Accessible websites: the business case, not just the legal one
Most conversations about accessibility start with the law and end with a checklist nobody enjoys. That framing does the subject a disservice, because the practical version is simpler: some proportion of people who want to give you money cannot currently use your website, and fixing that is usually a day's work.
Who this actually affects
Not a small, distant group. It includes people with permanent disabilities, but also the far larger population with temporary or situational limitations: someone with a broken wrist using one hand, someone on a train in bright sunlight, someone with a cracked screen, anyone over about forty-five reading small grey text, and anyone whose connection is too slow for your images to load.
Design for the edges and the middle gets better too. Captions help deaf users and everyone watching on mute in an office.
The fixes that cover most of it
Contrast
Light grey text on white is the most common failure we see, and the easiest to fix. Body text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background. Any browser's developer tools will tell you, and so will free checkers.
Keyboard access
Try navigating your own site using only the Tab key. Can you reach every link and button? Can you see where you are? Can you open and close the mobile menu? If the focus outline has been removed for looking untidy, put it back — someone is relying on it.
Meaningful alternative text
Images need alt text that says what the image conveys, not what it depicts. “Team photo” is not useful. Decorative images should have empty alt text so screen readers skip them rather than announcing a filename.
Labels on form fields
Placeholder text is not a label. It disappears the moment someone starts typing, which is precisely when people forget what a field was for. Use real labels, and connect error messages to the field they belong to.
Headings in order
Screen reader users navigate by heading, the way sighted users skim. One h1 per page, then h2 for sections and h3 beneath them. Don't pick a heading level because of how big it looks — style it instead.
Respect the motion setting
Operating systems let people ask for reduced motion, often because movement makes them genuinely unwell. Honour it. Animations should be replaced with a simple fade, and anything that moves on its own should stop.
How to check without hiring anyone
Run a free automated checker for the mechanical issues, then do the two manual tests that matter most: navigate with the keyboard only, and read the page at 200% zoom. Automated tools catch perhaps a third of real problems; those two tests catch a lot of the rest.
None of this requires a redesign. It is mostly colour values, focus styles, form labels and heading order — and the site is better for everyone afterwards.