How to Make Your Website Accessible

13 July 2026·4 min read

Quick answer: A genuinely accessible website comes down to five checkable things: real alt text on images, enough colour contrast to actually read, a proper heading structure, full keyboard navigation, and plain language over jargon. Below is a copy-paste quick-audit checklist you can run in twenty minutes, three real examples of accessibility fixes tailored to different businesses, and the mistakes that quietly lock people out of your site. 💖

Accessibility gets treated like a "nice to have" or a legal-risk checkbox, and it's neither — it's the difference between a customer being able to use your website or bouncing off it in thirty seconds. It's also usually far quicker to fix than businesses assume. Here's where to start. 📈

First, what most businesses get wrong

Treating it as a one-off project — accessibility breaks again the moment someone uploads a new image without alt text.
Assuming it only matters for screen readers — poor contrast and cramped text affect anyone using a phone in bright sunlight, too.
Writing alt text like "image1.jpg" or skipping it entirely — both leave a screen reader user with nothing.
Using heading tags for size, not structure — a big bold paragraph styled to "look like" a heading confuses navigation for assistive tech.
Burying it under "we'll get to it" — most fixes take minutes, not a redesign.

The accessibility quick-audit checklist

Run through your homepage and one service page against this — twenty minutes, no developer required:

Alt text — does every meaningful image have a short, accurate description (not the filename)? Contrast — can you read your body text easily against its background, even at arm's length? Structure — does your page use one H1, then H2s and H3s in proper order, not just big bold text? Keyboard navigation — can you tab through every link, button and form field without touching a mouse? Plain language — could someone unfamiliar with your industry understand your main pages on the first read?

Three real examples

Law firm, Southport: Say the "Areas of Practice" page is full of dense legal terminology with no plain-language summary. Adding a single plain-English sentence above each service — what it actually means for the client, in everyday words — makes the page usable for someone in a stressful situation trying to work out if they need a lawyer at all, not just easier to read.

Financial planner, Robina: Say the site uses light grey text on a white background for "a clean look." That's a classic contrast fail — fine for someone with perfect eyesight in perfect lighting, genuinely hard to read for a lot of people, including plenty without any diagnosed vision impairment. Darkening the text a few shades fixes it without touching the design otherwise.

Dental clinic, Burleigh Heads: Say the online booking widget can only be operated by clicking directly on tiny calendar squares — no keyboard access at all. For a patient using assistive technology, that's a booking system that simply doesn't work for them, no matter how good the rest of the site is. Choosing a booking tool that's keyboard-navigable by default solves this before it's even a problem.

Accessible isn't the same as boring

The myth that gets in the way most is that accessible design means stripping out personality — plain fonts, no colour, nothing interesting. It doesn't. You can have a bold, branded, characterful website that's also fully navigable by keyboard and readable at a glance. The two aren't in tension; they just both need to be considered on purpose, not left to chance.

💡 Heads up: Contrast checkers are free and take thirty seconds to use — don't rely on "it looks fine to me." What reads clearly on your monitor, in your lighting, with your eyesight, isn't a reliable test for everyone else.

Mistakes that quietly lock people out

Auto-playing video with no captions or pause control — disorienting for some visitors and simply unusable for others.
Forms with no visible labels — placeholder text that disappears when you click in isn't a substitute for an actual label.
Colour as the only signal — "click the green button" means nothing to someone who can't distinguish green from red.
PDFs instead of web pages — a scanned PDF menu or price list is often unreadable by a screen reader entirely.

Frequently asked questions

Do I legally need an accessible website in Australia?

There are obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act that apply broadly to services, including websites — this isn't legal advice for your specific situation, so check with a professional if you're unsure where you stand. Either way, it's worth fixing regardless of the legal side, because it directly affects who can use your site.

Will fixing accessibility issues slow down my website?

Generally the opposite — clean heading structure, compressed images with alt text, and simpler code tend to make a site faster, not slower.

Do I need a specialist to audit my website?

Not for the basics — the checklist above catches most common issues yourself. A specialist audit is worth it if you're in a higher-risk industry or want a formal compliance report.

What's the single highest-impact fix if I only have an hour?

Alt text and contrast — they're the fastest to fix, affect the most visitors, and usually need no design or development changes at all.

Keep reading 🤍

Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

Work with me ✦