Web Accessibility: What Is It, and Why Is It Important?

Our world is becoming increasingly connected online. With each passing year, innovations in technology and the internet environment are making it possible for people to carry out much of their daily tasks digitally. It is, therefore, important that these services are equally accessible to all.

If you own a website or are about to be, you’ve probably heard the term web accessibility. Web accessibility practices aim to achieve more excellent continuity of the web environment for people with disabilities. Enabling people with various disabilities to use the web as comfortably as possible is achieved technologically and purely semantically.

In this article, you will find out what the purpose of web accessibility is, as well as what the international legislative frameworks are in this direction. You will also get valuable tips on how to make your website accessible to people with disabilities.

What Is Web Accessibility?

Web accessibility is a broad term that means adapting websites and web-based applications to be fully understandable and usable by people with disabilities.

According to the latest World Health Organization figures, around 1.3 billion people worldwide live with some kind of disability. This is about 16% of the global population.

The European Commission estimates that approximately 100 million people are living with some form of disability in the European Union.

It is for this reason that society has a moral duty to provide everything that is needed for people with disabilities so that they can live fully.

Over the years, the accessibility of the public environment has been a serious issue in many countries worldwide. Various laws have been introduced which set out the framework of what accessibility is and for whom it is mandatory. The idea of web accessibility is similarly structured.

With the rapid growth of information and interactive services provided online and on mobile devices, this huge section of the population risks being excluded from essential services in the private and public sectors because their websites are not accessible.

International web accessibility guidelines and local legislative frameworks specify the mandatory level of accessibility in the online environment.

International Guidelines

The International Web Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were created by the “World Wide Web Consortium ” (W3C, for short). The committee, which is part of the larger organisation, is responsible for creating the WCAG.

The document was first published back in 1999 and is updated periodically. The latest version was published on 5 October 2023.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines include several instructions that, if followed, will fully adapt web content for people with disabilities. They are designed to facilitate access for a wide range of disabilities.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are based on four main principles:

1. Content must be perceivable: Users should be able to freely perceive the information provided by any website based on their basic senses (sight, sound, and touch).
2. Content must be operable – users must be able to interact freely with the website regardless of their disability.
3. Content must be understandable – the information on any website must be easily understood, and its appearance must be simple and predictable.
4. Content must be robust – For a website to be considered comprehensive, it must use clean HTML and standardised CSS code. Additionally, the website must allow for the use of assistive tools and software that are part of the lives of people with disabilities.

This recommendations document is divided into three levels that indicate the different accessibility requirements: A (basic level of accessibility), AA (satisfactory level of accessibility), and AAA (maximum level of accessibility).

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are the global gold standard in web accessibility. They are the basis for most international and local laws that monitor web accessibility levels.

Web Accessibility Legislation

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The World Wide Web Consortium’s Global Guidelines are how countries build local legislation.

Depending on the market in which your website operates, it’s important to know the international standards in the field and state legislation and what they cover.

European Legislation

Legislation within the European Union (EU), which includes Bulgaria, consists of several regulations and directives that describe all situations where a high level of web accessibility is required.

The European Accessibility Act was approved in 2019. It is expected to enter into full force on 28 June 2025. The EU states that this will significantly change the EU market.

The products and services that must be accessible by this date are:

• Computers and operating systems;
• ATMs, ticket machines and check-in systems;
• Smartphones;
• Television equipment related to digital television services;
• Telephone services and related equipment;
• Audio-visual media services such as TV broadcasting and related equipment;
• All services related to air, bus, rail and water passenger transportation;
• Banking services;
• E-books;
• The entire e-commerce sector.

Depending on the line of business, website owners have certain deadlines by which they must achieve high levels of web accessibility.

The final deadline is. By 28 June 2025 is the final deadline – by then, all websites that are part of EU legislation must become accessible to people with disabilities.

You can read the detailed document on the European Commission website.

US Legislation

If your online business is part of the US market, you should know other government web accessibility laws.

Several key laws in the United States govern accessibility, ensuring equal access for people with disabilities to public spaces, digital content, and services.

The most important web accessibility laws overseas are:

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – requires achieving accessibility level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium’s “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.”
• Section 508 of the RehabilitationAct) – covers federal agencies and organisations that receive federal funding. Requires online content (websites, apps, etc.) to be accessible at Level AA of the “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.”
• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act – covers federally funded organisations, including state universities and hospitals.
• 21^st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act – covers digital communications, telecommunications, and video content.

As you can see, legislation throughout the United States covers virtually the entire public sector and nearly all of the private sector in the mass services industry.

Other Countries Outside the EU and the US

In other countries worldwide, local legislation is again shaped by individual laws, but most come directly from the golden rules of the World Wide Web Consortium.

Other web accessibility laws you will come across:

• Disability Discrimination Act, Australia;
• Accessible Canada Act, Canada;
• Disability Discrimination Elimination Act, Japan;
• Disability Discrimination Act, New Zealand;
• Disability Rights Act, India;
• Brazilian Accessibility Act, Brazil.

As you can see, there are web accessibility laws worldwide, and the trend shows that there will be even more with every passing year.

What Happens if Your Website Does Not Meet the Requirements?

With the June 2025 deadline for meeting the European Accessibility Act requirements approaching, more and more online business and website owners are asking what happens if they don’t meet the requirements.

Laws around the world provide for penalties and fines.

