Web Accessibility for Developers Who Keep Meaning to Learn It

WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is the international standard for web accessibility, published by the W3C. WCAG 2.1 AA is the level required by most accessibility laws globally, including the EU Web Accessibility Directive, and is what US ADA lawsuits typically reference. Legally, in the US, accessibility requirements under the ADA apply to websites of businesses open to the public. For EU businesses, the European Accessibility Act extends accessibility requirements to most digital products from 2025. Beyond legal compliance, accessible sites genuinely work better for more users — including older users, mobile users, and people in challenging environments.

The highest-impact changes are: proper alt text on all meaningful images, full keyboard navigability (everything clickable with mouse should work with keyboard), sufficient color contrast (4.5:1 for body text per WCAG), proper heading structure (H1 → H2 → H3, logical hierarchy), and correct semantic HTML (using button for buttons, not div-with-onclick). These five areas address the majority of accessibility complaints and automated audit failures. They're also the areas most commonly triggered in ADA lawsuits.

No — automated tools like Axe and Lighthouse accessibility audits catch around 30–40% of accessibility issues. The rest require manual testing. Things that automated tools can't catch: whether alt text is meaningful (they can detect missing alt, not bad alt), whether keyboard focus order makes sense logically, whether links describe their destinations, whether forms are understandable without surrounding visual context, and whether the page works with actual screen readers as users navigate it. Automated testing is a necessary starting point, not an endpoint.