Roughly one in five people in the UK live with a disability. That is about 16 million people, and many of them use the internet every day with screen readers, keyboard navigation, voice controls, or magnification software. When your website does not work properly for those people, you are turning away a significant portion of your potential customers. Worse, you may be breaking the law.
Website accessibility has been a legal requirement for UK public sector organisations since 2018. For private businesses, the Equality Act 2010 has always applied to digital services, even if enforcement was patchy. Things have changed. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) came into force on 28 June 2025, the number of accessibility-related lawsuits is climbing, and WCAG 2.2 is now the recognised international standard. If your website was built without accessibility in mind, this is the year to fix it.
The laws you need to know
The Equality Act 2010
This is the UK's main anti-discrimination law. It requires businesses to make "reasonable adjustments" so that disabled people are not placed at a substantial disadvantage when accessing goods and services. Courts have increasingly interpreted this to include websites and apps. If a customer cannot complete a purchase, fill in a form, or read your content because of how your site is built, you may be liable.
Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018
These regulations require all UK public sector websites and apps to meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA. They have been in force since September 2018 (for new sites) and September 2020 (for existing sites). If you are a council, NHS trust, university, or government agency, compliance is mandatory and monitored. While this does not directly apply to private businesses, it has set the benchmark that courts and regulators now reference.
The European Accessibility Act (EAA)
The EAA is an EU directive that came into force on 28 June 2025. It requires businesses selling products or services to EU customers to make their websites, apps, e-commerce platforms, and digital services accessible. If your UK business sells to customers anywhere in the EU, the EAA applies to you regardless of where you are based.
The EAA references EN 301 549, which is the European standard for digital accessibility. EN 301 549 incorporates WCAG 2.2 Level AA. In practice, meeting WCAG 2.2 AA means you are meeting the EAA's web requirements.
Not sure if the EAA applies to you? If you accept orders from EU countries, ship products there, or provide digital services accessible to EU users, it does. The EAA is based on where your customer is, not where your business is registered.
What WCAG 2.2 actually changed
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Version 2.2 was finalised in October 2023, replacing 2.1 as the current recommendation. The core principles have not changed: content must be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (the POUR framework). What changed are the specific success criteria.
WCAG 2.2 added nine new criteria and removed one (4.1.1 Parsing, which was considered outdated). The new criteria focus on three areas where people have been struggling most: using mobile devices, dealing with cognitive and learning barriers, and seeing where the keyboard focus is on screen.
New criteria that matter most for small business sites
2.4.11 Focus Appearance (Level AA) — When someone tabs through your site using a keyboard, the focused element must have a visible outline that meets specific contrast and size requirements. Many websites suppress focus outlines entirely (with outline: none in CSS) for aesthetic reasons. That is no longer acceptable under WCAG 2.2 AA. If a link or button is focused, the user must be able to see it clearly.
2.4.13 Focus Appearance (Level AAA) — A stricter version of the above, requiring even more visible focus indicators. Level AAA is aspirational, but if you are redesigning your site anyway, meeting this criterion costs you nothing extra.
2.5.7 Dragging Movements (Level AA) — Any action that requires a dragging gesture (like rearranging items or using a slider) must also be achievable without dragging. This matters for e-commerce sites with drag-and-drop product builders or sortable lists. Provide a click or tap alternative.
2.5.8 Target Size Minimum (Level AA) — Interactive elements like links and buttons must be at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels. Smaller targets are hard to tap on mobile and nearly impossible for people with motor impairments. Check your navigation links and footer links in particular; many are undersized.
3.2.6 Consistent Help (Level A) — If your site has help features (live chat, a phone number, a contact form), they must appear in the same relative position on every page. If the chat widget is in the bottom-right corner on your homepage, it needs to be in the bottom-right corner on every other page too.
3.3.7 Redundant Entry (Level A) — If a user has already entered information in one step of a process (like their address during checkout), you should not ask for it again in a later step unless it is essential. Auto-fill the fields or offer to reuse what they already typed. This applies to multi-step forms, booking processes, and checkout flows.
3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) (Level AA) — Your login page cannot require the user to solve a cognitive function puzzle (like a CAPTCHA) without an alternative. If you use CAPTCHA, provide an accessible alternative like a text-based challenge or a trusted-device option. Logging in should be possible without requiring the user to remember and retype a password from memory (password managers must work).
