Digital accessibility essentials for a more inclusive site
Accessibility is a quality of the whole service, not a final technical check. Clear structure, keyboard operation, meaningful alternatives and understandable feedback help many people and reduce avoidable friction.
What to remember.
- Use semantic structure and descriptive labels.
- Make every essential action work with a keyboard.
- Combine automated checks with human testing.
Build a meaningful structure
Use a descriptive page title, one clear main heading and nested headings that reflect the content. Landmarks, lists, tables and buttons should be represented by the appropriate HTML element rather than visual styling alone.
Support keyboard and visible focus
Every interactive element must be reachable and usable without a pointer. Keep focus visible, logical and contained when a dialog opens. Provide a skip link when repeated navigation precedes the main content.
Write useful text alternatives
Describe the purpose of informative images in context and leave decorative images with empty alternative text. Do not repeat surrounding copy or use filenames as descriptions. Complex charts may need a nearby textual explanation.
Make forms understandable
Associate labels with controls, explain required formats and present errors next to the relevant field as well as in a clear summary. Preserve entered information when validation fails whenever it is safe to do so.
Check contrast, zoom and reflow
Text and controls need sufficient contrast and should remain usable when enlarged. Test narrow viewports, text spacing and high zoom without requiring two-dimensional scrolling for ordinary content.
Use several forms of testing
Automated tools find only part of the problem. Add keyboard testing, screen-reader spot checks and sessions with disabled users or trained specialists, then prioritise issues by impact and frequency.