Website accessibility basics for small businesses

An accessible website is one that everyone can use, including people with poor eyesight, colour blindness, shaky hands or who use a screen reader. In the UK, a large share of people have some kind of disability, and many more are simply older, tired or reading on a small screen in bright sunlight. Making your site accessible is good manners and good business, and it tends to make the site better for everyone.

The standard: WCAG

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), published by the W3C, are the international standard. Version 2.2 is the current one, and level AA is the usual target. You don't need to read the full guidelines; the checks below cover the problems we see most on small business sites.

Seven quick checks

1. Contrast: text should stand out clearly from its background. WCAG AA asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text. Pale grey text on white usually fails.
2. Text size: body text should be comfortable to read on a phone without zooming, and the page should still work when someone does zoom in.
3. Alt text: every meaningful image needs a short description for people who can't see it, such as "Double room with sea view". Purely decorative images should have empty alt text so they're skipped.
4. Headings: use real headings in order (one main heading, then sections), so screen reader users can jump around the page.
5. Link text: "Read our pricing" is clear out of context; "click here" is not.
6. Tap targets: buttons and links should be big enough and far enough apart to tap without hitting the wrong one.
7. Forms: every field needs a visible label, and error messages should say what went wrong and how to fix it.

Don't rely on colour alone

If a form shows mistakes only by turning a box red, or a map uses only colours to show categories, colour-blind visitors may miss it. Add words or icons as well.

How we build it in

Every site we build is checked against these points as standard, and our own pages score 100 for accessibility in Google's Lighthouse test. Automated tests can't catch everything, so we also check by hand with a keyboard and on real phones. Ask us to review your current site, or see our web design service.

Got more questions? See our Setup, onboarding & Google FAQs or the £350 website package.

Last reviewed 2026-10-30 by the IceWork team.