Accessibility means someone can use your website when they can't see it well, can't use a mouse, can't hear your video, or are reading on a phone in bright sunlight with one hand. In practice that's an ordinary list: readable text against its background, images that describe themselves, form labels attached to their boxes, headings in a sensible order, and everything reachable by keyboard. The standard for this is called WCAG, and Level AA is what almost everyone means by compliant.
The overlay problem
If you've searched this before, you've been offered a widget — a button in the corner that opens a panel with text size and contrast controls, sold as one-click compliance. They sit on top of your site without fixing what's underneath, and businesses using them still get sued; analyses of accessibility lawsuits repeatedly find a large share of targeted sites already had one installed. The FTC took action against accessiBe, one of the largest vendors, in 2025 over its compliance claims, and the National Federation of the Blind has publicly opposed them. They also cost money every year without ever making the site better. I don't install them, and I'll talk you out of one.
What I actually do
Four pieces of work, in this order.
Audit against WCAG 2.1 AA
Automated tools for what can be automated, and a manual pass for the rest — keyboard navigation, screen reader behaviour, whether your forms announce their errors. Scanners miss most real problems, which is why the manual pass matters.
Report in plain English
What's wrong, what each item means for a real person trying to use your site, and which carry the most risk. Not a colour-coded score with no explanation.
Fix it in the site itself
Contrast, alt text, headings, link text, form labels, focus states, reading order, motion and autoplay. Third-party apps, popups, chat widgets and booking calendars usually bypass the platform's own accessibility work, and that's where the real problems hide.
Document what was done
Your accessibility statement, plus a dated record of the work. If a complaint arrives, evidence of active remediation is worth considerably more than a subscription receipt.
Who this is for
Any public-facing business
Accessibility complaints against small businesses are routine, and using a website builder doesn't shield you.
Practices with older clients
Law firms, medical and dental practices, therapists. Your audience is more likely than average to need this, which makes it customer service before it's legal exposure.
Anyone who's had a letter
Get in touch quickly. What matters at that point is demonstrating that real work has started.
Common questions
Is my website legally required to be accessible?
For most US businesses serving the public the answer is effectively yes, and the standard regulators point to is WCAG. I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice — if you've had a demand letter, speak to one. What I do is the technical work, documented.
Doesn't Wix make my site accessible automatically?
Partly. Wix builds accessibility into its own components and gives you an Accessibility Wizard to find issues. But your colours, your alt text, your headings and the apps you installed are yours. The platform gets you part of the way; the rest is work.
Will fixing this help my SEO?
Yes, as a side effect. Proper headings, alt text, link text and structure are the same signals search engines and AI assistants use to understand a page.
Can you just add the accessibility button?
I won't, for the reasons above. If you already have one, I'll audit the site underneath it and tell you what it's hiding.