Why accessibility matters in web development
Web accessibility isn't just a legal requirement or a nice-to-have feature — it's a fundamental aspect of good design that benefits everyone and drives real business value.
As a custom web development studio, we've seen countless businesses treat accessibility as an afterthought, something to retrofit onto a website after launch or ignore entirely. This approach isn't just ethically problematic — it's a missed opportunity that limits audience reach, damages brand reputation, and increasingly exposes businesses to legal and compliance risks.
The business case for accessibility
Let's address the elephant in the room: accessibility is often viewed as an expensive checkbox exercise rather than a strategic investment. This couldn't be further from the truth.
Consider the numbers. According to the World Health Organisation, approximately 16% of the global population experiences significant disability. In Australia, that's roughly 4.4 million people. When you build an inaccessible website, you're not making a design choice — you're actively excluding potential customers, clients, and users.
But the business case extends far beyond disability statistics. Accessible websites benefit everyone: parents with prams who navigate one-handed on mobile devices, people recovering from injuries, aging users with declining vision or motor skills, and anyone using your site in challenging conditions like bright sunlight or noisy environments.
Moreover, many accessibility improvements directly enhance your website's performance in other critical areas. Semantic HTML and proper heading structure improve SEO. Keyboard navigation benefits power users. Clear content hierarchies and sufficient color contrast improve usability for everyone. What starts as accessibility work often becomes general UX improvement.
The legal landscape is changing
Australia's web accessibility requirements are becoming increasingly stringent. The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 has always applied to websites, but enforcement is intensifying and awareness is growing.
Government websites must comply with WCAG 2.0 Level AA standards, and there's mounting pressure for private sector compliance. We're seeing a steady increase in discrimination complaints related to website accessibility, and courts are consistently ruling that websites are indeed covered by anti-discrimination legislation.
Retrofitting accessibility after launch is invariably more expensive than building it in from the start. It's also far more disruptive to your business, potentially requiring significant redesign work, content restructuring, and functionality changes.
What accessibility actually means
When we talk about web accessibility, we're primarily referring to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) — international standards that define how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities.
WCAG is organised around four principles, often abbreviated as POUR:
Perceivable: Information must be presentable in ways all users can perceive. This includes providing text alternatives for images, captions for videos, sufficient color contrast, and ensuring content can be accessed in different ways.
Operable: Users must be able to operate the interface. This means full keyboard accessibility, giving users enough time to read and interact with content, avoiding designs that trigger seizures, and providing clear navigation mechanisms.
Understandable: Information and interface operation must be understandable. This involves readable text, predictable navigation, clear error identification, and assistance with form input.
Robust: Content must work reliably across different technologies and assistive devices. This primarily means using proper semantic HTML and ensuring compatibility with screen readers and other assistive technologies.
These principles might sound abstract, but they translate into concrete, achievable technical requirements when building a website.
Common accessibility barriers and solutions
In our work building custom Craft CMS websites, we encounter recurring accessibility issues that are entirely preventable with proper planning and development practices.
Poor colour contrast is perhaps the most common violation. Text needs sufficient contrast against its background to be readable by people with low vision or colour blindness. WCAG Level AA requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text. This isn't subjective — it's measurable and fixable.
Missing alt text for images remains surprisingly prevalent. Every meaningful image needs descriptive alternative text for screen reader users. Decorative images should have empty alt attributes (alt="") to indicate they can be ignored. This takes seconds to implement correctly during development.
Keyboard navigation issues plague many modern websites, particularly those with complex JavaScript interactions. Every interactive element must be reachable and operable using only a keyboard. This benefits not just people who can't use a mouse, but also power users who prefer keyboard shortcuts.
Unclear form errors frustrate everyone, but they create genuine barriers for screen reader users. Error messages need to be programmatically associated with form fields, clearly describe the problem, and suggest how to fix it.
Heading structure violations break content hierarchy for screen reader users who navigate by headings. Headings must follow a logical sequence (H1, then H2, then H3) without skipping levels. They're not just styling tools — they're structural elements that convey meaning.
Missing ARIA labels on complex interactive components leave screen reader users guessing about functionality. Custom JavaScript widgets, dynamic content updates, and complex navigation all require proper ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) implementation.
The good news? These aren't mysterious, complex problems. They're largely solved challenges with well-documented solutions. The key is building accessibility into your development process from day one.
How we approach accessibility
Accessibility isn't something we audit at the end of a project — it's woven into every stage of our development process.
During discovery and strategy, we discuss accessibility requirements with clients and ensure they understand both the legal obligations and business benefits. We identify any specific accessibility needs for their target audience.
In design, we select colour palettes that meet contrast requirements, design clear focus states for keyboard navigation, and structure content with logical hierarchies. We test designs with accessibility evaluation tools before they reach development.
Throughout development, we use semantic HTML, implement proper ARIA labels, ensure keyboard accessibility, and maintain heading structures. We test with screen readers and keyboard navigation as we build, not after the fact.
Before launch, we conduct comprehensive accessibility audits using both automated tools and manual testing. We verify WCAG compliance, test with actual assistive technologies, and document any remaining issues with clear remediation plans.
Post-launch, we provide clients with guidance on maintaining accessibility, particularly around content creation. Even the most accessible website architecture can be undermined by inaccessible content practices.
This integrated approach costs far less than retrofitting accessibility and produces infinitely better results. It also creates websites that are simply better — more usable, more robust, and more future-proof.
The Craft CMS advantage
One reason we specialise in Craft CMS is its strong foundation for accessible development. Unlike some platforms that fight against accessibility best practices, Craft's flexible content modelling and templating encourages semantic HTML and proper content structure.
Craft's content matrix fields allow content editors to create rich, structured content that naturally maps to accessible HTML. Its asset management system makes it straightforward to require alt text for images. The templating language (Twig) encourages clean, semantic markup rather than the div-soup that plagues many other platforms.
This doesn't mean Craft websites are automatically accessible — poor development practices can make any platform inaccessible. But it does mean we're working with tools that support accessibility rather than fighting against them.
Beyond compliance: accessibility as quality
Perhaps the most important shift we'd encourage is moving beyond thinking about accessibility as compliance and instead viewing it as an indicator of quality.
Accessible websites are better websites. They're more usable, more performant, more maintainable, and more compatible with emerging technologies. They demonstrate attention to detail and respect for all users. They reflect well on your brand and values.
When we build websites with Craft CMS, accessibility isn't a feature we add — it's a quality standard we maintain. It's as fundamental as performance optimization, security, or browser compatibility.
The web was designed to be accessible to everyone, regardless of their hardware, software, language, location, or ability. That vision is worth upholding, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it creates better digital experiences for all of us.
Taking the next step
If you're concerned about your current website's accessibility, the good news is that improvement is always possible. A professional accessibility audit can identify specific issues and prioritize remediation efforts. In some cases, targeted fixes can significantly improve accessibility without requiring a complete rebuild.
However, if you're planning a new website or major redesign, there's never been a better time to commit to accessibility from the ground up. The investment is modest, the benefits are substantial, and the peace of mind is invaluable.
At Cloud Gray, we believe accessible web development isn't aspirational — it's foundational. It's how we build every Craft CMS website, and it's a commitment we encourage every business to embrace. Because a web that works for everyone is a web that works better for all of us.
