Great websites are accessible

The OXO vegetable peeler was originally designed for someone with arthritis, but everyone found it more comfortable – even those without arthritis. Its comfortable grip and intuitive design became the gold standard for kitchen tools. This perfectly illustrates how following accessibility best practices and standards benefits all users, not just those with disabilities.

Websites work the same way. When you design for accessibility, you create something that's easier for everyone to use. To do this, you need to consider people using your site in different situations, on different devices. Keep things simple, touch-friendly, and clear. Clarity and usability should always come before elegance.

In practical terms, this means using strong colour contrast, readable text, and clear language. Add alt text for images and transcriptions for videos. These small details make a huge difference to how usable your site feels.

Aim for at least WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance (the legal standard for public sector sites in the EU).

Observe people using your website and see where they struggle. Something that's obvious to you might be confusing or hard-to-use for someone else.

What is WCAG?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international standard for making websites more accessible to people with disabilities. They have three levels of conformance:

• A – Basic accessibility requirements
• AA – Recommended level for most organisations; broader support for different disabilities
• AAA – Highest level; adds further refinements, but often impractical for every page