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Design & UX

Accessibility

A11y | Web Accessibility

Portrait of Robert Klimant, co-founder of Roelu Studio
Robert KlimantCo-founder

What is Accessibility?

Web accessibility, often shortened to a11y, is the practice of designing and building digital products so people with disabilities can use them. That includes visitors who use screen readers, navigate with a keyboard, have low vision, are color blind, or have cognitive or motor impairments. Accessibility shows up in code (semantic HTML, ARIA labels), in design (contrast, font size, focus states), and in content (clear language, captions, alt text). The international standard is WCAG.

Why it matters

Accessibility is treated like a compliance chore. It isn't. Around fifteen percent of the world has some form of disability, and an inaccessible site quietly excludes all of them. It also excludes the temporarily impaired — anyone with a broken arm, a bright screen outdoors, or a noisy room. And the same things that make a site accessible (clear hierarchy, real contrast, keyboard support, readable text) make it better for everyone. The lawsuits are real too. The EU Accessibility Act and ADA cases against inaccessible sites are no longer rare. Treat accessibility as design quality, not a checkbox.

How it works

Accessibility starts in design — typography that meets contrast ratios, focus states on every interactive element, target sizes you can actually tap. It continues in build: semantic HTML (real buttons, real headings, real lists), descriptive alt text, captions on video, ARIA only where native HTML can't do the job. Forms get labels, errors get descriptions, modals trap focus and return it. Then the team tests with real tools — keyboard-only navigation, a screen reader like VoiceOver or NVDA, automated checkers like axe. Done well, a visitor using a screen reader gets the same information and the same actions as one using a mouse.

Related terms

  • WCAG

    Design & UX

    The international rulebook for web accessibility — Web Content Accessibility Guidelines — the standard most accessibility laws, audits, enterprise procurement…

  • User Experience

    Design & UX

    How it feels to use a product from start to finish — the speed, the clarity, the flow, the copy, the moments of friction, the parts that just work — not just…

  • Responsive Design

    Design & UX

    Designing a website so it adapts to every screen size — phone, tablet, laptop, ultrawide monitor — instead of forcing one fixed layout that breaks the moment a…

  • Typography

    Design & UX

    The craft of choosing and arranging type on a website — fonts, sizes, weights, line height, letter spacing, line lengths — to make content readable, scannable,…

  • Color System

    Design & UX

    A defined palette of brand and UI colors — with rules for when and how to use each one — so a product stays visually consistent over time and doesn't quietly…

  • Lighthouse Score

    Performance

    A 0–100 grade from Google's Lighthouse tool measuring a page's performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices — used as a quick technical health check by…

  • User Interface

    Design & UX

    The visible part of a digital product — the buttons, menus, forms, layout, typography, icons, modals — that a person actually touches, clicks, and reads to get…