What Is Web Accessibility? | Marketing Dictionary
DICTIONARY · WEB

What is accessibility?

Designing websites so people with different abilities can use them.

In plain English

Accessibility is making sure your site works for people who use it differently. Screen readers, keyboard navigation, magnification, captions, colour contrast, no reliance on a steady hand or perfect eyesight.

It is often framed as a compliance chore. In practice most accessibility work is just clearer design. Readable contrast, sensible headings, labelled forms and larger tap targets help everyone, not only people with a diagnosed impairment.

What to know

Contrast and text size
Low-contrast grey text is the most common accessibility failure and the easiest to fix. Body text needs genuine contrast against its background.
Everything works by keyboard
A visitor should be able to tab through the page in a logical order and see where the focus is. Invisible focus states break this quietly.
Describe images and label fields
Alternative text for meaningful images, real labels on form fields rather than placeholder text alone.
Structure with real headings
One H1 and a logical heading order lets screen readers navigate the page. Styling a paragraph to look like a heading does nothing for them.

Why it matters

A meaningful share of your audience has some access need, including plenty of people who would never describe themselves that way, such as older visitors reading small type on a phone. Beyond that, accessible pages are better structured, which helps search engines too, and in many jurisdictions there is a legal obligation.

Common mistakes

×Relying on light grey text because it looks refined in the mockup.
×Using placeholder text as the only form label, so it disappears on typing.
×Removing focus outlines for aesthetic reasons.
×Treating accessibility as a one-off audit rather than part of how pages are built.

FAQs

Where do I start with accessibility?

Fix contrast, add alt text to meaningful images, label every form field, and tab through your key pages with the keyboard. That covers a large share of real-world problems.

Do accessibility overlays fix the problem?

Not really. They patch symptoms and can introduce new issues. Fixing the underlying markup and design is the durable answer.

WRITTEN BY TARIQ SALLAM
Marketing Consultant. Entrepreneur. Content Creator.

I'm a marketing consultant, entrepreneur and content creator. I help businesses grow through practical marketing, websites, SEO, content and AI.

More About Tariq →