Reading that people with mobility issues are entirely welcome at the Met Gala—if they’re willing to enter through the rear door—made my jaw drop. I’d long recognized the torture those stairs represented for anyone in a tight skirt or astronomically high heels. But I’m ashamed to admit I’d never thought about it any further. It’s 2024. This is the epitome of “I’ve got mine” thinking.

Well, I work on a lot of websites, so I started there. After all, if I can’t impact Anna Wintour’s decision-making, I can effect change in my tiny corner of the universe. Here’s what I learned. 

Research has made one thing abundantly clear: An accessible site works better for ALL users. And that’s great for business.

Many websites are doing a pretty good job. But many are dropping the ball in some easy-to-fix areas. For example, Subjectline.com just introduced a headache-inducing update to its look and feel. An opportunity to make it more accessible? Absolutely! Did they? Nope. Great tool. But the high-luminance, low-contrast colors are not considerate of anyone with dyslexia, aging eyes or, in my case, delicate sensitivities.

In my quick run through some of the biggest, most popular sites on the planet, it became instantly clear that too many are missing simple fixes like ensuring proper contrast between background and text colors. (If you’re wondering about your choices, this free contrast checker has the answer.)

Ensuring an accessible experience can feel like a huge lift—especially if you’ve already built a site and you’re trying to retrofit. But the first step is to start. Think about what your audience really looks like. Not the shiny personas, but real people. Disability is a far-reaching word. We’re not talking about neurodiversity, difficulty seeing or hearing, or physical differences. We’re talking about all of those things and more.

Fortunately, the Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C, WCAG) has already laid it all out, with clear guidelines around how to help everyone consume, navigate and interact with online content.

Here’s the full checklist, but you can easily ask yourself many of the key questions:

Titles, headings and text

• Have we included clear, unique titles for each page? 
• Are headings marked up (as in <h1>, <h2>, etc.) to assist with keyboard navigation and screen readers? 
• Have you made sure all text can be read by screen readers? For example, there should be minimal text locked in images. 
• Is text big enough—especially for any audience over 35? Can users resize text? 

Images and multimedia

• Do all images, videos, charts and graphs include descriptive alternate text that can be read aloud by screen readers? 
• Do functional images, such as buttons and linked images, include alt text to make the desired action clear?

Color contrast

• Does your color palette aid readability? Light gray text on a white background, white text over a busy photo, or red text on a green field can be beautiful but problematic. Low-contrast text, particularly for small, thin fonts can be a barrier for anyone with a vision impairment, reading disability or color blindness.  
• Can users change the background color? 

Moving or flashing content

• Does your site allow users to control moving content, such as slowing it down to allow more reading time or pausing it to reduce distraction? 
• Have you ensured that nothing is blinking or flashing? Nobody wants to trigger a seizure. 
• Do your videos all have auto-play turned off? Can they be muted?  
• Are transcripts and captions available for all video and audio content? Don’t rely on automated captioning—it’s just not accurate enough yet.

Navigation

• Many people can’t use a mouse—whether due to physical or neurological challenges or a temporary broken wrist. Instead, they navigate via a keyboard, eye-tracking software, voice input and other solutions. Does your site allow logical navigation without a mouse, highlighting elements as the user moves throughout the page?
• Can drop-down menus be accessed via keyboard controls? 
• Can users find your accessibility policy? Do you have one?

One simple way to see how your site performs is to run it through the WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool. The fixes may not all be easy (although some can be knocked out in minutes), but research has made one thing abundantly clear: An accessible site works better for ALL users. And that’s great for business.

Want to go deeper? Ready to create a more accessible, equitable experience? Reach out to FATFREE.