What is Web accessibility?
Also called: a11y, Accessibility
The short answer
Web accessibility means building sites everyone can use, including people who are blind, deaf, have limited movement or cognitive differences, whatever device or assistive technology they use.
What people say: “ADA compliant website”.
Web accessibility, explained
It is built from ordinary good practice: real headings and buttons, text alternatives for images, enough contrast, full keyboard support, captions and respect for motion settings.
Accessible sites are also easier for search engines and AI to read, because both depend on the same meaningful structure.
Questions people ask about Web accessibility
What is Web accessibility?
Web accessibility means building sites everyone can use, including people who are blind, deaf, have limited movement or cognitive differences, whatever device or assistive technology they use.
Is website accessibility required by law?
In many countries and sectors it is, commonly measured against WCAG; this is general information, not legal advice.
Do accessibility overlay widgets make a site compliant?
No. Overlays cannot fix inaccessible code; the underlying site has to be built accessibly.
Related terms
WCAG is the international standard for web accessibility from the W3C, organised around four principles (perceivable, operable, understandable, robust) with levels A, AA and AAA.
Screen readerA screen reader is software that reads a page aloud or outputs it to braille, letting blind and low-vision people navigate by headings, links and landmarks.
Semantic HTMLSemantic HTML uses elements for their meaning, such as header, nav, main, article, button and h1 to h6, instead of generic divs, so machines understand the page.
Colour contrastColour contrast is the difference in brightness between text and its background; WCAG AA asks for at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text and 3 to 1 for large text.
Keyboard navigationKeyboard navigation means every link, button, menu and form on a page can be reached and used with the keyboard alone, in a logical order.
Part of the Web Encyclopedia by Apex Flow Digital. Definitions are general knowledge, kept current, with no invented statistics.