Website Accessibility for Accounting Firms: A Plain-English Guide to WCAG

12 September 2026·5 min read

Quick answer: Website accessibility means anyone — including people using screen readers, browsing with low vision, or navigating by keyboard — can actually use your site, and it comes down to a handful of practical fixes: strong colour contrast, proper alt text on images, clearly labelled form fields, and readable font sizes. This isn't a formal compliance audit, just the plain-English basics most accounting firm websites are quietly getting wrong. Below is the checklist and three real-world fixes. 🤍

Accessibility sounds like a technical, tick-the-box topic — until you picture an actual client trying to book a consult on your site with a screen reader, or squinting at pale grey text on a white background, and giving up. 💖

Please note: general information, not legal advice — check current official guidance before relying on it. This guide covers general best practice, not a formal accessibility compliance audit.

What most accounting firm websites get wrong

Low-contrast text — light grey paragraphs on a white or cream background look "clean" but are genuinely hard to read for a large chunk of visitors.
Images with no alt text — a screen reader either skips the image entirely or reads out a meaningless filename like "IMG_4021.jpg".
Form fields with no visible label — placeholder text that disappears the moment you click into the field, leaving no reminder of what's being asked.
Tiny body text — anything under about 16px forces visitors to zoom in, which breaks the layout on plenty of sites.
Buttons and links that only make sense visually — a "Click here" link with no context tells a screen reader user precisely nothing about where it goes.

The plain-English accessibility checklist

None of this requires a developer or a formal audit to get started — most of it is a content and design pass you can do yourself:

Contrast: body text should be dark enough against its background that you could read it comfortably on a dim phone screen outdoors.
Alt text: every meaningful image gets a short, honest description of what it shows — decorative images can be left blank, not filled with keyword stuffing.
Form labels: every field has a visible label that stays put, not just placeholder text that vanishes on click.
Font size: body text at 16px or larger, with enough line spacing that paragraphs don't feel cramped.
Descriptive links: "Book your free consult" instead of "Click here" — every link should make sense read on its own.
Keyboard navigation: try tabbing through your own site without a mouse — if you can't reach the booking button, neither can a keyboard-only visitor.

What this looks like in practice

Solo tax agent's site: A clean, minimalist design used pale grey text on a cream background throughout — lovely in a design mockup, genuinely difficult to read on an actual screen. Darkening the body text to a near-black and bumping the base font size up two notches fixed the readability issue without touching the layout at all.

Mid-size firm's team page: Dozens of staff photos, none with alt text, so a screen reader user got a wall of silence where a visual visitor saw the whole team. Adding a simple description to each — name and role — meant the page now actually communicates who works there, to everyone.

Firm with an online enquiry form: Every field relied on placeholder text alone — "Your name", "Your email" — which disappeared the moment someone started typing, leaving no visible label if they got interrupted and came back to the form. Adding permanent, visible labels above each field removed a small but real point of friction for every visitor, not just those using assistive technology.

How to actually work through this

Start with a content pass rather than a rebuild: go page by page adding real alt text to images, checking every form field has a visible label, and reading your link text out of context to see if it still makes sense. Then do a visual pass — check your body text colour against its background using any free online contrast checker, and confirm your base font size in your theme settings. Finally, do the keyboard test: unplug your mouse (or just don't touch it) and tab through your homepage, your services page and your enquiry form. If you get stuck or lost, so will some of your visitors.

None of this is a one-off "fix and forget" job — treat it the way you'd treat a broken link check, a periodic pass rather than a single sprint.

💡 Heads up: this checklist covers solid general best practice, but it isn't a substitute for a proper accessibility audit against the current WCAG standard — if accessibility compliance is a specific requirement for your firm, get a qualified specialist to review the site formally.

Mistakes to avoid while you're fixing this

Stuffing alt text with keywords instead of descriptions — it should describe the image, not chase SEO; a screen reader user notices the difference immediately.
Fixing contrast by eye instead of testing it — what looks "fine enough" on your monitor can still fail a contrast check; use a tool, don't guess.
Only checking the homepage — the enquiry form and booking page matter more than almost anywhere else on the site; check those first, not last.
Treating it as a one-time project — new pages, new images and new forms need the same checks applied every time, not just at launch.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the same as being legally compliant?

Not automatically — this checklist covers widely recognised best practice, but formal compliance depends on the specific standard and obligations that apply to your firm. Check current official guidance, and get a specialist audit if compliance is a specific requirement for you.

Do we need to redesign our whole website?

Usually not — most of the checklist above is a content and settings fix, not a rebuild. A genuinely inaccessible layout or navigation structure is rarer and would need more design work, but it's the exception, not the rule.

Does better accessibility actually help with anything else?

Yes — clearer contrast, better labels and descriptive links tend to improve usability and even search visibility for everyone, not just visitors using assistive technology. It's one of the rare fixes with no real downside.

How do we check our contrast and font sizes without a developer?

Free online contrast checkers let you plug in your text and background colours directly; most website builders show your base font size in the theme or typography settings without needing any code.

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 ✦