Millions of Australians live with disability, and many more have temporary or situational limitations – a broken wrist, bright sunlight on a phone screen, a noisy train. An accessible website works better for all of them.
It’s also the right thing to do, it’s good for business, and under the Disability Discrimination Act, businesses are expected to avoid discriminating against people with disability, which can include online services.
What’s WCAG?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the internationally recognised standard for accessible websites. Level AA is the common target. You don’t need to memorise them; you just need to know the practical basics.
Practical improvements
Readable content
- Plain language and short sentences
- Clear headings in a logical order
- Text that can be resized without breaking the layout
Colour and contrast
- Strong contrast between text and background
- Don’t rely on colour alone to convey meaning (for example, red text for errors without an icon or message)
Keyboard access
- Everything usable without a mouse
- A visible focus outline showing where you are on the page
Images
- Descriptive alt text for meaningful images
- Empty alt text for decorative images, so screen readers skip them
Forms
- Labels for every field
- Clear error messages that explain how to fix the problem
Video and audio
- Captions for videos
- Transcripts for audio content
Links and buttons
- Descriptive link text (“Download our price guide” rather than “Click here”)
How to test
- Try navigating your site using only the Tab key
- Run free tools like WAVE or Lighthouse
- Test with a screen reader (VoiceOver on Mac and iPhone, NVDA on Windows)
- Best of all, involve people with disability in testing
CTA: Want an accessibility review of your website? → Book a review