Website accessibility and the law in the UK

A customer who relies on a screen reader gives up on your booking form because the fields are unlabelled. Someone with low vision cannot read your pale grey pricing on a white background. Neither tells you. They simply leave, and you record it as traffic that did not convert.

Accessibility is often treated as a polish job for later, or a box only the public sector has to tick. In the UK that is a costly misunderstanding, both legally and commercially.

Who this actually applies to#

There is a widespread belief that accessibility law only touches government websites. That is half right and half dangerous.

Public sector bodies have specific, detailed obligations, set out in the accessibility requirements for public sector websites. Private businesses are not bound by that exact regulation, but they are bound by something broader. If you sell to or serve the public, equality law expects your service to be usable by disabled people, and a website is part of your service.

In other words, the question is not whether the rules apply to you. It is how they apply.

The Equality Act in plain terms#

The Equality Act 2010 requires service providers to make reasonable adjustments so disabled people are not put at a substantial disadvantage. The official Equality Act guidance spells this out, and crucially the duty is anticipatory. You are expected to think about access in advance, not only once someone complains.

For a website, a barrier that stops a blind user completing a purchase, or a deaf user understanding a video, is exactly the kind of disadvantage the Act has in mind. The phrase that does the heavy lifting is reasonable. Nobody expects a corner shop to commission the same work as a bank. They do expect you to address the obvious barriers you could fix without disproportionate effort.

WCAG without the jargon#

The practical standard everyone leans on is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It sounds intimidating, but the core ideas are common sense once translated, and the WAI overview of WCAG is a calmer read than its reputation suggests.

Contrast#

Text has to stand out from its background enough to be read by someone whose vision is not perfect. Pale grey on white might look elegant in the design file and be nearly invisible on a phone in daylight. The guidelines give a minimum contrast ratio so you are not guessing, and meeting it usually means nudging colours rather than redesigning anything.

Keyboard use#

Plenty of people never touch a mouse, navigating instead with a keyboard or assistive device. Every interactive part of your site, every link, button and form field, needs to be reachable and operable that way. The MDN accessibility documentation shows how to build and test for this, and a quick check is simply to put the mouse down and try to use your own site with the Tab key.

Alt text#

Images need text alternatives so a screen reader can describe them. A product photo, a logo, a chart: each needs a short, meaningful description, while purely decorative images should be marked so they are skipped. The MDN guide to accessible HTML covers how to write alt text that actually helps rather than padding it with keywords.

Quick wins this week#

You do not need a full project to make real progress. A handful of changes move the needle quickly.

Run a contrast check on your main text and fix anything that fails. Add proper labels to your forms. Write meaningful alt text on the images that carry information. Make sure links say where they go rather than reading 'click here'. Try navigating a key journey, your contact or checkout flow, using only the keyboard.

None of those require a redesign. Most are an afternoon of focused work, and each one removes a barrier a real customer is hitting right now. If you want a structured starting point, the WAI easy checks walk you through a first pass in plain language.

When to get an audit#

The quick wins handle the obvious problems. A proper audit handles the ones you cannot see, and there comes a point where it is worth it.

If you are planning a redesign, run a regulated service, or simply want confidence that your site meets the standard, a structured review is the sensible step. It pairs naturally with thoughtful UI and UX design, since accessibility and good usability are really the same goal approached from two directions. If you would like a hand working out where your site stands, get in touch and we can talk through it.

Treating accessibility as a legal threat misses the point. The same work that keeps you on the right side of the Equality Act also widens your audience, improves your search visibility and makes the site better for everyone. The law is simply the floor. Most businesses find that clearing it makes the whole site stronger.