Website Accessibility Audit: What Belfast Businesses Need to Know

Why Website Accessibility Matters for Belfast Businesses

Website accessibility ensures that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with your website effectively. For Belfast businesses, this isn't just a technical consideration but a matter of legal compliance, ethical responsibility, and sound business practice.

Approximately 21% of the UK population has some form of disability, representing a significant portion of potential customers who may struggle or fail to use inaccessible websites. In Northern Ireland specifically, disability prevalence is higher than the UK average, making accessibility particularly relevant for local businesses.

Beyond the moral imperative, there are compelling practical reasons to prioritise accessibility. The spending power of disabled people in the UK, known as the purple pound, is estimated at over £274 billion annually. Websites that exclude this population are literally turning away business.

Accessibility improvements often enhance usability for all users, not just those with disabilities. Clear navigation, readable text, and logical structure benefit everyone. Search engines also favour accessible websites, meaning accessibility investments can improve your SEO performance.

Understanding Accessibility Standards

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, known as WCAG, provide the international standard for web accessibility. Currently at version 2.2, these guidelines establish three conformance levels: A for minimum accessibility, AA for standard accessibility, and AAA for the highest level of accessibility.

Most legal requirements and best practices target WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 Level AA compliance. This level addresses the most critical accessibility barriers while remaining achievable for typical websites without extensive specialist resources.

The guidelines are organised around four principles, often remembered by the acronym POUR: Perceivable, meaning information must be presentable in ways users can perceive; Operable, meaning interface components must be operable by users; Understandable, meaning information and operation must be understandable; and Robust, meaning content must be robust enough for interpretation by assistive technologies.

Legal Requirements in the UK

While there is no single UK law mandating website accessibility for private businesses, the Equality Act 2010 requires reasonable adjustments to ensure disabled people are not disadvantaged in accessing goods and services. Courts have increasingly interpreted this to include digital services.

Public sector websites have explicit accessibility requirements under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018. Many Belfast businesses working with government bodies or receiving public funding may face accessibility requirements through contracts or funding conditions.

Beyond legal compliance, industry standards and customer expectations are raising the bar. Financial services, healthcare, and education sectors increasingly expect accessibility as standard, and this expectation is spreading across all industries.

Conducting Your Accessibility Audit

Automated Testing Tools

Begin your audit with automated testing tools that scan your website for common accessibility issues. These tools can quickly identify many problems, though they cannot detect all accessibility barriers.

Popular free tools include WAVE from WebAIM, which provides a browser extension showing accessibility issues directly on your pages, and axe from Deque, which integrates with browser developer tools for technical analysis. Google Lighthouse, built into Chrome, includes accessibility audits alongside performance and SEO checks.

Run these tools across your key pages including your homepage, main service or product pages, contact and booking forms, and any pages with complex functionality. Document the issues found with their locations and severity levels.

Manual Testing Essentials

Automated tools typically identify only 30-40% of accessibility issues. Manual testing is essential for a comprehensive audit. You don't need to be an accessibility expert to conduct useful manual testing.

Keyboard Navigation Testing: Navigate your entire website using only a keyboard. Press Tab to move between interactive elements and Enter or Space to activate them. Can you access all functionality? Can you always see which element is currently focused? Can you use forms, menus, and other interactive components without a mouse?

Screen Reader Testing: Use a screen reader to experience your website as a blind user would. VoiceOver is built into Mac and iOS devices, while NVDA is a free option for Windows. Listen to how your content is read aloud. Are images described meaningfully? Are form fields labelled clearly? Is the reading order logical?

Visual Inspection: Check colour contrast between text and backgrounds using contrast checking tools. Ensure text can be resized up to 200% without breaking layouts. Verify that information isn't conveyed by colour alone.

Common Issues Found in Belfast Business Websites

Through auditing numerous local websites, certain accessibility issues appear repeatedly. Addressing these common problems significantly improves accessibility for most sites.

Missing Alternative Text: Images without descriptive alt text are inaccessible to screen reader users. Every meaningful image needs alt text describing its content or purpose. Decorative images should have empty alt attributes to be skipped by screen readers.

Poor Colour Contrast: Many websites use colour combinations that are difficult to read for users with low vision or colour blindness. Text should have at least 4.5:1 contrast ratio against its background, with larger text requiring at least 3:1.

Inaccessible Forms: Form fields without proper labels, missing error messages, and unclear instructions create barriers for users with various disabilities. Every field needs an associated label, and error messages should clearly explain what went wrong and how to fix it.

Missing Heading Structure: Screen reader users often navigate by headings. Pages without a logical heading hierarchy or with headings used for visual styling rather than structure are difficult to navigate.

Focus Visibility Issues: When keyboard users tab through a page, they need to see which element is currently focused. Custom styles that remove or hide focus indicators make keyboard navigation impossible.

Inaccessible Navigation: Dropdown menus, mobile navigation toggles, and complex menu systems frequently fail keyboard accessibility. Users must be able to open, navigate, and close menus using keyboard controls alone.

Prioritising and Fixing Issues

Categorising by Impact and Effort

After completing your audit, you'll likely have a substantial list of issues. Prioritise these based on their impact on users and the effort required to fix them.