Ten practical changes for your website
You do not need to rebuild your entire site to make it more accessible. These ten changes will cover most of what WCAG 2.2 requires, and you can start on any of them today.
1. Add alt text to every meaningful image
Screen readers read alt text aloud. Every image that conveys information needs a description. Decorative images (purely visual flourishes with no meaning) should have an empty alt attribute (alt="") so screen readers skip them. Write alt text that describes the content or function of the image, not what it looks like. "Woman smiling at laptop" is less useful than "Customer completing a purchase on our checkout page."
2. Fix your colour contrast
Text must have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background (3:1 for large text, which means 18pt or 14pt bold). This is one of the most common failures on small business websites, particularly with grey text on white backgrounds or light text on hero images. Use a contrast checker like the one at WebAIM to verify your colour combinations. If your brand palette includes low-contrast pairings, use the higher-contrast version for body text and reserve the lighter shade for decorative elements.
3. Make your site fully keyboard-accessible
Every interactive element on your site (links, buttons, form fields, dropdown menus, modals) must be reachable and operable using only a keyboard. Test this yourself: unplug your mouse, press Tab to move through the page, press Enter to activate links and buttons, and press Escape to close modals. If you get stuck or cannot reach something, fix it. Common problems include dropdown menus that only open on hover, modals that trap focus, and carousels that cannot be paused.
4. Restore visible focus indicators
Find where your CSS sets outline: none or outline: 0 and remove those declarations. Replace them with a clearly visible focus style: a thick, high-contrast outline or a background colour change. The focus indicator must have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 against adjacent colours and must be at least 2 CSS pixels thick.
5. Add proper heading structure
Use heading tags (h1, h2, h3) in a logical, nested order. Do not skip levels. Do not use headings just to make text bigger. Screen reader users navigate by headings the way sighted users scan bold text; if your headings are out of order or missing, the page becomes hard to follow. Every page should have exactly one h1. Subheadings should nest logically: h2 for major sections, h3 for subsections within those.
6. Label your form fields properly
Every form input needs an associated label element. Placeholder text is not a substitute: it disappears when the user starts typing, and many screen readers do not read it as a label. Use the HTML label element linked to the input via the for attribute. If you cannot use visible labels (some designs hide them), use aria-label or aria-labelledby instead. Also add clear error messages that explain what went wrong and how to fix it, not just "Invalid input."
7. Make your site work without JavaScript (or handle failures gracefully)
If your navigation, forms, or critical content only works when JavaScript loads, some users will hit a blank wall. Ensure your site has a functional baseline that works without JavaScript, then enhance it with scripts. At minimum, show a clear message if JavaScript fails to load rather than leaving the user staring at nothing.
8. Add a skip navigation link
Keyboard users have to tab through every navigation link before reaching the main content. A "skip to main content" link at the top of each page lets them jump past the navigation. It is a small addition that makes a significant difference. Most modern frameworks include this by default, but many hand-coded sites do not.
9. Provide captions and transcripts for video and audio
If your site has video content (product demos, testimonials, tutorials), it needs captions. If you have audio content (podcasts, voice messages), provide a text transcript. Auto-generated captions from YouTube or similar tools are a start, but they need to be reviewed and corrected. Captions help deaf and hard-of-hearing users, but they also help anyone watching video in a noisy environment or with the sound off.
10. Test with a real screen reader
Automated testing tools catch about 30 to 40 percent of accessibility issues. The rest need human judgement. Download NVDA (free, for Windows) or use VoiceOver (built into macOS and iOS) and navigate your site with it. Listen to how the page sounds. Are images described? Do form fields announce their labels? Can you tell what each link does? If anything is confusing to listen to, it will be confusing for your screen reader users too.
Quick self-test: Close your eyes and try to navigate your homepage using only the Tab key and a screen reader. If you cannot find the main content, complete a form, or understand what the page is about within two minutes, neither can your users.
Accessibility is good for business
There is a common misconception that accessibility is just about compliance. It is not. Accessible websites consistently outperform inaccessible ones across business metrics that matter.
