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Accessibility Essentials

Core accessibility requirements for WCAG compliance. Ensure your website is usable by everyone, including people with disabilities.

Intermediate35 minutes12 rulesAccessibility foundations

Use this checklist when

Use on new pages, redesigns, or baseline accessibility reviews where the core experience matters more than edge-case nuance.

Expected outcome

You cover the most common failures that block keyboard, form, contrast, and media accessibility.

Best for

Junior devSenior reviewer

Done looks like

Keyboard access, visible focus, form semantics, heading structure, and essential media accessibility are in place.

How this differs

This is the broad foundation checklist, not a full WCAG audit.

Accessibility isn't optional. This checklist focuses on the most broadly applicable foundations: keyboard access, visual legibility, form semantics, document structure, and essential media accessibility.

When To Use It

Use this checklist when you want a strong accessibility baseline without running a full WCAG audit. It fits new pages, redesigns, and recurring reviews of the most important user journeys.

Who It's For

  • Teams that need a practical accessibility starting point
  • Reviewers checking common keyboard, form, contrast, and media failures
  • Junior developers learning which accessibility issues matter most first

Done Looks Like

By the end of this checklist, the page should support keyboard navigation, visible focus, readable contrast, clear form semantics, and essential captions or descriptions for important media.

WCAG Compliance Levels

  • Level A - Minimum accessibility (must have)
  • Level AA - Standard compliance (recommended)
  • Level AAA - Enhanced accessibility (ideal)

This checklist focuses on Level A and AA requirements.

Who Benefits

  • Users with visual impairments
  • Users with motor disabilities
  • Users with cognitive disabilities
  • Users on assistive technologies
  • Users in challenging environments (bright sunlight, noisy areas)
  • Everyone - accessibility improvements help all users

Testing Tips

  1. Navigate your entire site using only the keyboard
  2. Test with a screen reader (VoiceOver, NVDA, JAWS)
  3. Use browser extensions like axe or WAVE
  4. Check color contrast ratios
  5. Verify form labels and error messages

Common Mistakes

  • Missing alt text on images
  • Poor color contrast
  • Non-descriptive link text ("click here")
  • Missing form labels
  • Keyboard traps
  • Skipping visible focus styles
  • Missing captions or audio descriptions on important video content
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