Website Accessibility Checklist for Small Businesses

Why does accessibility matter for a small business website?

An inaccessible site turns away people who want to buy from you. Some visitors use screen readers that read the page aloud, some navigate with a keyboard or voice commands instead of a mouse, and many simply struggle with faint grey text or tiny buttons on a phone. The US Department of Justice puts it plainly in its guidance on web accessibility and the ADA: an inaccessible website can exclude people just as much as steps at the entrance to a shop.

The problem is common. The WebAIM Million 2026 report, which tested the home pages of the top one million websites in February 2026, found detectable WCAG 2 failures on 95.9% of them, with an average of 56.1 errors per page. Shopping sites averaged 71 errors per home page, more than most other categories.

On the legal side, rules depend on where you and your customers are. The ADA.gov guidance says the Department of Justice has long taken the position that the ADA applies to the websites of businesses open to the public, and it points to WCAG as a helpful technical standard. If you sell into the US, the UK or the EU, ask a lawyer in that market what applies to you. This article does not make that call for you.

What standard should the checklist follow?

Use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the W3C. The current version, WCAG 2.2, became a W3C Recommendation on 5 October 2023, according to the W3C page What's New in WCAG 2.2. It adds 9 success criteria to WCAG 2.1 and removes the old 4.1.1 Parsing criterion. Most businesses aim for Level AA, which is the level WebAIM tested against in its report. You do not need to read the whole standard to start.

The six checks that catch most problems

WebAIM found that 96% of all detected errors fell into just six categories, and these have been the same for seven years. Here they are with the share of home pages that failed each one in 2026.

If you only have one afternoon, fix these six on your home page, key product or service pages, contact form and checkout.

Contrast and colour

Low contrast is the single most common failure, found on 83.9% of home pages. Pale grey text and white text over photos are the usual culprits. Also check that you never rely on colour alone. The ADA.gov guidance gives the example of marking required form fields only in red; add the word "required" as well, because people who cannot see the colour, and screen readers, will miss it.

Images and alt text

WebAIM found that 16.2% of home page images had no alt text, and 45% of those were linked images, which leaves links with no name at all. Write alt text that says what the image is for. A product photo might read "Blue cotton kurta, front view", while a purely decorative divider should have an empty alt attribute so screen readers skip it.

Forms, checkout and contact pages

Forms are where accessibility turns directly into enquiries and orders. WebAIM found a third of form inputs on home pages were not properly labelled. Work through each form on your site with this list:

• Every field has a visible label that stays visible while typing, not just placeholder text.
• Required fields are marked in words, not only with colour or an asterisk with no explanation.
• Error messages say what went wrong and how to fix it, next to the field, and are announced to screen readers.
• The form works without dragging, timing out quickly or solving a puzzle.
• Information the customer already gave in the same process, such as a delivery address, is filled in again for them or offered as a choice. That is the new WCAG 2.2 Redundant Entry criterion.

If your site has customer accounts, WCAG 2.2 also adds Accessible Authentication: do not make people solve, recall or retype something to log in without an alternative. Allowing password managers and copy and paste in the password field meets the examples W3C gives.

Keyboard and focus checks

Put the mouse aside and press Tab from the top of your home page. You should reach every link, button and field in a sensible order, see where you are, and open and close menus and pop-ups with the keyboard. The ADA.gov guidance lists mouse-only navigation as a common barrier.

WCAG 2.2 adds Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) at Level AA: when an item gets keyboard focus, it must not be entirely hidden by your own content. Sticky headers, cookie banners and chat widgets are the usual cause.

Mobile tap targets and dragging

Two more WCAG 2.2 Level AA criteria matter most on phones:

• Target Size (Minimum): buttons and links should be at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or have enough space around them, with exceptions such as links inside a sentence. Small close buttons, tightly packed filter chips and quantity steppers often fail.
• Dragging Movements: anything done by dragging, such as a price-range slider or a reorder list, needs a simple tap or click alternative.

The last new criterion worth knowing is Consistent Help at Level A. If you show a phone number, contact link or chat option on several pages, keep it in the same relative place each time so people can find it.

Structure: headings, links and language

Screen reader users often jump through a page by its headings. WebAIM found skipped heading levels on 41.8% of home pages and more than one H1 on 18.1%. Use one H1 per page, then H2 for sections and H3 inside them, in order.

Link text should make sense on its own. WebAIM found ambiguous link text such as "click here" or "more" on 15.2% of pages. "View our bridal collection" is better than "Click here". The same thinking helps general usability, which we cover in our guide to UX design for business owners.

Video, media and third-party widgets

Videos with speech need accurate captions, a point the ADA.gov guidance makes directly. Check also what you have added on top of your site. WebAIM found that pages with reCAPTCHA had 7.7 more errors than average and pages with YouTube videos had 9.4 more, and that most popular sliders and carousel libraries were linked with more errors. Test them with the keyboard and a screen reader before you trust them.

How should you test your site?

Use an automated checker first, then test by hand. Automated tools are fast and catch the six common failures, but both WebAIM and ADA.gov warn about their limits: a clean report does not mean a page is accessible. ADA.gov says pairing a manual check with automated checkers gives a better picture.

1. Run an automated checker on your home page, a product or service page, the contact form and the checkout.
2. Tab through the same pages with the keyboard only.
3. Zoom the browser to 200% and check nothing is cut off or overlapping.
4. Turn on your phone's built-in screen reader and try to complete one enquiry or purchase.
5. Add an easy way for visitors to report accessibility problems, which ADA.gov lists as good practice.

Repeat the checks after every redesign or new plugin. Accessibility drifts as content changes, in the same way security does, which is why it sits alongside our website security checklist in routine maintenance. If the problems run through the whole theme, it may be one of the signs you need a website redesign rather than a patch.

Frequently asked questions

Is this checklist enough to make my website legally compliant?

No checklist can promise that, and this is not legal advice. Requirements depend on your country, your customers' countries and your sector. Following WCAG 2.2 Level AA is the widely referenced technical benchmark, but ask a local lawyer what applies to your business.

Will an accessibility overlay plugin fix my site?

Not on its own. ADA.gov says automated checkers and overlays can be helpful but need to be used carefully, and that a clean report does not mean everything is accessible. Fixing the underlying code, content and design is what removes the barriers.

Do Shopify and WordPress sites need different checks?

The checks are the same because WCAG applies to the page, not the platform. What differs is where problems come from: themes, apps and plugins. In WebAIM's 2026 data, Shopify home pages averaged 75.1 errors and WordPress home pages 52.8, so test your theme and every add-on, whichever platform you use.