Website Accessibility: Why It Matters (and Isn’t Just a Legal Box to Tick)

Accessibility often gets filed under “legal compliance stuff” and quietly ignored. That’s a shame, because a genuinely accessible website tends to be a better website for every single visitor – not just the roughly one in five people in the UK living with a disability.

What accessibility actually covers

It’s broader than most people expect: text with enough contrast to read in bright sunlight, images with alt text for screen readers (and for when images fail to load), a site that works with keyboard navigation alone, videos with captions, forms with clear labels, and text that resizes properly rather than breaking.

It’s good design, not a compromise on it

Clear contrast, sensible font sizes and logical navigation aren’t accessibility concessions that make a site look worse – they’re simply good design principles. Many of the improvements that help visually impaired visitors also help someone glancing at their phone in bright sun, or reading on an old screen, or simply in a hurry.

There’s a legal dimension too

UK public sector websites have specific statutory accessibility requirements. Private businesses aren’t held to the identical standard, but the Equality Act 2010 does require reasonable adjustments for disabled customers, and website accessibility increasingly falls under that umbrella in practice.

It affects your reach, directly

An inaccessible site simply turns away visitors who can’t use it comfortably – and word travels. A site that works well for everyone extends your realistic customer base rather than narrowing it.

Where to start, practically

• Check text and background colour contrast, particularly on buttons and links
• Make sure every meaningful image has descriptive alt text
• Test that your site can be navigated using only a keyboard (no mouse)
• Use clear, descriptive link text rather than “click here”
• Keep forms simple, with clear labels and helpful error messages

An accessibility statement helps too

A simple, honest accessibility statement – what you’ve done, what you’re still working on – shows good faith and gives visitors a way to flag issues directly to you.

CXC Toolkit includes an accessibility toolbar and statement generator as standard on every managed site, covering the essentials without needing a specialist audit for most small businesses. If you’d like your current site checked, get in touch.