Guide
The New Standard in UX
The designer's guide to web accessibility
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On this page
Why accessibility belongs at the heart of design
Design is more than how something looks — it’s how it works, how it feels, and who it works for.
As a designer, you constantly balance form and function, aesthetics, and usability. You bring order to complexity. You create systems that help people move, explore, shop, learn, and connect.
But here’s a truth that too often goes unspoken in the design process: a beautiful experience that isn’t accessible isn’t usable — and it certainly isn’t complete.
Accessibility is not a constraint on creativity — it’s a catalyst for better, more intentional design. It forces us to slow down and consider: What happens when someone can’t see this icon? Can’t use a mouse? Can’t hear that video? How can we still make them feel empowered, informed, and invited into the experience?
The good news? Most of the decisions that make design accessible also make it better for everyone.
“When we design for disability first, we often stumble upon solutions that are better than those when we design for the norm.”
— Elise Roy | Disability Rights Lawyer & Design Strategist
Accessible Design: the intentional practice of creating digital experiences that are usable by everyone, including people with disabilities, emphasizing thoughtful, accessible design choices that meet established standards
This is your guide to designing with accessibility from the start — not as a box to check at the end, but as a core design principle. Inside, you’ll find:
A breakdown of key accessibility standards and myths
UX best practices that support accessible interaction
Design principles that overlap with SEO, usability, and performance
Insights into how rebrands can improve — or derail — accessibility
Tools, checklists, and resources from the AudioEye team
A behind-the-scenes look at our own accessibility-first redesign
Whether you’re building a new product, refreshing a brand, or evolving a design system, this is your opportunity to create something truly usable by all — something that looks good, works beautifully, and welcomes everyone in.
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Illustration of a person thinking beside a web interface with WCAG, UX labels, and accessibility icons on a red background.
What is web accessibility?
Web accessibility ensures that people of all abilities and disabilities can use and navigate websites and applications. It addresses the needs of users who rely on assistive technologies such as screen readers, speech recognition tools, magnifiers, alternative keyboards, and more.
This includes people with:
Visual impairments (e.g., blindness, low vision, color blindness)
Hearing loss or deafness
Motor impairments (e.g., difficulty using a mouse or touch screen)
Cognitive or neurological disabilities (e.g., dyslexia, ADHD)
Designers play a critical role in ensuring accessibility is built into the user experience from the beginning of any project. When accessibility is considered early in the design process, it results in more accessible, usable, and legally compliant websites.
WCAG and legal background for designers
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide a detailed roadmap for how to make websites and digital experiences accessible and have become the global standard for accessibility compliance.
The most widely adopted version is WCAG 2.1, with WCAG 2.2 adding more criteria to support users with cognitive impairments and those using mobile devices.
As a designer, you may not think of yourself as someone who needs to understand legal policy, but when it comes to digital accessibility, the work you create plays a direct role in whether a product meets legal requirements.
The legal landscape is shaped by several key regulations and court interpretations with WCAG acting as the de facto technical benchmark. For designers, the important legal pieces to understand are the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life. Courts have also interpreted it to include websites and mobile apps as “places of public accommodation.”
Section 508 applies to any government or federally funded entity, and mandates that all federal digital content and services be accessible by WCAG guidelines.
Why legal accessibility standards matter to you as a designer
Lawsuits over inaccessible websites have surged in recent years. In many cases, poor design choices — such as low-contrast text, missing alt text, or confusing navigation — are cited as barriers for users with disabilities.
Designing with accessibility from the start isn’t just legally smart — it’s creatively rewarding. You’re building experiences that reach more people, perform better, and represent your brand’s values.
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Illustration of a woman holding a pen, pondering a checklist displayed on a laptop screen, with an accessibility symbol in the background.
Who are you designing for?
Designing accessible digital experiences starts with one essential question: Who are we designing for?
Too often, the answer is based on assumptions about ability, behavior, or technology access. Accessible UX challenges us to shift that thinking and instead create experiences that work for everyone, regardless of their physical, cognitive, or situational limitations.
Accessible design doesn’t mean restricting your creativity — it means expanding your reach. It’s a discipline rooted in empathy, flexibility, and clarity. Here are 6 key principles to use in your work that combine design philosophy with practical web accessibility standards.
