Website Accessibility Basics for Small Businesses
Website accessibility basics for small businesses: simple steps like clear text, alt text and keyboard use that help everyone, including disabled visitors.
Website accessibility means making sure everyone can use your site, including people with disabilities. The basics are easy to start: readable text, strong colour contrast, descriptions for images, and a site that works without a mouse. These steps help all your visitors, not only a few.
Who benefits
Accessibility is not a small niche. Think about the range of people who might visit your site.
- Someone who is blind and uses a screen reader, a tool that reads the page aloud
- Someone who is colour blind and cannot tell some colours apart
- Someone with a tremor who finds small buttons hard to tap
- Someone who is deaf and needs captions on a video
- An older person who needs larger text
- Someone with a broken arm using one hand
- Anyone looking at a phone in bright sunlight
Fixing for these cases makes the site easier for every visitor.
Why it is worth doing
- More customers can use your site. If a person cannot read or use it, they cannot buy from you.
- It often helps search. Clear headings, descriptions and tidy structure also make pages easier for search engines to understand.
- It reflects well on you. A site that works for everyone shows care.
- Rules may apply. Some countries and sectors have accessibility laws. Check what applies to you.
The basics, step by step
1. Use clear, readable text
- Choose a font size that is comfortable to read on a phone
- Keep paragraphs short
- Use plain language
- Avoid long blocks of capital letters
2. Check colour contrast
Contrast is the difference between text colour and background colour. Light grey text on white is hard to read for many people. Dark text on a light background, or the reverse, works best.
Do not rely on colour alone to carry meaning. If a form error is only shown in red, a colour blind person may miss it. Add a written message too.
3. Add alt text to images
Alt text is a short description of an image, added in your site editor. A screen reader reads it aloud.
- Describe what matters. "Plumber fixing a kitchen sink" is useful.
- Keep it short.
- If an image is only decoration, it can be left without alt text.
- If an image contains words, repeat those words in the alt text or in the page.
4. Use real headings
Headings (the big and small titles on a page) should be in order. Use one main title, then sub-headings under it. Screen readers let users jump from heading to heading, like a table of contents. Do not just make text bold to look like a heading.
5. Make links and buttons clear
- Write link text that makes sense alone. "Read our pricing guide" is better than "click here".
- Make buttons large enough to tap, a point also covered in mobile-first website design.
6. Make sure it works with a keyboard
Some people cannot use a mouse. They move through a page with the Tab key. Test this yourself.
- Click in the page and press Tab repeatedly.
- Can you reach every link, button and form field?
- Can you see which item is selected?
- Can you open and close menus?
If you get stuck anywhere, so will they.
7. Label your forms
Every field should have a visible label such as "Name" or "Phone". Do not use grey hint text inside the box as the only label, since it vanishes when you start typing. Error messages should say what went wrong and how to fix it.
8. Caption videos
If you have video with speech, add captions. They help people who are deaf, and people watching with the sound off. Where possible, avoid videos that play on their own.
A quick self-check
Spend fifteen minutes on this.
- Zoom your browser in to a large size. Does the page still work?
- Look at your site in grayscale. Can you still read everything?
- Tab through the page with your keyboard.
- Read your image descriptions. Do they make sense?
- Check that headings run in order.
Common mistakes
- Text in images with no description
- Very light grey text
- Menus that only open on mouse hover
- Auto-playing sound or video
- Pop-ups that cannot be closed with a keyboard
Where it fits in a redesign
Accessibility is easiest to build in from the start. If you plan to rebuild your site, include it in the brief, and keep your search visibility safe by following how to redesign without losing Google rankings.
How Social Buzz can help
We build sites with accessible basics in place, such as readable text, contrast, labelled forms and keyboard use. If you already have a site, we can run a simple review and list the fixes in plain words. See our website service page or email info@social-buzz.app.
Questions people ask
What is website accessibility?
Website accessibility means building a site that people with disabilities can use. That includes people who are blind, deaf, have limited movement, or find small text and low contrast hard to read.
Why does accessibility matter for a small business?
It lets more customers use your site, and many accessibility fixes also make the site easier for everyone. Some places also have laws about it, so check the rules where you operate.
What is alt text?
Alt text is a short written description of an image. Screen readers read it aloud to people who cannot see the picture, and it appears if the image fails to load.
Do I need an expert to make my site accessible?
Not for the basics. Clear text, good contrast, alt text and a site that works with a keyboard are things most owners can check. A review by a specialist helps with bigger sites.
Fast, clear websites that turn visitors into customers.
We design and build websites that load fast on a phone, explain what you do in seconds, and are easy for Google and AI assistants to read. You get a site you can update yourself.
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