Understanding Web Accessibility: Making Your UK Micro-Business Website Inclusive and Legally Sound
You’ve put a lot of effort into your website, but have you thought about who might be struggling to use it? Web accessibility isn’t just a technical buzzword; it’s the practice of making your website usable by everyone, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. This includes people with visual impairments, hearing loss, motor disabilities, cognitive differences, or chronic illness.
Accessibility is something I’m deeply passionate about, especially as I work closely with disabled micro-business owner Zoe Hughes from Zebra Business Solutions. A common misconception I encounter is, “my customers aren’t disabled.” The reality is, you can’t tell. Most disabilities and chronic illnesses aren’t visible and your customers are interacting with your website, not you in person. You have no way of knowing if they need a screen reader or keyboard navigation, or have simply given up on your website because they can’t use it at all.
By not having an accessible website, you’re unknowingly closing your doors to a significant portion of the population. Around 16.1 million people, that’s 24% of the British population, have a disability of some form. Can you afford to turn away those people from your business?
For a micro-business in the UK, making your website accessible isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also a crucial part of running an ethical and legally compliant business. It’s about opening your doors to every potential customer.
Why Accessibility Matters for Your Business
Accessibility is a win-win. On one hand, it’s about being a more inclusive brand. By ensuring your website is easy for everyone to use, you’re showing that you value all your customers. This builds a positive reputation and expands your potential audience to a huge portion of the population who might otherwise be excluded.
On the other hand, there’s the legal reality. Here in the UK, the Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination and this extends to the digital world. An inaccessible website could be seen as a form of discrimination, which could lead to legal action. As a business owner, you have a responsibility to make reasonable adjustments to ensure your services, including your website, are accessible.
Simple Steps to Make Your Website More Accessible
You don’t need to be a coding wizard to make a big difference. Here are some straightforward, practical things you can do or ask your web developer to address:
Image Alt Text: For every image on your site, add a short, descriptive piece of text called “alt text.” This text is read aloud by screen readers for users with visual impairments, allowing them to understand the content of the image.
Clear Headings and Structure: Organise your content using proper headings (H1, H2, H3). This creates a logical flow that screen readers can follow, making it much easier for people to navigate your pages without seeing them. Think of it like a table of contents for your page.
Readable Fonts and Colour Contrast: Use fonts that are easy to read and a decent size. Avoid overly stylised or small fonts. Most importantly, ensure there’s a strong colour contrast between your text and the background. This is vital for users with visual impairments or colour blindness.
Keyboard Navigation: Some people can’t use a mouse. Check that a user can navigate your entire website using only the keyboard (using the Tab key, for example). All interactive elements, like buttons and links, should be easily reachable.
Captions for Video and Audio: If you have videos or audio on your site, make sure you provide captions or a full transcript. This is essential for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to understand your content.
Beyond the ethical and legal reasons, making your website accessible also provides a significant boost to your Search Engine Optimisation. Many of the practices that make a website accessible, as outlined above, are the same things that search engines, like Google, look for to understand and rank your content. By making your site more usable for everyone, you’re also making it more discoverable to search engines. It’s a fantastic win-win that turns an inclusive design effort into a powerful marketing tool.
Checking Your Website for Accessibility
After you’ve gone through your website, improving things for accessibility, it’s worth using an online tool or app to check for anything you may have missed. They can’t catch everything but they’re excellent for a first check.
WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool: This is a very popular, free tool available as a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. You can run it on any webpage and it visually highlights accessibility issues directly on the page, explaining what each problem is and how it affects users.
Silktide: This UK-based company offers a free browser extension that can check a webpage for over 200 accessibility issues. It provides an easy-to-understand report and highlights problems like poor colour contrast and missing alt text.
Making Accessibility Part of Your Business
Building an accessible website isn’t a one-time project; it’s a continuous process of improvement. By making it a priority, you’re not just protecting your business from legal risks; you’re also building a more inclusive brand that welcomes and serves everyone.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the idea of accessibility but don’t let that stop you. Every small change you make is a huge step in the right direction. What I’ve found is that once you start looking at your website with inclusivity in mind, it really opens your eyes to all the other ways you can make your business more welcoming to everyone.