An accessible website is one people can use however they use the web: with a keyboard instead of a mouse, a screen reader instead of their eyes, the page zoomed to 400 percent, or a small phone in bright sun. It is also a website that loads clean, reads clearly and ranks better, because most accessibility fixes are good structure.
What WCAG 2.2 AA means in practice
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA is the standard we build and maintain to. In plain terms it asks for:
- Text people can read: enough contrast between text and background, including muted text, text on photos and focus rings.
- Everything works from a keyboard: menus, forms, dialogs and buttons, with a visible focus ring and a sensible tab order, starting with a “skip to main content” link.
- Structure a screen reader can follow: one main heading per page, headings in order, landmarks for the header, navigation, main content and footer, and real buttons and links.
- Forms that explain themselves: visible labels, the right input types, errors announced next to the field.
- Images described: alt text that says what a meaningful image shows; decorative images marked so screen readers skip them.
- Pages that reflow: nothing scrolls sideways at a 320 pixel width, which is also what a laptop looks like at 400 percent zoom.
- Targets big enough to tap, and motion that respects the “reduce motion” setting.
What we check, and how
Each review runs automated checks with axe, the open-source accessibility engine, in a real browser at nine screen sizes: three phones, two tablets in portrait, two in landscape, a laptop and a desktop. Automated tools cannot judge everything (whether alt text makes sense, whether the focus order is logical), so a person then goes through the key pages with only a keyboard, checks the focus order, opens and closes every menu and dialog, and fills in every form.
New content gets the same treatment. A product description with a heading in the wrong place, a new photo without alt text, or a button added in a color that fails contrast is caught at the next review.
What is included
- A monthly review of the site’s main page types and any new pages.
- Reasonable corrective maintenance: we fix what we find in the site’s code and content.
- A short report of what was checked, what failed and what was fixed.
- An accessibility statement page for your site, with a way for visitors to report a problem.
This service supports the standards above; it is not a guarantee of legal compliance, and we say so in the agreement.
Who needs it
Every business benefits, but it matters most for online stores, member sites with logins and forms, and organizations whose audience includes older visitors or people using assistive technology. Our own custom web apps, such as staff order screens and member databases, are built to the same standard from the start.
Accessibility on our builds
Every site we build is checked against WCAG 2.2 AA at all nine sizes before launch, with zero serious or critical issues allowed. Maintenance keeps it there as the site changes. If your site was built elsewhere, we start with a full review so you know what you are dealing with, then fix the worst problems first. It pairs naturally with managed hosting, since the same people who maintain the site also keep it accessible.