Design for real people, not "average" users
Clear copy and structure delivers reliable experiences
Build for keyboard and screen reader users
Equitable design communicates with every pixel
Prioritize accessible forms and feedback
Start early and make it part of your workflow
1. Design for real people, not "average" users
Accessible design recognizes that people access digital experiences in diverse ways. Disabilities may be permanent (e.g., vision loss), temporary (e.g., a broken arm), or situational (e.g., being in a loud environment). Accessibility addresses all of these contexts.
Consider how and why users might be excluded from your experience and intentionally create designs that bring them in.
Start with actions like:
Avoid relying solely on color to communicate information.
Offer multiple ways to interact (e.g., keyboard, voice, mouse).
Design mobile-first, but think device-agnostic.
2. Clear copy and structure delivers reliable experiences
Clarity isn’t just a UX best practice — it’s an accessibility imperative. Users with cognitive disabilities, neurodivergence, or assistive tech rely on consistent, predictable patterns. Even typical users will benefit from a well-structured design.
Start with actions like:
Use clear labels and plain language.
Create logical information hierarchies.
Structure pages using semantic HTML (H1, H2, etc.).
Clarity is a foundational part of accessibility. This means visible labels for form fields, well-structured headings, and informative text in links so users know what they are clicking on.
3. Build for keyboard and screen reader users
If it’s not keyboard-accessible, it’s not accessible. Remember, not all users utilize a mouse.
Users who navigate with keyboards (or devices that emulate keyboards) need to be able to tab through interactive elements in a logical order. Screen readers rely on clear semantic structure and ARIA roles to describe content and functionality.
Start with actions like:
Make sure every interactive element (buttons, links, menus) is reachable and usable via keyboard.
Use visible focus indicators.
Add skip links for users to bypass repetitive content.
Test your designs with VoiceOver (Mac) or NVDA (Windows).
4. Equitable design communicates with every pixel
Great visual design should never come at the expense of accessibility. Many common design patterns — light gray text on white, tiny fonts, hover-only menus — present real barriers for users with low vision or color blindness.
A color palette might look beautiful on your screen — but if the contrast is too low, your message gets lost. Design should always communicate first, decorate second. Follow visual accessibility guidelines in design projects.
Start with actions like:
Ensure minimum contrast ratio: 4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text.
Selecting readable font sizes (at least 16px).
Don’t rely on color alone — use text labels or icons to reinforce meaning.
Provide sufficient spacing between lines, paragraphs, and elements.
5. Equitable design communicates with every pixel
Forms are one of the most common sources of user frustration — especially when they are inaccessible. Users need clear labels, logical tab order, accessible error messages, and helpful instructions to fully utilize an online form.
Reduce the noise. Accessibility is about making the path from intention to action as smooth as possible.
Start with actions like:
Always use visible labels and avoid relying solely on visual cues like red outlines to indicate errors.
Group related fields using fieldsets and legends.
Break content into short paragraphs and use bullet points.
Minimize distractions — avoid auto-playing videos or moving banners.
6. Start early and make it part of your workflow
Accessibility becomes harder — and more expensive — the later it’s introduced. When baked into early design stages, it becomes a natural part of your product lifecycle. We recommend AudioEye’s SDK as part of your team set-up.
Start with actions like:
Include accessibility practices in design systems and pattern libraries.
Add accessibility checkpoints in design reviews.
Collaborate with developers on roles, labels, and
behavior early.
Treat accessibility bugs with the same urgency as functional ones.
An accessible experience is a better experience
Accessible design isn’t just a compliance checkbox — it’s core to great UX. It ensures your products are usable, accessible, and legally defensible. And it’s increasingly expected by users, clients, and employers alike.
As a designer, you’re not just solving problems for the “average” user — you're designing for real people in real contexts. The more accessible your work is, the more impact it will have.
Accessibility isn’t a barrier to creativity — it’s a catalyst for better, more thoughtful design.
Did you know? Accessibility is a UX Win and an SEO Power Move
Accessibility and SEO are deeply interconnected — both rooted in providing a better user experience. While accessibility focuses on inclusive access, SEO rewards clarity, structure, and performance — many of the same principles.
By designing for accessibility, you naturally check off a lot of SEO best practices such as:
Semantic HTML & heading structure: Search engines use headings to understand content hierarchy — just like screen readers do. A clean, consistent heading structure improves scannability for users and indexability for bots.
