Website accessibility: making your site usable for everyone

Imagine trying to book a clinic appointment when you cannot see the screen clearly, cannot use a mouse, or rely on a screen reader that announces "button, button, image" with no further detail. For many people this is an everyday experience on business websites, and it usually happens because nobody thought about it during design, not because anyone meant to exclude them.

The UAE refers to people with disabilities as People of Determination, and accessibility is part of how organisations here are expected to serve them. It also affects a much wider group: older relatives using larger text, someone with a broken wrist, or a visitor reading in harsh sunlight. Designing for them makes the site better for everyone.

What is website accessibility?

Website accessibility is the practice of making websites usable by people with a wide range of abilities, including visual, hearing, motor, speech and cognitive impairments. It covers how content is written and structured, how the interface is designed, and how the code is built so assistive technologies can interpret it.

People use the web in different ways. Some navigate with a keyboard only, some use screen readers that read content aloud, some zoom to 200 percent or more, and some use voice control. An accessible site works with all of these.

What is WCAG and which level should you aim for?

WCAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, is the internationally recognised standard for web accessibility, published by the W3C. The current version is WCAG 2.2, and most organisations aim for level AA.

WCAG is organised around four principles: content must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. You do not need to memorise the guidelines, but your designers and developers should work to them.

Requirements vary by country and sector. Government entities in the UAE and businesses selling into markets such as the EU may face formal obligations, so confirm what applies to you with the relevant authority or a legal adviser.

Why does website accessibility matter for businesses?

Accessibility matters because it widens your audience, reduces friction for every visitor and supports your search visibility. The business benefits are practical:

• More customers: people who struggle with inaccessible sites simply go elsewhere.
• Better usability: clear labels, good contrast and logical structure help everyone complete tasks faster.
• SEO support: descriptive headings, alt text and meaningful link text help search engines and AI systems understand your pages.
• Reputation: inclusive design reflects well on your brand, particularly in healthcare, education and government-facing work.
• Reduced risk: building to recognised standards makes it easier to meet contractual or regulatory requirements.

What are the most common accessibility problems on websites?

The most common problems are low colour contrast, missing image descriptions, forms without labels and features that do not work without a mouse. Others we regularly find include:

• Light grey text on white, or text placed over busy images.
• Icons and buttons with no text label, such as a WhatsApp icon a screen reader announces only as "link".
• Headings chosen for their size rather than structure, skipping from H1 to H4.
• Links that just say "read more" or "click here".
• Menus and pop-ups that trap keyboard users or cannot be closed.
• Autoplaying video or carousels with no pause control.
• Error messages shown only in red, with no text explaining what went wrong.
• Arabic pages missing the correct language and direction settings, so screen readers pronounce them incorrectly.

How do you make a website accessible? A practical checklist

Start with the fixes that remove the biggest barriers for the most people.

Content

• Write descriptive alt text for meaningful images, and leave it empty for purely decorative ones.
• Use a logical heading structure that reflects the content outline.
• Make link text describe the destination.
• Provide captions for videos and transcripts for audio.
• Write in plain language with short sentences.

Design

• Meet WCAG AA contrast ratios for text and important interface elements.
• Never rely on colour alone to convey meaning.
• Make tap targets comfortably large and well spaced.
• Show a clear, visible focus outline for keyboard users.
• Ensure layouts still work when text is enlarged.

Development

• Use proper HTML elements: real buttons, links, lists and form labels.
• Make every feature usable by keyboard alone, in a logical order.
• Set the page language correctly, including lang and dir attributes for Arabic.
• Use ARIA attributes only where native HTML cannot do the job.
• Announce form errors and status messages to assistive technologies.

How do you test website accessibility?

Test with a combination of automated tools and manual checks. Automated tools are fast and useful, but they only catch part of the issues. They cannot judge whether alt text is meaningful or whether a journey makes sense.

1. Run an automated checker such as Lighthouse, axe or WAVE on key templates.
2. Put the mouse away and complete key tasks with only the keyboard: navigate the menu, fill a form, open and close pop-ups.
3. Try a screen reader, such as VoiceOver on iPhone and Mac or NVDA on Windows, on your main pages in both English and Arabic.
4. Zoom the browser to 200 percent and check nothing overlaps or disappears.
5. Where possible, ask people who use assistive technology to test real tasks.

Be cautious about "one-line" accessibility overlay widgets that promise instant compliance. They do not fix underlying code problems and can interfere with the assistive tools people already use.

When should accessibility be considered in a project?

From the very start. Accessibility is far cheaper to build in during wireframing and design than to retrofit into a finished site. Include it in your brief, ask agencies how they test for it, and make it part of acceptance criteria before launch. Good accessibility and good UI/UX design basics overlap heavily, so the same process improves both.

How Upscaleads can help

Our UI/UX design and website development teams design and build to WCAG guidelines, in English and Arabic, and can audit an existing site for the barriers that matter most. Get in touch to discuss an accessibility review.