Website accessibility in the UK: what small businesses need to know

TL;DR: Website accessibility means people with impairments to their sight, hearing, movement or thinking can use your site. In Great Britain, the Equality Act 2010 requires service providers to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, including providing information in an accessible format, and one in four people in the UK are disabled. The usual benchmark is WCAG 2.2 level AA. Start with readable contrast, alt text, labelled forms, keyboard access and clear headings.

Key takeaways

• Website accessibility means people with impairments to their sight, hearing, movement or thinking can find, read and use your site.
• The Department for Work and Pensions reports that one in four people in the UK, 16.7 million, were disabled in 2024 to 2025.
• In Great Britain, the Equality Act 2010 requires service providers to make reasonable adjustments, including providing information in an accessible format.
• WCAG 2.2 level AA is the standard UK government services must meet, and the usual benchmark for any website.
• WebAIM’s 2026 study of a million home pages found detectable accessibility failures on 95.9% of them, with low contrast text on 83.9%.

What is website accessibility?

Website accessibility means designing and building a website so that people with impairments can use it: people who are blind or partially sighted, deaf or hard of hearing, who find a mouse or keyboard hard to use, or who have dyslexia, autism or learning difficulties. An accessible website works with the tools these visitors use, such as screen readers, magnifiers and keyboards.

GOV.UK’s guide to understanding WCAG 2.2 describes the many ways people use websites: using a keyboard instead of a mouse, changing browser settings to make text easier to read, using a screen reader that reads content aloud, magnifying part of the screen, or navigating by voice. Good website accessibility means your site works for all of them.

It also matters for business. The Department for Work and Pensions’ Family Resources Survey reports that 16.7 million people in the UK, one in four, were disabled in 2024 to 2025, and that between 42% and 46% of pensioners have been disabled in every year of the past decade. A website they cannot use is a website that turns customers away.

Is website accessibility a legal requirement in the UK?

For businesses in Great Britain, the Equality Act 2010 requires anyone providing a service to the public to make reasonable adjustments so disabled people are not put at a substantial disadvantage. The Act says this includes steps to provide information in an accessible format. A business website is part of how many businesses provide their service.

Section 29 of the Equality Act says service providers must not discriminate against disabled people and applies a duty to make reasonable adjustments. Section 20 sets out that duty, and says that where it relates to providing information, reasonable steps include making sure the information is provided in an accessible format. Schedule 2 adds that, for service providers, the duty is owed to disabled people generally, so it applies before any individual complains.

The law does not name a technical standard for private businesses, and what is reasonable depends on the size of the business and the cost of the change. The detailed accessibility regulations that require WCAG compliance apply to public sector bodies, not to private businesses. But WCAG is the standard people use to judge whether a website is accessible, so it is the sensible one to follow. This is not legal advice; for a specific situation, take advice.

What is WCAG 2.2?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an internationally recognised set of recommendations for making websites accessible. GOV.UK says UK government services must meet WCAG 2.2 level AA. For a small business, meeting level AA is the clearest way to show your website is accessible.

GOV.UK explains that WCAG 2.2 is built on four principles: content must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. These principles are supported by 13 guidelines, each broken down into success criteria at levels A, AA and AAA. Meeting level AA means meeting all the A and AA criteria.

Principle	What it means	Examples from GOV.UK
Perceivable	People can recognise and use content with the senses they have	Alt text, captions, readable colour contrast
Operable	People can use the site however they access it	Keyboard access, visible focus, no flashing content
Understandable	People can understand the content and how the site works	Clear labels, helpful form errors, consistent navigation
Robust	The site works with assistive technologies	Proper code that screen readers can interpret

What are the most common accessibility problems?

The most common problems are low contrast text, images without alt text, form fields without labels, links and buttons with no text, and pages that do not declare their language. WebAIM’s 2026 study of the top one million home pages found these issues accounted for 96% of all the errors it detected.

