Why Accessibility Should Be Your Default

Web accessibility often gets treated as an afterthought, but it should be built into every project from day one.

The Business Case

Over 1 billion people worldwide have some form of disability. Making your website accessible isn't just the right thing to do - it expands your potential audience significantly.

Quick Wins

Here are changes you can make today:

Semantic HTML: Use proper heading hierarchy, landmarks, and form labels

Alt Text: Describe images meaningfully for screen readers

Color Contrast: Ensure text meets WCAG AA standards (4.5:1 ratio)

Keyboard Navigation: Make sure all interactive elements are reachable via keyboard

Focus Indicators: Never remove focus outlines without providing alternatives

Testing Tools

axe DevTools - Browser extension for automated accessibility testing

WAVE - Web accessibility evaluation tool

Lighthouse - Built into Chrome DevTools

Screen Readers - Test with NVDA (Windows) or VoiceOver (Mac)

Building It Into Your Workflow

The best approach is to consider accessibility at every stage: design, development, and testing. It's much easier to build accessible from the start than to retrofit it later.

Start with semantic HTML, add ARIA attributes where needed, test with keyboard navigation, and validate with automated tools. Your users will thank you.