There’s a moment we see fairly often in our work. A client comes to us having just read something about web accessibility — maybe it was an article, maybe it was a newsletter, maybe it was a conversation with someone at a conference — and they arrive with that look. You know the one. Equal parts curious and overwhelmed. “I know I’m supposed to care about this,” they say, “but I honestly don’t know where to start.”
That feeling makes complete sense. There is a lot written about web accessibility, and most of it either reads like a legal document or skips straight to the scary parts. We’d like to try something different. This is our plain-English attempt to explain what web accessibility actually is, why it genuinely matters, and what the core things are that every website should address. No jargon. No alarm bells. Just a clear picture of something that, at its heart, is really about one simple idea — building websites that work for everyone.
Start Here: What Web Accessibility Actually Means
Imagine you walk into a beautifully designed store. The displays are stunning, the lighting is perfect, and everything is thoughtfully arranged. But there’s no ramp at the entrance, the signage is too small to read from a distance, and the checkout counter is impossible to reach from a wheelchair. The store looks great. But not everyone can use it.
A website with accessibility problems is the same thing, just online. It might look polished and professional on the surface while quietly making it difficult — or impossible — for a meaningful portion of your visitors to actually use it. People who are blind and rely on screen readers. People with low vision who need higher contrast to read your text. People who can’t use a mouse so have to navigate entirely by keyboard. People with cognitive disabilities who need clear, consistent structure to find their way around.
Accessibility is simply the practice of building websites so that people with these and other types of disabilities can use them just as effectively as everyone else.
Where the Guidelines Come From
Here’s something that immediately takes the pressure off: everything you’ve ever read about web accessibility standards traces back to one single source. Not dozens of competing rulebooks. One.
That source is the World Wide Web Consortium, known as W3C. They publish a set of guidelines called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines — or WCAG (pronounced “wuh-cag,” if you want to sound like you’ve been in the industry for years). The current version is WCAG 2.2, published in October 2023. Every article, every checklist, every audit tool, and every law that references web accessibility is ultimately pointing back to this one document.
The reason the topic can feel so overwhelming is that hundreds of people have written their own interpretation of the same guidelines — each with their own angle, their own emphasis, and their own level of alarm. Once you know that there is one clear, stable standard at the center of all of it, the noise quiets down considerably. There’s a target. It doesn’t move around. And it’s more achievable than most of what you’ve probably read would suggest.
Where the Standards Currently Stand
For those who want to know where the formal benchmarks are, here’s a simple picture.
WCAG organizes its guidelines into three conformance levels: A, AA, and AAA. Level A represents the most basic accessibility requirements. Level AA is the widely accepted standard — it’s the level referenced by the Americans with Disabilities Act, the European Accessibility Act, and most accessibility policies for government and public sector organizations. Level AAA represents the highest level of accessibility and, while admirable to aim for, is not required for most websites.
For practical purposes, Level AA compliance is the goal. It’s achievable, it’s meaningful, and it represents a genuine commitment to making your website work for the broadest possible audience.
WCAG 2.2, the current version, builds on everything that came before it and adds refinements for mobile users, people with cognitive disabilities, and people with low vision in particular. If your website was built with accessibility in mind using earlier standards, it’s likely already much of the way there.
The Four Things Every Accessible Website Must Be
WCAG organizes everything around four core principles. We like to think of them as four plain questions that you can ask about any website.
Can people detect your content?
This is about making sure that the information on your website can be perceived by everyone regardless of which senses they may be lacking. If someone can’t see your images, do they still get the information those images convey? If someone can’t hear your video, are captions available? Can your text be read by a screen reader? Can it be read at all, given the contrast between the text color and the background behind it?
Practical things this covers: adding descriptive alt text to images, captioning videos, and making sure your color combinations pass basic contrast standards.
Can people use your website?
This is about making sure people can actually navigate and interact with your site — even if they can’t use a mouse. Many people with motor disabilities navigate entirely by keyboard. Some use voice commands. Some use switch devices. If your navigation, buttons, and forms only work with a mouse, you’ve quietly locked a portion of your visitors out.
Practical things this covers: making sure that every interactive element is reachable and usable by keyboard alone, avoiding content that flashes rapidly, and giving users enough time to complete tasks without being rushed.
Can people understand it?
A website can be technically operable and still be genuinely confusing. This principle is about clarity — plain language, consistent navigation, helpful error messages, and form fields that actually tell you what information they’re asking for.
If someone fills out a form incorrectly and the error message just says “invalid input,” that’s an understanding problem. If your navigation changes structure from page to page, that’s an understanding problem. If your content is written at a reading level that assumes a graduate degree, that may be an understanding problem depending on your audience.
Does it work with the tools people rely on?
This last principle is about making sure your website plays nicely with assistive technologies — screen readers, magnification tools, voice navigation software — and that it continues to do so as those tools evolve. This is largely about clean, well-structured code and proper use of HTML standards.