High priority issues are those that completely block access to content or functionality. These include form submit buttons that cannot be activated, critical content with no text alternative, and navigation that doesn't work with keyboards.

Medium priority issues make content more difficult to use but don't completely block access. Examples include poor colour contrast, missing form labels, and confusing link text like "click here" repeated throughout the site.

Lower priority issues are those that affect comfort or efficiency rather than access. These might include inconsistent navigation patterns, verbose alt text, or minor issues with focus order.

Address high priority issues first, as these represent the most significant barriers to access. Many high priority fixes are relatively straightforward once identified.

Quick Wins for Immediate Improvement

Some accessibility fixes are simple and can be implemented quickly. Adding alt text to images requires no technical expertise on most content management systems. Updating link text from "click here" to descriptive phrases improves navigation for screen reader users. Increasing font sizes and colour contrast often requires only CSS changes.

Form labels can usually be added through your CMS or with minor HTML adjustments. Ensuring keyboard focus is visible may require adding simple CSS styles if they've been inadvertently removed.

Complex Issues Requiring Development

Some accessibility issues require more substantial development work. Rebuilding navigation systems to be keyboard accessible, adding ARIA attributes correctly, and restructuring page content for logical reading order may need professional web development assistance.

If your website is built on an outdated or inherently inaccessible platform, achieving full accessibility may require significant redevelopment. In these cases, consider accessibility as a key requirement for your next website redesign rather than trying to retrofit an unsuitable platform.

Accessibility for Different Disabilities

Visual Disabilities

Users who are blind rely entirely on screen readers and keyboard navigation. Ensure all content is available as text or has text alternatives. Maintain logical content structure and ensure all functionality works without visual information.

Users with low vision may use screen magnification, increase browser text size, or use high contrast modes. Ensure your site remains usable at 200% zoom, text scales properly, and content doesn't rely on colour alone.

Colour blind users, particularly those with red-green colour blindness, need information conveyed through more than colour. Error states shouldn't be indicated by red colour alone, and charts or graphs should use patterns or labels in addition to colours.

Hearing Disabilities

Users who are deaf or hard of hearing need alternatives to audio content. Videos should have captions, and audio content should have transcripts available. Ensure any information conveyed through audio is also available visually.

Motor Disabilities

Users with motor impairments may use keyboards, switch devices, voice control, or other alternatives to mice. All functionality must be accessible without requiring precise mouse movements. Provide large click targets, avoid functionality that requires simultaneous actions, and ensure adequate time for timed interactions.

Cognitive and Learning Disabilities

Users with cognitive disabilities benefit from clear, simple language, consistent navigation and layout, content broken into digestible sections, and the ability to control moving content. Avoid unexpected changes, provide clear instructions for complex tasks, and don't rely on users remembering information across pages.

Building Accessibility into Your Processes

Content Creation Guidelines

Accessibility should be considered when creating content, not just during audits. Train content creators on accessibility basics including writing descriptive alt text, using headings correctly to structure content, creating accessible link text, and writing clearly and concisely.

Create a style guide that includes accessibility requirements for your content team. Provide templates and examples that demonstrate accessible content patterns.

Design and Development Standards

Ensure your design process includes accessibility from the beginning. Check colour contrast during design, not after development. Consider keyboard navigation and screen reader experience when designing interactions.

Development standards should include accessibility testing before deployment. Add accessibility checks to your quality assurance process. Use accessible component libraries and patterns rather than creating custom solutions that may introduce barriers.

Ongoing Monitoring

Accessibility isn't a one-time project but an ongoing commitment. New content, design changes, and functionality updates can introduce new accessibility issues. Establish regular accessibility checks as part of your website maintenance routine.

Consider periodic professional accessibility audits, particularly after significant website changes. Expert auditors can identify issues that automated tools and basic manual testing miss.

Resources and Support

Free Learning Resources

WebAIM offers comprehensive free resources for learning about web accessibility, including articles, tutorials, and their popular accessibility checker. The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative provides official documentation and training materials. Deque University offers both free and paid accessibility training courses.

Professional Audit Services

While this guide helps you conduct initial audits, professional accessibility audits provide thorough assessment by experts who understand the nuances of WCAG requirements. Professional auditors test with a range of assistive technologies and can identify issues that basic testing misses.

For Belfast businesses seeking professional accessibility assessment and remediation, contact Amigo Studios to discuss how we can help ensure your website serves all users effectively.

User Testing

The most valuable accessibility feedback comes from people with disabilities who use your website. Consider including disabled users in your testing processes. Organisations like AbilityNet can help connect businesses with disabled testers.

Taking Action on Accessibility

Website accessibility represents both an obligation and an opportunity for Belfast businesses. By conducting thorough accessibility audits and addressing the issues found, you expand your potential customer base, reduce legal risk, and create a better experience for all users.

Start with the automated and manual testing approaches outlined in this guide. Prioritise high-impact issues for immediate attention. Build accessibility into your ongoing content and development processes to maintain and improve accessibility over time.

The investment in accessibility pays dividends through broader reach, improved user satisfaction, and alignment with the values of inclusion and equality that characterise responsible business practice.

For comprehensive accessibility audits and web development that prioritises accessibility from the start, contact Amigo Studios. We help Belfast businesses create websites that work brilliantly for everyone.