Descriptive link text and alt attributes: "Click here" doesn’t help users or Google. Clear, contextual link text and meaningful alt text make your content more usable and more discoverable.
Fast, mobile-friendly design: Performance is part of accessibility. Users with slower connections or assistive tech benefit from efficient, responsive layouts — and Google ranks those faster, mobile-optimized sites higher.
Low bounce rates & better engagement: Accessible designs tend to reduce friction, which leads to longer session times, lower bounce rates, and more engagement — all signals that search engines value.
Reduced duplicate content and crawl issues: Accessible sites tend to have cleaner, better-structured code, which helps search engines crawl and interpret content more accurately.
The bottom line: When you build accessible, user-first experiences, you also boost organic visibility. Great UX isn’t just ethical — it’s strategic.
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Icons of a braille keyboard, a joystick, and a wireless keyboard under the title "Assistive Technology" on a gradient blue background.
Designing for real-world accessibility
Designing accessible digital experiences doesn’t mean compromising creativity — it means making intentional choices that ensure your designs work for more people in more contexts. This section digs into two of the most common areas where accessibility falls short — images and multimedia content — and shows how to turn potential barriers into moments of accessible design.
Accessible images: Beyond visual appeal
Images communicate tone, emotion, and context — but only if your users can perceive them, for users who are blind or have low vision, screen readers and assistive technologies rely on accurate descriptions to convey meaning. That’s where image alternative text (alt text) comes in to play.
What is Alt Text?
Alt text is a short, descriptive phrase that communicates the purpose or content of an image. Screen readers read it aloud and display it if the image fails to load.
The goal of alt text isn’t to describe the image — it’s to convey what the image is communicating in its specific context.
Best Practices for Writing Alt Text
Be concise, but meaningful. Most alt text should be under 125 characters.
Focus on context. What is the image doing on the page?
Avoid redundancy. If an image is already described in nearby text, alt text may be unnecessary.
Skip “image of” or “photo of.” Screen readers already announce image content.
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Young woman using a laptop while seated at an outdoor café
Good vs. bad example of Alt Text
Bad: "Woman at table." (Too vague)
Good: "Young woman using a laptop while seated at an outdoor café.” (Descriptive and in context)
Decorative Images and Functional Icons
Not all images require alt text.
If an image is purely decorative (e.g., a background texture or divider line), it should include an empty alt attribute: alt="". This tells assistive tech to ignore it.
Functional images, like buttons or icons, must have accessible text equivalents. That means using aria-labels or visually hidden text for screen reader users.
Example: An icon-only button for search should include accessible text like “Search” — not just a magnifying glass.
Making multimedia accessible for the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Video and audio content is booming, but without proper accommodations, it’s inaccessible to millions of people who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing. Accessible media design ensures equal access to information and experience.
Captions: Essential for video
Captions are not subtitles. They don’t just translate — they transcribe everything, including tone, emotion, and non-verbal cues.
High-quality captions must be:
Synchronized: Timed accurately with spoken words
Accurate: Include correct spelling, punctuation, and speaker IDs
Complete: Capture non-speech audio like [applause], [music playing], or [laughter]
Automatic captions often fall short. They miss nuance, emotion, and can create confusion — especially when terminology or names are misinterpreted.
Transcripts: The text-based companion
A transcript provides a written version of audio content — and it’s especially helpful for podcasts, interviews, or webinars. It supports search engine indexing, skim-friendly consumption, and improved accessibility.
Ideal transcripts include:
Speaker identification
Time-stamps (optional, but helpful)
Clear formatting with paragraph breaks and punctuation
Bonus: Transcripts boost SEO by adding keyword-rich, crawlable content.
Designing for Assistive Tech and Context
Accessible media isn’t just about content — it’s about control. Users should be able to navigate, pause, and engage with content in ways that fit their needs.
Best practices include:
Avoid auto-playing videos or sound
Provide visible controls to play/pause/adjust volume
Ensure controls are keyboard-accessible and screen reader-friendly
Offer visual equivalents of audio cues (e.g., on-screen messages instead of chimes or sounds)
Example: A confirmation tone after form submission should be accompanied by a visible message: “Your form was submitted successfully.”