The WebAIM Million, published in 2026, tested the home pages of a million websites with automated tools. It found an average of 56.1 errors per page, and detectable failures of WCAG 2 on 95.9% of home pages. The most common problems were:

Problem	Share of home pages
Low contrast text	83.9%
Missing alternative text for images	53.1%
Missing form input labels	51.0%
Empty links	46.3%
Empty buttons	30.6%
Missing document language	13.5%

Local business websites are no exception. In our own check of 935 local business websites around Portsmouth for our small business website study, 58.1% of the 700 that loaded had images without descriptions.

Which fixes should you make first?

Start with the problems that affect the most people and are easiest to fix: readable text contrast, alt text on images, labels on every form field, clear link and button text, a declared page language, keyboard access, meaningful headings and captions on video. These cover the most common failures WebAIM found.

1. Contrast. Make sure text stands out clearly from its background. GOV.UK lists text colours that show up clearly against the background colour as part of being perceivable.
2. Alt text. Describe every meaningful image in a short sentence, and mark purely decorative images so screen readers skip them.
3. Form labels. Give every field a visible label, and make error messages say what went wrong and how to fix it.
4. Link and button text. Use words that say where a link goes, not click here, and make sure icon buttons have a text label.
5. Page language. Declare the language of each page so screen readers pronounce it correctly.
6. Keyboard access. Check that everything works using only the Tab and Enter keys, with a visible focus outline.
7. Headings. Use one main heading and logical subheadings, so people can navigate by heading.
8. Captions and transcripts. Add captions to videos and transcripts for audio.

How do you test your website’s accessibility?

Use a mix of automated tools and simple manual checks. Free tools such as WAVE and the Lighthouse report built into Chrome flag many common problems. Then test by hand: use only the keyboard, zoom the page to 200%, and try a screen reader on one key page. GOV.UK recommends combining automated tools and manual tests.

Automated tools are a good start but catch only some problems; WebAIM notes its study only counted automatically detectable failures. Manual checks find the rest. A simple routine for a small business website:

• Keyboard test. Put the mouse away and try to book, enquire or buy using only Tab, Shift and Enter.
• Zoom test. Zoom to 200% and check nothing is cut off. GOV.UK says every feature should work when text size is increased by 200% and content should reflow into a single column at 400%.
• Screen reader test. Turn on VoiceOver on an iPhone or Mac, or Narrator on Windows, and listen to your homepage.
• Form test. Submit a form with mistakes and check the error messages are clear.
• Colour test. Check that colour is never the only way information is shown, such as red for a required field.

How do you write good alt text?

Good alt text describes what an image shows and why it matters on that page, in one short sentence. Leave out phrases like image of, and do not stuff it with keywords. Purely decorative images, such as background patterns, should have empty alt text so screen readers skip them.

Google’s image SEO best practices describe alt text as the most important attribute for giving more information about an image, and note that it also improves accessibility for people who cannot see images, including screen reader users and people on slow connections. Google says it uses alt text, along with computer vision and the page content, to understand what an image shows.

Some examples for local businesses:

Image	Weak alt text	Better alt text
A dish on a menu page	food	Slow-cooked lamb shoulder with rosemary potatoes
A finished bathroom	bathroom plumber Portsmouth	A newly fitted walk-in shower with grey tiles in Southsea
A team photo	team	Our three stylists outside the salon on Albert Road
A logo in the header	logo image	Bloom Hair Salon, home page

Does website accessibility help with SEO?

Many accessibility fixes also help search engines understand your site. Alt text helps Google understand images, a clear heading structure helps it understand pages, descriptive link text says what a linked page is about, and a declared language helps it serve the right audience. An accessible website is usually a better-built website.

That is not the main reason to do it, but it means the work pays twice. The fixes that help a screen reader user find your opening hours, read your menu or fill in your booking form are the same fixes that help Google read your pages. Our guide to how to build a small business website covers both together.

What about booking forms and online shops?

Forms are where accessibility problems cost the most, because a customer who cannot complete a booking or checkout simply leaves. WebAIM found missing form labels on 51% of home pages. Make sure every field has a visible label, errors are explained in words, nothing depends on colour alone, and the whole form works by keyboard.

