What your website must do

Text on your website must be easy to read against its background. Small text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, and large text (18pt or 14pt bold) needs at least 3:1. This helps people with low vision or color blindness read your content.

Buttons, icons, form input borders, and other interactive elements must have at least a 3:1 contrast ratio against their background. People with low vision need to be able to see and identify controls — not just read text.

Every meaningful image must have a written description (alt text) so screen reader software used by blind users can describe it. Purely decorative images should be marked to skip. Without alt text, blind users get zero information from your images.

Any pre-recorded video with spoken audio must have synchronized captions. This is required for deaf and hard-of-hearing users. Auto-generated captions (YouTube's default) do not meet this standard — they must be accurate and reviewed.

Pre-recorded videos must have audio descriptions — narration describing what's happening visually — so blind users can follow visual-only content like charts, demonstrations, or on-screen text. Think of it as a narrator for what the camera shows.

Never use color as the only way to convey information. For example, don't mark required form fields with just a red border — add a label like 'Required'. Colorblind users can't distinguish red from green. Always add a second signal (text, icon, pattern).

Every function on your website must work using only a keyboard — Tab, Enter, arrow keys, spacebar — without requiring a mouse. This is essential for people with motor disabilities and blind users who rely on screen readers. If it can't be clicked, it can't be done.

Websites must provide a 'Skip to main content' link at the very top of the page. This lets keyboard users bypass the navigation menu — without it, a user pressing Tab must go through every nav link on every page before reaching the actual content. This page has one — press Tab to see it.

When users navigate with a keyboard, they must always be able to see which element has focus — usually shown as an outline or highlight around a button or link. Many designers remove this outline for aesthetics, which makes keyboard navigation nearly impossible for people who can't use a mouse.

Link text must describe where the link goes. Generic text like 'Click here' or 'Read more' is inaccessible — screen reader users navigate a list of all links on a page, and 'Click here' gives zero context. Links should read like 'Download the 2024 Compliance Report (PDF)'.

Every input field in a form must have a visible label that is programmatically connected to the field. Placeholder text that disappears when you type does NOT count as a label. Screen readers must be able to announce what each field asks for — otherwise blind users fill out forms blind.

When a user submits a form and makes an error, the error must be identified in text — not just with a red border — and must describe what the problem is. Screen readers need to announce the error. 'Please fix the errors' is not enough; 'Email address is invalid' is.

Pages must use headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) in a logical hierarchy to organize content — not just for visual styling. Screen reader users navigate pages by jumping between headings, like a table of contents. Using H3 for font size while skipping H2 breaks this entirely.

Every page must have a unique, descriptive title (the text shown in the browser tab). 'Home | JustCompliant' tells users exactly where they are. Identical titles like 'Welcome' on every page make navigation very difficult for screen reader users.

Dropdown navigation menus must work entirely by keyboard. Users must open, navigate, and close dropdowns using Tab, arrow keys, and Enter/Space. Hover-only dropdowns that can't be activated by keyboard are among the most common accessibility violations.

Image sliders and carousels are among the most commonly inaccessible components. They must: (1) be keyboard navigable, (2) have a pause button if they auto-play, (3) have descriptive labels per slide, and (4) announce slide changes to screen readers. Most third-party carousel plugins fail all four.

Content that appears on hover must also appear on keyboard focus, stay visible long enough to be read, be dismissible with Escape, and allow the user to hover over the tooltip itself. This page's compliance badges are built to meet all four requirements.

PDFs linked from your website — menus, brochures, forms, contracts — must be accessible. This means tagged PDF structure, selectable text (not a scanned image), alt text for images inside the PDF, and fillable forms that work with screen readers. A scan of a paper document is completely inaccessible.

Buttons, links, and interactive controls on mobile must be at least 44×44 CSS pixels — roughly the size of a fingertip. Tiny buttons placed too close together cause errors for people with motor disabilities or tremors. This is one of the most commonly failed mobile requirements.

Your website must never disable mobile zoom. Many websites use a meta tag that blocks pinch-to-zoom — this makes the site unusable for people with low vision who need to enlarge content. Removing the restriction is a one-line fix, and it's one of the most common violations.