Accessibility (a11y)

Accessibility, often abbreviated as a11y, is the design principle that ensures websites, apps and digital services are usable by all visitors, regardless of their physical or cognitive abilities. It involves removing barriers that people with visual, auditory, motor or cognitive impairments face when navigating digital content. In practice, this means that your site works with screen readers, supports keyboard navigation, provides adequate color contrast and keeps content understandable for people with dyslexia or concentration difficulties.

How accessibility works in practice

Accessibility you build in from the initial design phase. You choose colors with a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text so that people with low vision can read text. You add alt text to images, allowing screen readers to tell what's in a picture. Forms get clear labels and error messages, so screen-reader users know exactly what to fill out. Buttons and links are large enough to tap for people with motor limitations. You test whether your site is fully operable using only a keyboard, without a mouse. Each of these measures takes little extra time if you include them from the beginning, but makes a huge difference to thousands of visitors.

Why accessibility is now becoming a legal requirement

In the United States and the European Union, digital accessibility is increasingly being enforced by law. The European Accessibility Act requires many ecommerce stores, banks and service providers to comply with WCAG 2.1 guidelines at level AA starting in 2025. Government sites have been required to do this for some time. For SMEs, this means you have not only a moral, but also a legal responsibility to make your site accessible. Fines are still rare, but claims of users being excluded are increasing. More importantly, without accessibility, you are excluding a substantial portion of your potential customers, including the elderly and those with temporary disabilities such as a broken arm.

What accessibility brings to your business

An accessible site reaches more people and ranks better in search engines. Google appreciates many accessibility measures, such as semantic HTML, clear headlines and fast load times, because they also improve the overall user experience. In practice, Monkey Vision Vision' s web design projects see that clients with a well-accessible site receive fewer support questions and measure higher conversions, especially with older audiences. Accessibility strongly overlaps with user experience: what works well for someone with a disability often works better for everyone. A clear structure, readable text and logical navigation help all visitors reach their goal faster.

Accessibility fits into every phase of your digital presence, from web design to content creation to customer service. The following applications show what you can concretely work on to make your site more accessible while improving reach and conversion.

Accessible navigation and keyboard control

Many visitors with motor limitations or visual impairments do not use a mouse, but navigate with Tab, Enter and arrow keys. An accessible site ensures that all interactive elements, such as menus, forms and buttons, are accessible via keyboard and that the focus indicator is visible. You test this by putting your mouse away and walking through your entire site using only your keyboard. If that doesn't work, you're missing out on sales. In practice, we often see that drop-down menus or chat widgets are not keyboard-accessible, causing some of your visitors to get stuck. A good web design project solves this from day one by adding skip links, logical tab order and ARIA labels.

Readable content for screen readers and dyslexia

Screen readers read websites to blind and visually impaired users. They rely on semantic HTML: headings should really be H1, H2 and H3, not bold text. Alt texts to images should be descriptive, not decorative. Links get clear anchor text such as "View our rates" instead of "click here." For people with dyslexia, it helps not to fully align text, keep line spacing wide and not hide text in images. An ecommerce store with 500 products that lacks alt text not only excludes blind customers but also ranks worse in Google Images. Content marketing that takes readability into account often achieves higher engagement rates.

Color contrast and visual clarity

At least 17% of the Dutch population has some form of color blindness or low vision. If your call-to-action button has too little contrast with the background, these visitors literally won't see it. The WCAG guideline prescribes a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. You test this with free tools like the W3C Contrast Checker. In practice, this often means replacing light gray text on white with dark gray or black, and not relying on color alone to convey information. One B2B service provider that modified its contact form based on contrast rules saw 12% more submissions, simply because more people could now read the error messages.

When accessibility is the right choice and when it is not

Accessibility is always the right choice if you want to reach a broad audience, are legally required or want to position your brand inclusively. It pays off most for ecommerce stores, government sites, healthcare platforms and service providers with an older target audience. Accessibility is not a separate investment, but part of good web design. There is no scenario in which you should deliberately omit accessibility, at most you prioritize certain measures later if your budget is limited. Then start with keyboard navigation, alt-texts and color contrast, because these deliver the most impact with the least effort. Avoid the trap of adding accessibility as the last step: then it becomes expensive and remains half-hearted.