Is your website accessible? 

Ensuring that your website is accessible to all users is not just a matter of inclusivity but also a crucial aspect of legal compliance and business success. The landscape of accessibility guidelines continues to evolve, making it essential for businesses to stay updated with the latest requirements. This is very important as by June 28, 2025, customers will be able to file complaints if products or services do not meet the new rules.  

We have linked an excellent fact sheet from EARN with “ten tips for an accessible website”

Another excellent resource is “The Essential Guide to the European Accessibility Act” - “Everything your business needs to get ahead of the June 2025 deadline.” produced by TPGi who work with our partner, Vital Source. We highly recommend Will Awad as an independent consultant whose details are below/

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Global Accessibility Standards and their Impact

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is an EU directive aimed at creating a more accessible society. This directive complements other EU accessibility legislation and aims to strengthen the rights of persons with disabilities by eliminating barriers arising from divergent accessibility requirements across member states.

The EAA applies not only to publishers within the EU but also to any publisher offering titles in the EU market or selling directly to EU customers. For the book publishing industry, this means that accessibility guidelines must be met for website content, ebooks, metadata, e-commerce, e-reading software, and devices.  Digital publications must be available in accessible formats, ensuring the entire supply chain—from distributors to online retailers—complies with these standards.

Find out more about the EAA here https://7192965.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/7192965/EAA/Guide%20to%20the%20European%20Accessibility%20Act.pdf

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The Latest Web Accessibility Guidelines

The most recent version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is 2.2, which was published in November 2023.  WCAG 2.2 builds upon previous versions by adding new success criteria to improve accessibility for users with cognitive and learning disabilities, users with low vision, and users with disabilities on mobile devices. Some of the key updates in WCAG 2.2 include:

1. Focus Appearance (Minimum): Ensures that focus indicators are clearly visible, helping users who rely on keyboard navigation.
2. Dragging Movements: Provides alternative methods to perform actions that require dragging movements, aiding users with motor impairments.
3. Findable Help: Ensures that help mechanisms are easy to locate, improving accessibility for all users, particularly those with cognitive disabilities.
4. Visible Controls: Requires that controls needed to progress through content are always visible, benefiting users with cognitive and learning disabilities.

These updates reflect the ongoing commitment to making digital content accessible to all users and are crucial for businesses to implement (Accessibility.Works, 2024).

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Practical Steps to Achieve Web Accessibility

To achieve ADA website compliance, businesses should follow a two-step process: website auditing and remediation. The first step involves conducting a thorough audit using automated tools, manual testing, and assistive technology testing. Automated tools can identify basic compliance issues, but manual testing is essential to detect nuanced and interpretive WCAG issues. At Supadu we use AXE by Deque as our accessibility testing tool of choice.

Once the audit is complete, the next step is remediation based on the audit results. It is important to avoid quick-fix solutions like accessibility overlays and plugins, as these often fail to address underlying issues.

“Even your PDF’s need to be accessible i.e. adding reading order, alt text to images, colour contrast and metadata.”

Achieving maximum accessibility on your website involves adhering to several key practices in summary. 

1. Avoid using multiple line breaks unnecessarily, as this can disrupt the flow of content and make it difficult to read and navigate. Consistent use of a hierarchical structure for headings is vital as it helps organise content in a clear and logical manner, making it easier for all users to understand and locate information.
2. Links  - it is important to write them in a way that clearly describes where they lead. This not only aids users who rely on screen readers but also enhances the overall user experience by providing clarity. 
3. Images - on your website should always include descriptive alt text, ensuring that visual content is accessible to those using assistive technologies.
4. Screen reader compatibility- To comply with screen readers it is important that you include detailed and consistent navigational elements on your web pages. 
5. Alternative text for images- ALT text is used by people that cannot see images, having descriptive text with images allows them to understand what it is that they are observing. 
6. Keyboard accessibility - you must be able to navigate your website through the keyboard controls.
7. Controls for moving content- This includes no blinking infographics, videos and allowing users to pause and play video content. 
8. Controls for timed content- For users that use assistive technology they need extra time to view content so adding in options to adjust or turn timed content off is essential. 
9. Labelled forms- Labels for areas such as tick boxes should explicitly tell a user what the field is and sometimes provide additional cues.
10.  Colour contrast - Ensuring there is sufficient contrast between text and background can significantly enhance the accessibility of your content particularly important for improved readability for readers with visual impairments.
11. Accessible downloadable files- Any downloadable files on your website must be accessible. 
12.  Plain language -  use simple language and clear sentences
13.  Use of Captions - Rich content and multimedia require careful handling to be accessible. Providing captions, transcripts, and other aids for multimedia content is essential, ensuring that all users, regardless of their abilities, can access and benefit from the information.
14.  Lists should be used appropriately, with bulleted or numbered formats employed to structure information in a digestible manner. 

Read more on these top ten tips here https://askearn.org/page/10-tips-for-an-accessible-website

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iAccessDigital can examine your website for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), offering a website accessibility auditing & report service.

Will Awad is an accessibility expert, highly recommended by Supadu
will@iaccessdigital.co.uk

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