Create user-friendly copy that’s clear and concise

Many of the requirements under the new legislation that aim for a ‘design for all’ approach are things you may already consider best practice. And they will only become more important.

For example, Google prefers content with a high readability score on Flesch Kincaid (the closer to 100 the score, the more easily readable the content is). The new legislation says that language should be clear and concise, written in plain English, avoiding jargon and complex sentence structures. The Accessibility Act sets out that content should avoid ambiguous language and cultural references that may not be understood by all users.

It’s common knowledge that Google can’t ‘read’ video content, so video content should have transcripts (often under a ‘read more’ button). This is something that the new legislation sets out, alongside providing captions for videos and alt text for video and imagery to make them accessible for screen readers and visually impaired users.

When brands create content under Google EEAT guidelines, it should be done so in a clear and logical structure. The European Accessibility Act legislates that information must be organised in a logical and predictable manner. It’s therefore important to research user search intent when creating content to answer all a user’s questions on a topic.

Archived content that won’t be updated post June-2025 is exempt from compliance.

Make the user journey as intuitive as possible

With the new accessibility legislation, once standard practices will need to change. And the way websites were designed and built will need to be rethought. Training is key to upskill teams to put this new way of thinking front and centre with everything they do.

For example, small things like simply using a basket icon to checkout will need to change. This has always been standard practice for eCommerce websites, but to work with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, this will need to be spelled out. The icon alone won’t suffice.

Another example of this is a button containing a social media logo. Most users will take for granted the fact it will take them directly to the brand’s social media account. They see the logo and inherently know what should happen next. For users that can’t see the button at all and are using a screen reader to dictate to you what each element of a page is and does. If the link doesn’t contain a label, the user will simply hear “link” and have no idea where it will take them.

The same goes for forms. If a form input is incorrectly labelled, a screen reader won’t know what the field – or even the entire form – is asking for. For complicated forms it can also be easy for a user to forget the specific purpose of that field once the placeholder disappears.

Another common issue when it comes to navigating a website, involves both content being inaccessible to keyboard-only users and keyboard traps on web pages.

A keyboard trap occurs when a user is navigating through a page using a keyboard and suddenly they lose their position within the content. Often this is because they’ve unwittingly selected a hidden element such as a link within a closed FAQ. Elements like links, buttons or inputs don’t have an outline when selected, it’s almost as if the whole website becomes a trap.

The key is to make the user journey as intuitive as possible. By helping users effectively navigate through the website, find products, engage with content, checkout and more, not only will you be working with the new regulations. You’ll also make your website better for all users.

Balance accessibility
vs. the brand

Across eCommerce, one of the biggest issues many brands will face is how the visual design of the website sits with the type of brand it is or vertical the business is in.

Often many high-end or luxury brands opt for a minimal design when it comes to their website. They want the site to match the core values and aesthetic of the brand. But this often sits in direct contrast to sites that work well from an accessibility perspective.

To make a website accessible, you will need to add context in. And that context usually comes from adding more text in to ensure everything is understood, which may be at odds with the brand aesthetic.

When you’re trying to turn a website into an experience, the balancing act of accessibility also needs to remain front and centre. Designers might want to drop something to one side a little because of the way it looks. But this might not work from an accessibility perspective. With the new accessibility legislation, more steps need to be added to the process to get it right both from an accessibility and experience standpoint. This is where some brands may encounter a little friction along the way between internal teams.

Consider accessibility from a performance perspective too

When building a website, at the end of the design phase it’s of course best practice to review all designs against Google criteria. Key factors should be font sizes, headings, where the breadcrumb trails are, and anything that might impact the ability to perform well in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Google is already monitoring accessibility factors, and it’s expected that it will become an even bigger part of ranking criteria in the not-too-distant future.

Alt tags on images are already a factor that covers both rankings and accessibility. SEOs will be aware of the importance of alt tags to Google in helping to contextualise content for the algorithm. From an accessibility perspective this is also incredibly helpful for blind users to navigate through websites using a screen reader. Often designers place images alongside text to enhance what it says or even as a standalone piece of content in itself, like a logo. But if that image is missing alt text, then blind users aren’t going to be able to understand the message it’s trying to get across.

Bring empathy into the design phase… it’s not just a tick-box exercise

It’s essential to have good empathy skills for different disabilities. Without this, you’re likely to miss small things.

A good example is using buttons on a carousel instead of simply opting for chevron icons. From a design perspective, it may feel obvious what the chevron icons mean, but it isn’t for everyone.

You can’t simply rely on images of text, simple graphics, or colour to convey a meaning or action. You have to include the text in there too. Without training on accessibility requirements for design and UX teams alongside a full knowledge of the legislation and requirements – plus empathy for potential disabled users – it’s too easy to do things the way they’ve always been done and not to account for disabilities.

It’s critical to consider the diverse nature of disabilities too. Whilst it may be impossible to get a website 100% compliant due to different nuances across the disability spectrum, the key factor is to put the right steps and processes in place to get a website as close as possible to this ideal.

Implement accessibility changes from the ground up

Yes, there are tools out there – like accessiBe – that help businesses to speed up the process and put things on the front end of the website. But best practice would be to implement the changes at code level. To build accessibility from the ground up.

This requires brands to do a full audit against the legislation and rewrite or refactor the code to put accessibility changes at the core of the website. A tool may get you 80% of the way there, but to secure that final 20% it’s essential to reformat your entire website around the new requirements. Accessibility can’t be ignored or viewed as an ad-on.