Website accessibility: what UK small businesses need to know

An accessible website is one that disabled people can use as easily as anyone else. That includes people who are blind or partially sighted, people who are deaf, people with limited movement, and people with dyslexia, autism or memory problems.

Many people use assistive technology to browse. A screen reader reads the page aloud. Some people use only a keyboard, or speech commands, or zoom the page to 200% or more. Your site needs to work with all of these.

Accessibility also helps people who are not disabled. Think of someone reading your site on a phone in bright sunlight, or an older customer whose eyesight is not what it was. Clear, well built pages work better for everyone.

Section 29 of the Equality Act 2010 says a service provider must not discriminate against a disabled person by not providing a service, or in the way it provides it. It also places a duty to make reasonable adjustments on service providers. If people book, buy or enquire through your website, the website is part of your service.

For services, the duty is owed to disabled people in general, not only to a customer who has already complained. In practice that means thinking ahead. Section 20 of the Act also says the reasonable steps can include making sure information is provided in an accessible format, and that you can't charge the disabled person for the cost of the adjustment.

The duty is about what is reasonable. The Act says a service provider does not have to take a step that would fundamentally change the nature of its service. A small salon is not expected to do what a national bank does. But it is hard to argue that fixing missing labels on a booking form is unreasonable.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. The Equality Act does not name a website standard, and what counts as reasonable depends on your business. If you receive a complaint or a legal letter, get advice from a solicitor.

You may have read that websites must meet WCAG 2.2 AA and publish an accessibility statement. That is the rule for public sector bodies, such as councils and government departments, under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018. GOV.UK is clear that these regulations cover public bodies, not private businesses in general.

Private businesses are covered by the Equality Act instead. It is less specific, but it still applies. Many businesses use the public sector standard as a sensible target, because it gives you something clear to aim for and to show if anyone asks.

WCAG stands for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. They are published by the W3C, the international body that sets web standards. The current version is WCAG 2.2, published in October 2023 and updated in December 2024. It added nine new checks to the earlier version, so a site that meets 2.2 also meets 2.1 and 2.0.

The checks are grouped into three levels. Level A is the minimum. Level AA is the level most organisations aim for, and the one the UK public sector must meet. Level AAA is the strictest and is not usually expected for a whole website.

WCAG is built on four ideas. People must be able to perceive your content, operate it, and understand it. It must also work reliably with different browsers and assistive tools. A newer WCAG 3 is in early draft but is not yet a standard, so WCAG 2.2 AA is the sensible target today.

The Department for Work and Pensions runs the Family Resources Survey. In 2024 to 2025 it found that 16.7 million people were disabled, which is 25% of people in UK private households. That share was the same as the year before.

The survey does not include people in care homes, so the true figure may be higher. Not every disabled person has trouble using websites. But if one in four of your potential customers could hit a barrier, accessibility is a business matter as well as a legal one.

The W3C publishes a set of easy checks that anyone can try without special skills. They will not find every problem, but they show quickly whether your site has the common faults. Try them on your homepage, a service page and your contact or booking form.

1. 1 Check each page title. It should describe the page briefly and be different from other pages.
2. 2 Look at your images. Images that carry information need a short text description, called alt text. Purely decorative images should have empty alt text so screen readers skip them.
3. 3 Check your headings. Text that looks like a heading should be set up as a heading, in a sensible order.
4. 4 Check colour contrast. Normal text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 against its background. Large text needs at least 3 to 1. Free contrast checkers will tell you the ratio.
5. 5 Zoom the page to 200%. Text should grow without overlapping, being cut off or forcing you to scroll sideways.
6. 6 Put your mouse away and press Tab. You should be able to reach every link, button and form field in a logical order, and see where you are on the page.
7. 7 Try your forms. Every field needs a clear label, required fields should be marked, and error messages should explain what to fix.
8. 8 Check videos and moving content. Videos need captions. Anything that moves or plays by itself should be easy to pause.

In our experience, the same handful of issues come up again and again on small business websites. Most are quick to fix once you know about them.

The biggest risk is usually the part of the site that earns money. A booking widget, payment page or enquiry form that can't be used with a keyboard or screen reader blocks the customer at the very last step.

• Light grey text on a white background, which fails the contrast check.
• Images of text, such as a price list saved as a picture, which a screen reader can't read.
• Buttons and links that just say "click here" or "read more" with no context.
• Contact forms where the field name disappears once you start typing.
• Pop-ups that trap keyboard users or can't be closed easily.
• Third-party booking or chat tools that were never tested for accessibility.
• PDF menus or price lists that are scanned images rather than real text.

The European Accessibility Act has applied in EU countries since 28 June 2025. It covers certain products and services, including ecommerce. It is EU law, so it does not apply to a UK business that only serves UK customers.

If you sell online to consumers in the EU, it may apply to you. Irish regulator guidance says the service requirements do not apply to microenterprises, meaning businesses with fewer than 10 staff and an annual turnover or balance sheet of no more than 2 million euros. If you are larger than that and sell into Europe, take specialist advice.

Private businesses are not required by the 2018 regulations to publish an accessibility statement. Even so, a short page is good practice. Say what standard you aim for, mention any known problems, and give a simple way to contact you if something does not work.

Offer more than one way to get in touch, such as phone, email and a form. Someone who can't use your booking form can still book by phone. That alternative is itself a reasonable adjustment, and it keeps the customer.

We build custom-designed small business websites with accessibility in mind from the start, including clear headings, readable contrast, labelled forms and keyboard-friendly navigation. If your current site has problems, a redesign can fix the underlying build rather than patching it.

Ongoing updates, fixes and support come through our Website Care plan, so small accessibility issues can be dealt with as they appear. To talk it through, use the "Tell us about your project" form, or see our pricing page.