Better SEO. Search engines and screen readers parse your content in similar ways. A well-structured site with descriptive alt text, proper headings, and clean HTML is easier for Google to understand and rank. The overlap between what makes a site accessible and what makes it rank well is substantial.
Larger audience. Sixteen million people in the UK have a disability. Globally, the number is over one billion. Accessible sites reach more customers.
Improved usability for everyone. Captions help people watching video in noisy rooms. Clear focus indicators help keyboard power users. Large touch targets help anyone using a phone with one hand. Accessibility improvements tend to improve the experience for all users, not just those with disabilities.
Reduced legal risk. The number of website accessibility lawsuits is growing. In the US, more than 4,000 ADA-related digital accessibility cases were filed in 2023. UK cases are less widely reported but increasingly common, particularly in retail and hospitality. The cost of a lawsuit vastly exceeds the cost of building an accessible site in the first place.
How to audit your current site
If you have an existing website and want to know where you stand, start with these steps.
Run Google Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools. Open DevTools (F12), go to the Lighthouse tab, select Accessibility, and run the audit. You will get a score out of 100 and a list of specific issues. Fix the ones Lighthouse identifies first; they are the easiest wins.
Install the axe DevTools browser extension (free version available). It finds issues Lighthouse misses, particularly around ARIA attributes and colour contrast.
Test keyboard navigation manually. Tab through your entire site. If you cannot see where focus is, or if you get stuck in any component, record the issue.
Check your site on a mobile device with the screen reader enabled (VoiceOver on iPhone, TalkBack on Android). Many accessibility problems show up most clearly on mobile.
If you find significant issues or want a professional assessment, consider a full accessibility audit. This typically involves automated scanning, manual testing by accessibility experts, and a prioritised remediation report.
What this costs (and what it saves)
For a typical small business website, bringing it up to WCAG 2.2 AA compliance costs anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds, depending on how many issues there are and how the site was built. Sites built with accessibility in mind from the start cost very little to maintain. Sites that need a retrofit cost more, but still far less than a legal challenge.
If you are commissioning a new website, specify WCAG 2.2 AA compliance from the beginning. It is far cheaper to build accessibility in than to add it later. Any professional web designer should be able to meet this standard. If they cannot, find one who can.
Get an Accessible Website — Built Right from Day One
Every Daedalus Design website is built to WCAG 2.2 Level AA standards. Semantic HTML, keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and proper colour contrast are not optional extras — they are part of how we build. Our website packages start from £499.
Get in Touch View PackagesFrequently asked questions
Does the European Accessibility Act apply to UK businesses?
If your UK business sells products or services to customers in the EU, the EAA applies to you regardless of where you are based. The UK has its own accessibility regulations for public sector websites (the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018), and the Equality Act 2010 applies to all businesses providing goods and services.
What is the difference between WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2?
WCAG 2.2, published by the W3C in October 2023, added nine new success criteria focused on mobile accessibility, users with cognitive or learning disabilities, and users with low vision. Notable additions include focus appearance requirements, rules against dragging as the only input method, and requirements for accessible authentication. WCAG 2.2 is the current recommended standard.
What level of WCAG compliance should UK businesses aim for?
WCAG 2.2 Level AA is the accepted standard for most businesses. Level A covers only the most basic accessibility needs. Level AAA is aspirational and not required by any current law. Public sector bodies in the UK are required to meet WCAG 2.2 AA. Private businesses are not legally required to meet a specific WCAG level, but AA is the standard referenced in legal cases and regulatory guidance.
Can I be sued for having an inaccessible website in the UK?
Yes. Under the Equality Act 2010, businesses that fail to make reasonable adjustments for disabled customers can face legal action. The number of website accessibility lawsuits has been rising steadily in both the UK and US. In the US alone, over 4,000 ADA-related digital accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2023. UK cases are less publicised but increasingly common, particularly in the retail and hospitality sectors.
How do I check if my website is accessible?
Start with automated tools like Google Lighthouse, axe DevTools, or WAVE. These catch roughly 30 to 40 percent of accessibility issues. For a thorough assessment, you need manual testing: keyboard navigation, screen reader testing with NVDA or VoiceOver, and colour contrast checks. A professional accessibility audit from a specialist firm gives you the most complete picture.