GOV.UK’s WCAG guide adds that forms should make it easy for people to identify and correct errors, to re-enter information they have entered before, and to log in without having to remember information or solve a puzzle. Test your booking or checkout with only a keyboard and with a screen reader before you launch, and again whenever the booking system or payment provider changes.

Do accessibility overlays and widgets fix the problem?

Not on their own. Accessibility overlays are add-on widgets that claim to make a website accessible automatically. They cannot reliably fix problems in the underlying code, such as missing labels or keyboard traps, and they do not change the duty to make your actual website usable. Fix the website itself.

The common problems WebAIM found, like low contrast, missing alt text and unlabelled forms, are design and content issues. They are fixed by choosing readable colours, writing alt text and building forms properly, not by adding a toolbar. If you already use an overlay, treat it as a convenience at most, and test the site without it.

What about video, social media and PDFs?

The same principles apply beyond your website. Add captions to every video, because many people watch with the sound off and deaf and hard of hearing visitors rely on them. Write alt text for photos you post on Instagram and Facebook, which both let you add it. And replace PDF menus and price lists with normal web pages wherever you can.

GOV.UK’s WCAG guide lists captions for video and transcripts for audio under the perceivable principle, and warns against using images of text. A poster that is just a photo with words on it, shared on social media or added to your website, cannot be read by a screen reader. Put the key details, such as dates, prices and how to book, in the post or page text as well.

For video on your website, choose a player that can be used with a keyboard and lets people pause it, and avoid autoplaying video with sound. GOV.UK’s guide says people should be able to play, pause and stop any moving content.

What else makes a website accessible?

Beyond the technical fixes, write in plain language, keep layouts consistent, avoid text inside images, let people pause anything that moves, and give people more than one way to contact you. GOV.UK’s WCAG guide lists many of these, from not using images of text to letting users play, pause and stop moving content.

Plain language helps everyone, including people with dyslexia, learning difficulties and those reading in a second language. Short sentences, clear headings and simple words make your pages easier to understand and quicker to scan. Offering a phone number, an email address and a form means people can contact you in the way that works for them.

Think about documents too. PDF menus and price lists are often hard to read with a screen reader or on a phone. A menu or price list as a normal web page is more accessible, easier to update and better for search engines.

Should you add an accessibility statement?

It is good practice. An accessibility statement explains what you have done to make your website accessible, any known problems, and how people can contact you if they cannot access something. Public sector bodies must publish one; for a small business, a short statement shows you take it seriously and gives people a way to ask for help.

Keep it simple: the standard you aim for, such as WCAG 2.2 level AA, what you have tested, any parts you know need work, and a phone number and email address for anyone who has trouble using the site. Then respond quickly when someone gets in touch, which is itself a reasonable adjustment.

Want it done for you? See website design in Portsmouth, or web design across Hampshire if you are further out.

Frequently asked questions

Do small businesses have to make their websites accessible?

In Great Britain, the Equality Act 2010 requires service providers to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, including providing information in an accessible format. What is reasonable depends on the business. Following WCAG 2.2 level AA is the clearest way to meet the expectation.

What is the UK standard for website accessibility?

GOV.UK says government services must meet WCAG 2.2 level AA. There is no named technical standard for private businesses, but WCAG 2.2 AA is the usual benchmark.

What is alt text and why does it matter?

Alt text is a short description of an image that screen readers read aloud to people who cannot see it. WebAIM found images without alt text on 53.1% of a million home pages in 2026, making it one of the most common problems.

Can an accessibility widget make my site compliant?

No widget can fix problems in the website’s own design and code, such as missing form labels or poor keyboard access. Fix the site itself, then test it with a keyboard, zoom and a screen reader.

How much does it cost to make a website accessible?

Building accessibility in from the start usually costs little extra. Fixing an existing site depends on how it was built; many of the most common problems, such as alt text and contrast, are quick to fix.

Want an accessible website?

Website accessibility is easiest and cheapest when it is built in from the start. Our website design service builds sites with readable contrast, labelled forms, keyboard access and alt text as standard, and our free website check flags images without descriptions and other quick fixes on your current site.