Website Accessibility Issues

Overview

Accessibility problems occur when a website can’t be used properly by people relying on screen readers, keyboard navigation, or who have low vision or color blindness. For a contractor site, that means a share of visitors — including people navigating with assistive technology — can’t read your services, find your phone number, or submit your contact form. In Ontario, businesses can also face accessibility complaints under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA); the formal web-content requirements apply most directly to larger organizations, but complaints and demand letters aren’t limited to those thresholds in practice.

Common Causes

• images uploaded without descriptive alt text
• text and background color combinations with insufficient contrast
• interactive elements (menus, forms, buttons) that can’t be reached or operated with a keyboard
• form fields missing labels that screen readers can announce
• heading tags used for visual styling instead of document structure
• links and buttons with vague or missing accessible names (“click here”, icon-only buttons)

How the Problem Appears

• screen reader users can’t tell what an image shows or what a button does
• keyboard-only users get stuck or can’t reach the contact form
• automated accessibility scanners (Lighthouse, WAVE) flag contrast or missing-label errors
• visitors with low vision report difficulty reading light gray text on white backgrounds
• a rise in accessibility-related complaints or demand letters

How It Is Diagnosed

• running an automated audit (Lighthouse accessibility score, WAVE, axe DevTools)
• checking color contrast ratios against WCAG 2.0/2.1 AA thresholds
• tabbing through the site using only a keyboard to confirm every interactive element is reachable
• reviewing image alt attributes and form label markup in the page source

Typical Fix

• add descriptive alt text to meaningful images, and empty alt attributes to purely decorative ones
• adjust text and background colors to meet minimum contrast ratios
• ensure all interactive elements are keyboard-focusable with a visible focus state
• add proper <label> elements or aria-label attributes to form fields
• use heading tags (h1–h6) in a logical document order rather than for visual size alone

Related Technical Issues

• Homepage Optimization
• Trust Signals
• Website Redesign Mistakes

Technical Website Support

Accessibility issues are usually straightforward to fix once identified, but they’re easy to miss without a proper audit. A full accessibility review flags exactly what’s failing and why before any changes are made.