The most common practical expression of this is heading structure. Screen reader users often navigate a page by jumping between headings the way a sighted person might scan subheadings in an article. If your headings are chosen for how they look rather than their hierarchy — if you jump from a main title straight to a small subheading several levels down — the logical structure that assistive tools depend on falls apart.
We will go into more depth on this subject in the next post.
Accessibility Helps More People Than You Might Expect
One of the things we find most interesting about accessibility work is how wide the benefits actually reach. The accommodations built for people with disabilities quietly improve the experience for a much broader group.
Consider captions on videos. They exist for people who are deaf or hard of hearing — but they’re also used by people watching in a noisy coffee shop, people learning English as a second language, and people who simply prefer to read along. Consider high contrast text. It’s essential for people with low vision — but it also benefits anyone squinting at their phone in bright sunlight. Consider clean heading structure. It’s critical for screen reader users — but it also helps search engines understand and index your content more accurately.
Good accessibility, in many ways, is just good design. It makes things clearer, easier to navigate, and more usable for everyone who visits — regardless of ability.
Industries Where Accessibility Matters Most to the People You Serve
Accessibility matters for every website — but there are industries where getting it right carries particular weight, simply because of who depends on those websites and what they need from them.
Government agencies at all levels — from municipal websites to county portals to state departments — serve everyone in their community, including a significant portion of people with disabilities who rely on those services daily. Online forms, permit applications, meeting agendas, and budget documents all need to be accessible to the full range of people those agencies exist to serve. The ADA Title II rule speaks directly to this, covering state and local government entities and the digital services they provide.
School districts and educational institutions have students and families counting on them for information that directly affects their children’s education — enrollment forms, curriculum materials, board policies, and administrative communications. When any of those are inaccessible, families with disabilities are quietly excluded from conversations and decisions that affect them just as much as everyone else.
Healthcare organizations carry a particular responsibility given the nature of what they communicate. Patient intake forms, consent documents, health education materials, and appointment information aren’t optional reading — they’re the foundation of someone’s care experience. Making sure that information is accessible to every patient isn’t just good practice — it’s fundamental to what healthcare is for.
Financial institutions and organizations receiving federal funding operate under Section 508 requirements, which extend accessibility expectations broadly across the services and information they provide digitally.
And beyond any specific industry or regulatory framework, any organization that serves the public benefits from asking honestly whether the people who need them most can actually reach them online. That’s the question at the heart of accessibility, regardless of the sector.
A Good Place to Land
Accessibility isn’t a project you finish and check off a list. It’s more like the quality of care that gets woven into how a website is built and maintained over time. The fundamentals — the six common issues, the four core principles — are a very solid place to start. Address those, and your website is already more inclusive than the vast majority of what’s out there.
We think about accessibility the same way we think about good writing or thoughtful design. It’s not about following rules for the sake of rules. It’s about respecting the people who show up at your door — all of them — and making sure they can actually come inside.
That feels like a pretty good reason to care.
The Bottom Line
Website accessibility isn’t just about avoiding lawsuits or checking compliance boxes. It’s about doing right by the people you serve—whether they’re constituents, customers, or community members.
The good news? You don’t have to figure this out alone. The requirements are clear, the deadlines are set, and there are people (like us) who’ve navigated these waters before and can help you chart the course.
If you’re wondering where your website stands or what your next steps should be, let’s talk. We’re happy to have a conversation about your specific situation—no pressure, no jargon, just practical guidance on how to move forward.
Because at the end of the day, accessibility is about making sure everyone has a seat at the table. And that’s something worth getting right.
Need help navigating website accessibility requirements? Contact Artmil to schedule a consultation. We’ll help you understand where you stand and create a practical plan to get where you need to be.
References
[1] Accessibility.Works. “Study Finds Only 5.2% Websites Pass WCAG for ADA or EAA Compliance.”
[2] U.S. Department of Justice. “Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps.”
https://www.ada.gov/resources/2024-03-08-web-rule
[3] W3C. “WCAG 2 Overview – Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.”
https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag
[4] WebAIM. “The WebAIM Million – 2025 Report on Website Accessibility.”
https://webaim.org/projects/million
[5] Martin Brothers ADA Compliance. “15 Common Website Accessibility Issues 2025.”
[6] Accessibility.Works. “2025 WCAG & ADA Website Compliance Requirements.”
https://www.accessibility.works/blog/2025-wcag-ada-website-compliance-standards-requirements
[7] Flipsnack. “PDF Accessibility – The Best Way to Make a PDF Accessible Today.”
https://blog.flipsnack.com/pdf-accessibility-a-complete-guide
[8] Accessibility.Works. “2025 WCAG & ADA Website Compliance Requirements.”
https://www.accessibility.works/blog/2025-wcag-ada-website-compliance-standards-requirements
This blog post provides general information about website accessibility requirements. For specific legal advice, consult with an accessibility compliance attorney.