European Union

The European Accessibility Act does not specify exact fines, but individual EU Member States are responsible for enforcing the law and can impose penalties.

Penalties can be monetary fines, warnings, market access restrictions, etc., and their severity varies from country to country. The EU relies on Member States to implement enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance with EU-wide law.

The law also allows for complaints and legal action against companies and organisations not complying with the European Accessibility Act.

United States

The US Basic Law also does not provide specific fines for non-compliance, but companies and organisations can face lawsuits.

The US Department of Justice has already filed several against local law violators.

Experience to date shows that civil penalties in these cases can range from $75,000 for a first violation to $150,000 for subsequent violations.

Canada

The Canadian authorities have left the possibility of state sanctions based on local law.

The fines range from USD 50,000 to USD 250,000, depending on the case.

Wherever your online business is located, if web accessibility legislation exists in that country, a lack of compliance could result in lawsuits and high monetary costs.

How to Make Your Website Accessible: 10 Tips for Beginners

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If you’re looking to make a website or adapt yours according to web accessibility requirements, there are a few aspects it’s advisable to cover.

Here, we give you valuable tips on web accessibility in 10 tips for beginners.

1. Easy Navigation

Try to make your website navigation easy and intuitive.

People with disabilities who have mobility limitations use special devices to navigate online.

Make sure all buttons and links on your website, as well as the menu, are clear and easy to understand.

Give users more time to interact with content, especially for features such as data completion.

2. Responsive Design

Use responsive design for your web pages. Allowing your content to be viewed on different devices and screens of different sizes enables people with disabilities to reach them more easily.

Visually impaired people, for example, sometimes use screen magnifiers to see content more clearly. Your website’s features must be preserved even with high magnification.

3. Provide an Alternative

People with disabilities have different needs. They include users who have hearing problems, others who have vision problems, and others who have physical difficulties. Therefore, it is important to provide an alternative to your main content to reach a larger audience.

Make sure your content can reach everyone, regardless of their limitations.

Provide image text descriptions so that devices such as screen readers can read them aloud.

Offer transcriptions for video and audio files for the hearing impaired.

4. Accuracy and Clarity

The information you provide on your website should be accurate and clear to users. Use correct grammatical sentences to avoid confusion.

If you use specialised terminology, always add explanations in simpler language.

Use specialised accessible fonts to ensure that the content can be read without any problems by users.

5. Colours and Contrast

Some people with disabilities cannot perceive colours correctly. This is why it is important to get the colour scheme of your website right.

Avoid conveying information on your website through colour alone.

Use colours that have a good contrast to each other.

A good example of this is not using the colour combination of red and green, which makes it difficult for Dalton people, for example. The information may remain invisible to the user if you have a green background with red text.

6. Use Alt Text

Online users who use screen readers understand only the software can read the content of the page if it can be read to them by the software.

For this reason, entering alt text for visual content is a good idea.

In this way, you enable disabled users to ‘see’ the images and videos on the pages.

Alt texts also improve your overall SEO performance.

7. Compatibility With Assistive Technologies

Online users with disabilities use software and hardware solutions to help them navigate online environments.

Make your website compatible with screen readers and software that turns text into speech. Enable users to interact with your website through voice commands.

Make your website work equally well on older and newer devices.

8. Test Your Website Regularly

Web accessibility requirements are constantly changing.

Even the World Wide Web Consortium’s advice is revised periodically to keep up with technology developments.

For this reason, it’s important to test your website regularly for web accessibility.

This can be done using both physical testing and software.

Our partners at Qualibooth provide the ability to regularly test your website through their software.

It can produce both quick checks and in-depth audits of the state of your website.

9. Trust Your Users

Review the opinions and comments of users who access your website regularly. You can often find information about problems with your website and difficulties they have encountered.

This free, real-world experience gives you a good indication of the steps you need to take to achieve web accessibility.

10. Add an Accessibility Statement

Add an accessibility statement to your website. In it, outline which disability-friendly features are covered on your pages, and you can refresh this list over time.

This indicates that you are working towards improving accessibility.

What Are the Benefits of Web Accessibility

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There are many benefits to achieving a high level of web accessibility.

If you are working towards making your online content more accessible, you can expect the following benefits:

• Reaching a wider audience—Making your website accessible to a larger group of people will inevitably lead to better website performance and more revenue for your company.
• Improved SEO performance—Much of the best practice in web accessibility is closely related to search engine optimisation. By prioritising accessibility, you make your website easier to find and cover more Google requirements, which leads to increased organic traffic and better results.
• Raising your profile as a brand – by optimising your website for people with disabilities, you demonstrate social responsibility to society. Consumers increasingly prefer engaged businesses that work for the greater good of society. Achieving high disability accessibility will inevitably raise your profile as a brand.

Web accessibility has never been more important than in today’s world.

Enabling people with disabilities to access your online content will benefit them and you as a business.

On the other hand, by achieving high accessibility online, you will be protected from lawsuits, fines and future issues that may arise for your business.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What Is Web Accessibility?

Web accessibility is creating and adapting existing online content for people with disabilities.

Is There an EU-wide law on Web Accessibility?

Yes. The current EU-wide web accessibility law is the European Accessibility Act 2019.

When Is the EU Deadline for My Website to Become Accessible?

The deadline for meeting the EU web accessibility requirements is 28 June 2025.