Web accessibility is one of those topics that founders assume their developer is handling and developers assume their designer is handling and designers assume the brand guidelines cover it. None of those assumptions are usually true. WCAG 2.2 · the current accessibility standard · is not a developer-only checklist. It is a set of decisions that get made before anyone writes code, and most of them are made or broken by whoever approves the design.
Why This Now Matters Commercially
Accessibility lawsuits in the United States crossed four thousand filings in 2024 and continue rising. Indian regulations are following the same trajectory. Beyond compliance, accessible sites convert better, rank better in search, and feel more polished to every visitor · not just those with disabilities. Inaccessible sites quietly lose traffic and never know why.
The Founder's WCAG 2.2 Checklist
- Colour contrast · body text must reach a 4.5:1 contrast ratio against its background. Most brand-led sites fail this with pale grey on white.
- Text resizable to 200 percent · users must be able to zoom without breaking the layout. Many fixed-pixel designs collapse at 150 percent.
- Keyboard navigable · every interactive element · menus, forms, modals · must be reachable and operable without a mouse.
- Focus visible · the keyboard focus indicator must be obvious. Removing it for aesthetic reasons fails the standard outright.
- Form labels and errors · every input needs a real label, every error needs a plain explanation, every required field needs an accessible marker.
- Alt text on images · meaningful alternative text for every image that carries information. Decorative images need empty alt attributes, not missing ones.
- Heading order · pages must use heading levels in order. Skipping from H1 to H4 for visual reasons breaks screen reader navigation.
- Link text that makes sense out of context · "click here" and "read more" fail. "Read the full pricing guide" passes.
- Captions and transcripts · any video with spoken content needs captions. Any audio-only content needs a transcript.
- Time limits · forms or sessions with time limits need a way to extend them.
The Cheapest Tests That Catch the Most
Three tests will catch eighty percent of accessibility problems before they ship. Run the site through Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools. Tab through every page using only the keyboard. Read every page with VoiceOver or NVDA turned on. These take less than an hour, require no specialised training, and will surface the most common failures faster than any audit document.
Where Accessibility Pays You Back
Accessible sites have better semantic structure, which search engines reward. Accessible forms convert higher because clear labels and error messages help every user, not just users with disabilities. Accessible colour contrast looks more professional. The brands that treated accessibility as a compliance burden are the ones now redoing their sites. The brands that built for it from the start did not have to do anything special · they just built websites properly.