Website accessibility in 2026: WCAG 2.2, the EAA and what UK businesses need to know

Around one in four people in the UK has a disability. That is roughly 16 million potential customers who may struggle to use your website right now, and in many cases, they will leave without telling you why. Accessibility isn't a nice extra or a box to tick. It's a legal duty, a commercial advantage and simply the decent thing to do.

The rules have changed too. The European Accessibility Act came into force in June 2025. WCAG 2.2 is now the recognised standard. And the WebAIM Million report, which scans the top one million home pages every year, found in 2025 that 94.8% of them still had detectable accessibility failures. Most businesses are not even close to compliant, and many do not realise it.

This guide explains what the law actually requires, what WCAG 2.2 means in plain terms, and the specific things you can fix on your website this week.

What is website accessibility?

Accessibility means your website works for everyone, including people who are blind, deaf, have limited mobility, cognitive differences, or are simply getting older. It covers things like screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, colour contrast, text sizing, and captioning on videos.

The standard that defines this is WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), published by the W3C, the body that also maintains the HTML and CSS standards. WCAG is not a law itself, but it is the benchmark that laws reference. The current version is WCAG 2.2, published in October 2023, and it is built around four principles. Your content must be:

• Perceivable: Users can perceive the information (alt text for images, captions for video, sufficient contrast).
• Operable: Users can navigate and interact with everything using a keyboard, not just a mouse.
• Understandable: Content is clear, forms have labels, and errors are explained.
• Robust: Your code works with assistive technologies like screen readers.

The law: what UK businesses must comply with

Equality Act 2010 (UK domestic law)

The Equality Act 2010 requires businesses to make “reasonable adjustments” for disabled people. A business website is part of the service you provide, so it falls within this duty. If a disabled customer cannot use your website to browse products, make a booking, or find your contact details, you may be in breach. There is no specific technical standard written into the Act, but WCAG 2.2 Level AA is widely accepted as the benchmark for what “reasonable” looks like.

Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018

If you work with public sector clients, or your website is connected to a public body, these regulations apply directly. They require WCAG 2.2 Level AA compliance (updated from 2.1 in October 2024). Public sector organisations must publish an accessibility statement and fix failures within a reasonable timeframe.

European Accessibility Act (EAA)

The EAA is the big one for private businesses. It came into force on 28 June 2025 across all EU member states. It covers particular products and services sold to consumers in the EU, including online shops and other e-commerce, banking, e-books, transport ticketing and communications services. If your UK business offers any of these to EU customers, it applies to those sales.

Penalties depend on the member state, but they can include fines, orders to stop selling in that market, and public naming. Several member states have already begun compliance checks.

What WCAG 2.2 actually changed

WCAG 2.2 added nine new success criteria on top of what was in WCAG 2.1. Most of them focus on making things easier for people with cognitive disabilities and people who use mobile devices. The ones most relevant to small business websites are:

• Focus Not Obscured (2.4.11): when someone tabs through your site with a keyboard, the element in focus mustn't be hidden behind a sticky header, chat widget or cookie banner.
• Dragging Movements (2.5.7): Any action that requires dragging (like a slider or a sortable list) must also work with a single click or tap. You cannot assume everyone can perform drag gestures.
• Target Size (2.5.8): Clickable targets (buttons, links, form inputs) must be at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels. Small, tightly packed links on mobile are a common failure.
• Consistent Help (3.2.6): If you have a contact method, chat widget, or help link, it must appear in the same location on every page. Moving it around confuses users who rely on consistent navigation.
• Redundant Entry (3.3.7): If a user already entered information in one step of a process (like their name or address), you must not ask for it again in a later step. Pre-fill it or offer to reuse it.

The rest deal with things like accessible authentication (no memory or puzzle test as the only way to log in) and, at the higher AAA level, how prominent focus outlines must be.

The five most common failures (and how to fix them)

The WebAIM Million report scans the top million websites every year. These are the failures it finds most often, and they are all fixable without a full redesign.

1. Low contrast text

Found on 79.1% of home pages. Light grey text on a white background. White text on a light image. Mid-grey on dark grey. These all fail WCAG’s minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text (3:1 for large text).

How to fix it: Use a contrast checker (WebAIM has a free one). Aim for 7:1 if you can; it's easier for everyone to read, not just people with low vision. Your brand colours might need adjusting slightly. A good designer can keep your palette intact while making every text element readable.

2. Missing alt text on images

Found on 55.5% of home pages. When a screen reader encounters an image with no alt text, it either skips it entirely or reads out the file name (which is usually something like “IMG_4392.png”). Neither is helpful.

How to fix it: Every <img> tag needs an alt attribute. Describe what the image shows and why it matters. Decorative images (purely visual, no information) should have alt="" so screen readers skip them. If your site has hundreds of images, start with the ones on your homepage and most-visited pages.

