Digital Accessibility: Designing for More People

An accessible website allows more people to navigate, understand, purchase and request support. The same choices that help users of assistive technologies often improve the experience on mobile devices, under stress, in poor lighting or on a slow connection.

Since June 2025, the European Accessibility Act has applied across the European Union to selected products and services, including e-commerce, banking and payment services, transport and electronic communications. Its scope, exemptions and obligations must always be assessed against the specific organisation and service.

WCAG 2.2 is the current technical reference.

The W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines organise accessibility around four principles: content must be perceivable, interfaces operable, information understandable and technologies robust. WCAG 2.2 is backwards compatible and adds nine success criteria, with particular attention to keyboard navigation, focus, authentication and target size.

Less friction creates more opportunity.

The European Commission estimates that around 100 million people with disabilities live in the EU. The benefits extend far beyond this audience: readable contrast, clear forms, useful error messages and sufficiently large controls help everyone.

• More conversions: fewer users abandon forms, checkouts and enquiries.
• Less support: clear instructions reduce avoidable requests.
• Stronger SEO: meaningful headings and alternative text improve semantic understanding.
• Longer service life: robust interfaces work across browsers, devices and input methods.
• Reputation: inclusion becomes visible in the experience rather than remaining a statement.

Five issues an automated check cannot fully assess.

1. Invisible or inconsistent focus. Keyboard users lose their position.
2. Ambiguous labels. Repeated “Learn more” links do not explain their destination.
3. Incorrect reading order. The layout looks right but a screen reader follows a confusing sequence.
4. Uncontrollable motion. Animation, parallax and autoplay may create cognitive or vestibular barriers.
5. Colour-only form errors. A red border does not explain what is wrong or how to correct it.

Automated tools are useful for repeatable checks, but manual testing remains necessary. Relevant projects should also include testing with users.

A practical first-audit checklist.

• navigate every function using only the keyboard;
• verify the contrast of text, icons, borders and interactive states;
• check heading hierarchy and page landmarks;
• associate labels, instructions and errors with form fields;
• provide meaningful text alternatives for informative images;
• support zoom and reflow without losing content;
• respect reduced-motion preferences;
• test menus, modals, cookie banners and dynamic components with a screen reader;
• make hover, focus, selection and error states visible and consistent.

Accessibility is a shared responsibility.

Designers define contrast, states and hierarchy; developers manage semantics, interaction and compatibility; writers make links and instructions understandable; publishers must avoid reintroducing barriers through new documents and media.

We integrate accessibility criteria into our websites and platforms alongside performance, privacy and commercial objectives.