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Make a website more accessible by building it so people can perceive its content, operate its controls, understand its instructions, and use it with assistive technologies. Use WCAG 2.2 as your technical framework, then combine automated checks with keyboard and screen-reader testing and review by people familiar with disability and assistive technology use. No checklist alone can establish that every person can use a site.
Start with WCAG 2.2 and a focused review
The W3C identifies WCAG 2.2 as the latest version of WCAG 2 and recommends using the latest version. Its success criteria are organized under four principles—perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust—and conformance levels A, AA, and AAA. The criteria are testable, but some require human judgment. Use the W3C WCAG 2 overview to orient your work and the WCAG 2.2 Quick Reference to review criteria. A level is not a guarantee that every user or task is covered.
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For a practical starting sequence, choose representative pages and tasks: navigation, a key form, a content page with images or media, and a common mobile or narrow-viewport state. Check them against relevant WCAG criteria, fix barriers, and recheck. This is a useful team workflow, not a sequence prescribed by W3C.
Make visual content perceivable
Use text alternatives that match the image’s purpose
For an informative image, write alternative text that communicates the information a reader needs from it in context. For a functional image, describe what happens when it is activated, rather than merely listing its appearance. If an image is decorative and adds no information or function, use empty alternative text (for example, alt="") so assistive technology can skip it instead of announcing a redundant description. The right alternative depends on the surrounding content and the image’s role.
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Do not make color carry meaning alone
Pair color with another cue, such as a text label, shape, icon, or pattern. For example, identify an error with text as well as a red border; do not expect users to infer its meaning from color alone.
Check contrast and visual presentation
Check foreground and background contrast for text and interface elements, including text placed over images and labels inside buttons. Keep controls recognizable, group related content with clear headings and spacing, and ensure layouts remain usable at different viewport sizes. For design guidance on contrast, color, navigation, feedback, and responsive presentation, see W3C’s Designing for Web Accessibility.
Make navigation and controls work without a mouse
W3C summarizes the keyboard guideline as: “Make all functionality available from a keyboard.” Test the whole task, not just whether a page responds to a key: move through links and controls, operate them, and confirm that users can tell where focus is and can continue or leave an interaction. Ensure custom controls work from a keyboard as well as having meaningful names and roles for assistive technologies. Use semantic HTML where it provides the behavior and meaning users need.
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Keep navigation clear and consistent. Content that starts automatically—such as media or movement—needs a way for users to control it. These practices support operability, but a short keyboard pass is not a substitute for checking the applicable WCAG criteria. See W3C’s Web Accessibility tips and the WCAG 2.2 Quick Reference.
Write understandable content and usable forms
Give content a meaningful structure
Use headings to describe the sections that follow, in a logical hierarchy. Write instructions that explain what a task requires, and identify required information before people submit a form. Structure in the code should support a sensible reading order rather than relying on visual placement alone.
Label fields and make errors actionable
Associate each form control with a visible label. In HTML, a label’s for value should match the control’s id, for example:
<label for="email">Email address</label>
<input id="email" name="email" type="email" autocomplete="email">When a value is missing or invalid, identify the affected field and explain how to correct it in text; do not rely on color alone. Make requirements and errors clear enough that users can avoid and recover from mistakes. W3C’s Developing for Web Accessibility covers labels, structure, language, error handling, reading order, keyboard support, and custom controls.
Build pages that assistive technologies can interpret
Use markup that conveys the meaning and structure of the content, and preserve a code order that makes sense when read linearly or with assistive technology. Give interactive controls accessible names and meanings; do not assume a visual appearance alone communicates what a control does. Declare the page’s language and mark changes in language where appropriate, so technology can interpret text correctly. Custom interactive elements need particular care: make their roles and names available to assistive technologies and ensure they are keyboard-operable.
For audio and video, provide captions and other alternatives appropriate to the content. Review media controls as well as the media itself. W3C’s accessibility tips and Web Accessibility Tutorials offer practical implementation guidance.
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Test with tools and people
Automated accessibility software can flag some detectable failures and help teams repeat checks, but a clean scan does not establish that a website is accessible. Some WCAG success criteria require human testers, and software cannot by itself judge whether alternative text is useful in context, whether instructions are understandable, or whether a real task works well for people using assistive technology.
Use several methods: check relevant WCAG criteria, run automated scans as an aid, operate representative flows by keyboard, and review pages with screen readers and other assistive technology. Include usability testing with people who understand disability and web use. W3C recommends qualitative review and usability testing; see Introduction to Understanding WCAG 2.2. Its tutorials can help with implementation. Recheck after fixes, because one change can affect other parts of a task or page.
Does a legal deadline apply to your organization?
There is no single deadline in the material cited here that applies to every business, website, or jurisdiction. In the United States, the Department of Justice’s current Title II guidance gives extended compliance dates for state and local government entities: April 26, 2027, for entities serving populations of 50,000 or more, and April 26, 2028, for entities serving populations below 50,000 and special district governments. These dates concern the covered government entities under that rule; do not apply them automatically to a private business or another jurisdiction. Consult the DOJ’s Title II web and mobile application rule guidance and obtain legal advice for decisions about your organization.
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The DOJ’s general Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA is dated March 18, 2022. DOJ says that guidance does not reflect the later state and local government rule, and that the guidance is not a final agency action and has no legally binding effect. For current obligations, check official rule materials rather than relying on a general checklist or an older summary.
Capture screenshots without mistaking them for an accessibility audit
A screenshot can help a team inspect visual layout across pages or viewport sizes, but an image does not reveal keyboard operation, accessible names, reading order, or whether a screen-reader user can complete a task. Treat visual captures as one aid among the evaluation methods above, not as proof of accessibility. ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server for developers; its captures can support visual review, while accessibility still needs criteria-based checks and human evaluation.
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One GET request can capture a page as an image or PDF. See the ScreenshotNeo documentation for API options and response details.
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