3. Missing form labels

Found on 48.2% of home pages. A contact form with placeholder text (“Enter your name”) instead of a proper <label> element is invisible to screen readers once the user starts typing. The placeholder disappears and the field becomes a mystery.

How to fix it: Every form input needs a <label> linked to it with a for attribute. Placeholder text is fine as a hint, but it is not a substitute for a label. This is one of the easiest fixes on the list.

4. Empty links

Found on 45.4% of home pages. A link with no text, often just an icon inside an <a> tag, is useless to a screen reader user. They hear “link” and have no idea where it goes.

How to fix it: Add an aria-label to the link (e.g., aria-label="Follow us on Twitter") or add visually hidden text inside the link. If you use icon fonts or SVG icons inside links, make sure there is a text alternative.

5. Missing document language

Found on 15.8% of home pages. If your <html> tag does not have a lang attribute, screen readers do not know what language to use for pronunciation. This takes about five seconds to fix.

How to fix it: Change <html> to <html lang="en"> (or "en-GB" for British English). That is it.

A practical accessibility checklist for this week

You do not need to rebuild your website. Start with these steps, which you can work through in a few hours:

Step 1: Run an automated scan. Open your website in Chrome, press F12, go to the Lighthouse tab, and run an Accessibility audit. Also paste your URL into WAVE (free, by WebAIM). These tools catch about a third of real-world issues, but they give you a quick baseline.

Step 2: Keyboard test. Put your mouse in a drawer. Press Tab to move through your site. Can you reach every link, button, and form field? Can you see where the focus is? If you get stuck or lost, so will keyboard-only users.

Step 3: Check your colour contrast. Use the WebAIM Contrast Checker on your main text colours. Normal text needs 4.5:1. Large text (18px bold or 24px regular) needs 3:1.

Step 4: Fix your forms. Make sure every input has a real <label>. Make sure error messages are specific (“Please enter a valid email address” not just “Error”). Make sure the form works with keyboard-only input.

Step 5: Add alt text to your images. Start with the images on your homepage and most-visited pages. Describe what the image shows. Keep it concise but informative.

Step 6: Check your headings. Your page should have exactly one <h1>. Subheadings should follow a logical order (<h2>, then <h3>, etc.) without skipping levels. Screen reader users navigate by headings, so this structure matters.

Why accessibility helps your business (beyond legal compliance)

Accessibility is often framed as a cost or a legal burden. The reality is different.

Better SEO. Search engines and screen readers parse your site in similar ways. Alt text helps Google understand your images. Proper heading structure helps Google understand your content. Semantic HTML helps both. Accessible sites tend to rank higher because they are better structured.

Higher conversion rates. If someone cannot complete your contact form or navigate your pricing page on their phone, they are gone. Accessible design is usable design. The things that help a screen reader user (clear labels, logical structure, readable text) help everyone.

Larger audience. In the UK alone, there are 16 million disabled people. Add temporary impairments (a broken arm, an eye infection, recovering from surgery) and situational ones (bright sunlight on a screen, using a phone one-handed on a train), and the number of people who benefit from accessible design is far larger than most businesses assume.

AEO advantage. AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity read your site the same way screen readers do. Clean, semantic, well-structured content is easier for AI to extract and recommend. If you are investing in Answer Engine Optimisation, accessibility work gets you halfway there.

What a professional accessibility audit involves

Automated tools catch roughly 30% of accessibility issues. The rest require manual testing and human judgment. A professional audit typically covers:

• Automated scanning: Running your site through multiple tools (Lighthouse, WAVE, axe, Pa11y) to catch code-level failures.
• Manual keyboard testing: Navigating every page, form, and interactive element using only a keyboard.
• Screen reader testing: Testing with NVDA (Windows), VoiceOver (Mac/iOS), or TalkBack (Android) to check how content is announced.
• Content review: Checking heading structure, link text, alt text quality, form labels, and error handling.
• Colour and contrast analysis: Verifying that all text meets WCAG contrast ratios, including hover and focus states.
• Mobile accessibility: Checking touch target sizes, pinch-to-zoom support, and responsive layout behaviour.

The output is a prioritised list of issues with specific remediation guidance: what to fix, how to fix it, and which WCAG criterion it violates.

How we build accessible websites

Every website we build at Daedalus Design starts with accessibility in the markup. We use semantic HTML (proper headings, landmarks, lists), ensure keyboard navigation works from the first commit, test colour contrast before finalising any design, and run automated and manual checks before launch. Accessibility isn't an afterthought or a separate phase; it's part of how we write code.

If you already have a website and need to know where you stand, we can run an accessibility audit that tells you exactly what needs fixing and how much work is involved. No jargon, no scare tactics, just a clear list of issues and a plan to fix them.

Frequently asked questions