Accessibility is often presented as a compliance exercise, which makes it sound like something to survive rather than something to do. In practice the majority of real world barriers come from a short list of ordinary mistakes, and fixing them improves the site for everyone.
This is particularly true on mobile, in bright sunlight, on a cracked screen, which describes a great deal of real Namibian browsing.
The fixes with the highest return
Fix your colour contrast
Light grey text on a white background is the most common failure on the web. Body text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1. Free checkers will tell you in seconds.
Make tap targets big enough
Anything tappable should be at least 44 by 44 pixels. You can keep the visual element small and enlarge the invisible hit area around it.
Do not let body text go below 16 pixels
Smaller than that is hard to read and, on iOS, causes the page to zoom when a form field is focused, which feels broken.
Write real alt text
Describe what the image shows and why it is there. A decorative flourish should have empty alt text so screen readers skip it. Never write image or photo.
Label every form field visibly
Placeholder text disappears the moment someone types, which strands anyone who is interrupted. Use a real label above the field.
Make sure it works from the keyboard
Press tab repeatedly. You should always see where you are, and you should be able to reach and operate everything. If focus disappears, something is broken.
Respect reduced motion
Some people get genuinely unwell from parallax and heavy scroll animation. Honour the operating system setting that asks for less of it.
Test it in ten minutes
- Tab through the whole page without touching the mouse.
- Zoom the browser to 200 percent and check nothing is cut off.
- Load the site on a phone, outside, in direct sunlight.
- Turn on your phone's screen reader and try to use the contact form.
- Run one automated checker, then fix the things it finds by hand.
Automated tools catch perhaps a third of real accessibility problems. They are a starting point, not a certificate.
