Website accessibility (WCAG): a 2025 guide - Zephyra Studio

Website accessibility (WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) means the site can be used by people with visual impairments, motor limitations, or other disabilities, typically with a screen reader or keyboard-only navigation. This is not just a legal question in some jurisdictions, it is also a bigger market for you, the share of the population with some form of disability is not negligible. Here are the basic steps that change accessibility the most.

Colour contrast: readability before aesthetics

The WCAG AA standard (the most common target level) requires a minimum contrast of 4.5:1 between text and background for regular text, 3:1 for large text. Modern "minimalist" design with light-grey text on a white background often falls below this threshold, it looks elegant to the designer but is hard to read for many visitors, not just those with visual impairments.

Contrast-checking tools (free, e.g. the WebAIM Contrast Checker) give a quick, objective check without guessing "is this readable enough".

Alt text on images: a description, not a keyword

Alt text describes an image for someone who cannot see it (a screen reader reads it aloud). A common mistake: alt text stuffed with keywords for SEO ("hair salon Belgrade best hairdresser") instead of an actual description of the image ("a woman with a short haircut in a hair salon"), this hurts both accessibility (does not describe the image) and SEO (Google recognises the spam pattern).

Decorative images (carrying no informative value) can have an empty alt attribute (alt="") so a screen reader skips them, instead of reading something unnecessary.

Keyboard navigation: does the site work without a mouse

Some visitors cannot use a mouse (motor limitations) and navigate exclusively with a keyboard (Tab, Enter, arrow keys). The test is simple: try using the whole site (menu, forms, buttons) with only the keyboard, no mouse clicks at all. A common problem: focus (the visual indicator of which element is currently selected) is invisible or removed via CSS, so the user has no idea where they are on the page.

Heading structure and semantic HTML

Screen readers use the heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3) to give a visitor a "map" of the page without reading everything in order, skipping levels (H1 straight to H3, no H2 in between) or using headings purely for visual style (large, bold text formatted as an H2 even though it is not really a section heading) breaks that map. Using real HTML elements (a button instead of a div styled to look like one, nav for navigation) also helps screen readers understand structure without extra description.

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Key takeaways

• A minimum 4.5:1 contrast for regular text (WCAG AA) - light-grey text on a white background often falls below this threshold.
• Alt text should describe an image for someone who cannot see it, not be a pile of SEO keywords.
• A keyboard-navigation test (no mouse) quickly reveals problems a visual review does not show.
• The heading hierarchy (H1-H3) gives screen readers a map of the page, skipping levels breaks that map.

Conclusion

Full WCAG compliance is a substantial technical undertaking, but the basic steps above cover most of the real-world impact for a reasonable effort. Our GDPR and accessibility service includes a baseline WCAG check (contrast, alt text, keyboard navigation) as a standard part of building a site.