it. I created it a few years ago, so the interface shown in the video is slightly different from the current version, but the how-to part still applies.
Accessible Name & Description Inspector (ANDI)
ANDI is a free tool from the Social Security Administration to evaluate its own sites to meet regulations that apply to government sites. It can be used for all sites. This tool gets into technical details; it is NOT a summary assessment tool.
W3C Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List
The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops standards and support materials to help you understand and implement accessibility. They have a list of accessibility evaluation tools here:
W3C Accessibility Evaluation Tools List
Conclusion
Websites should be built to current HTML standards as a good foundation for web accessibility. Thorough conformance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) can be complicated as a legal issue, a technical issue, and a user issue. Accessibility evaluation tools offer a good but basic assessment for most businesses. Thorough conformance could require an attorney and a web accessibility specialist.