Why it matters
Accessible media doesn’t just remove barriers — it improves the experience for everyone. Captions help viewers in noisy environments. Alt text improves SEO and supports load fallback. Keyboard controls benefit power users as well as users with motor impairments.
When we make the effort to design with accessibility in mind, we don’t just meet standards — we exceed expectations.
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Illustration of a design system with image thumbnails, color palette, and typography samples on a purple background.
Accessible Design Tools
An AudioEye survey of 500 business leaders, designers, and developers found that 52% of respondents thought they would have to rebuild their entire website to be accessible. That’s simply not true — though it is almost always easier to build for accessibility right from the start.
Here’s a quick look at three design tools AudioEye’s design team uses on the regular. Each one helps check work as you go, guarding against common accessibility issues like non-descriptive alt text or poor color contrast.
1. Check your Alt Text with DALL-E
Alt text is essential for users relying on assistive tech like screen readers. Good alt text communicates the image’s purpose—not just its appearance. Yet, it’s often overlooked or poorly written with vague or redundant descriptions.
A creative test is using AI image generators like DALL·E, which turn text into literal images. If the generated image doesn't match the real one, your alt text may lack clarity or accuracy.
While not replacing formal audits, this method can reveal how clearly your alt text conveys intent.
Best Practice: Alt text should reflect what the image is communicating, not just what it looks like. It should be specific, concise, and relevant to the page’s content and purpose.
2. Check Your Contrast with AudioEye's Color Contrast Checker
For users with visual impairments, good color contrast is crucial for readability. Conditions like myopia or macular degeneration make low-contrast text difficult to see.
WCAG 2.1 guidelines specify a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for text and backgrounds, ensuring readability under diverse conditions. Common combinations like white text on red (contrast ratio 3.99:1) often fail this standard.
Always test contrast on banners, social graphics, emails, and buttons. Tools like ColorPick Eyedropper (a free Chrome extension) can quickly capture hex codes for contrast checking and easy adjustments.
Best Practice: Don’t rely on visual instinct alone — build contrast checking into the design review process to ensure accessibility from the start.
3. Test for Assistive Technology Compatibility with Voiceover
VoiceOver, Apple’s built-in iOS screen reader, helps designers evaluate accessibility from the perspective of visually impaired users.
It's ideal for testing interactive elements like buttons, links, and menus. If a button is announced merely as “Button,” it signals a missing descriptive label. VoiceOver also identifies issues with content structure, clutter, and complexity — essential for ensuring usability.
Design Insights: Testing with VoiceOver is an opportunity to understand how assistive technology users navigate and interpret digital spaces, leading to more intentional, accessible design.
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Illustration of a person typing code on a computer at a desk, with an accessibility symbol in the background, in warm orange tones.
Designing a more accessible web starts with you
As a designer, you shape the digital world. Every layout you structure, every interaction you craft, every color palette or type scale you choose — it all plays a role in how people experience the web.
And accessibility? It’s not a barrier to great design. It’s a bridge.
It’s the bridge between creativity and usability. Between aesthetics and empathy. Between products that simply look good, and products that truly work for everyone.
“My new rubric for a design requires me to not only make something that looks beautiful and suits the intended purpose, but is as accessible as possible. If it isn’t accessible, I haven’t done my job.”
— Sarah Ippen | UI / UX Designer at AudioEye
Whether you’re just starting to explore accessible design or you’re already building it into your daily workflow, know this: you don’t have to do it alone. AudioEye is here to support you — with tools, insights, and a growing library of resources designed to help you embed accessibility into every step of your creative process.
ResourcesExplore More from AudioEye
Designing for Accessibility Hub: A curated collection of articles, best practices, and tools tailored specifically for designers.
Accessibility Design Toolkits & Checklists: Practical guides to help you audit, test, and improve your work — whether you’re building from scratch or iterating on something new.
Blog: Stay informed with the latest trends, tools, and real-world case studies in accessibility and accessible UX.
Get in Touch: Have questions? Need guidance? Our accessibility experts are just a click away.
The future of digital design is accessible, and you’re helping build it. One usable component, one clear label, one keyboard-friendly flow at a time.
Keep learning. Keep designing with empathy. And keep pushing the web forward — for everyone.
You've got this. And we’ve got your back.
— The AudioEye Team