Website Accessibility: A Practical WCAG Guide for Indian Organisations
Accessible websites reach more people, reduce legal risk and usually perform better in search. Here is where to start.
Accessibility means people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate and interact with your website. It also improves usability for everyone: older users, people on slow connections and anyone using a phone in bright sunlight.
The standard: WCAG
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), published by the W3C, are the global reference. Version 2.2 is the current recommendation. Most organisations aim for conformance level AA.
In India, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 emphasises accessible information and communication technology, and government websites follow the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW), which align with WCAG. Private organisations increasingly adopt the same benchmark, especially when working with government, multinational or regulated clients.
Ten high-impact fixes
- Text alternatives: meaningful alt text for informative images.
- Colour contrast: at least 4.5:1 for normal text.
- Keyboard access: every function usable without a mouse, with a visible focus indicator.
- Headings: a logical heading structure that screen readers can navigate.
- Form labels: every field clearly labelled, with helpful error messages.
- Link text: descriptive links instead of "click here".
- Captions: captions or transcripts for video and audio.
- Zoom: content usable at 200% zoom without horizontal scrolling.
- Motion: respect reduced-motion preferences and avoid flashing content.
- Language: declare the page language so assistive technology pronounces content correctly.
Testing
Automated tools catch roughly a third of issues. Combine them with manual keyboard testing, screen reader checks and, ideally, feedback from users with disabilities.
Making it sustainable
Build accessibility into design systems and content guidelines so new pages stay compliant. Train editors to write alt text and structure content correctly. Review accessibility as part of every release, not once a year.
Accessibility is not a one-time project. It is a quality standard, and organisations that treat it that way serve more customers with less risk.
