Covering June 2024 · Published for the web in October 2026.
A prospective customer should be able to understand your services and contact you without having to use a website in one prescribed way. That is a practical starting point for accessible website design, and a useful test of the customer experience.
By June 2024, teams planning a redesign had an updated reference available. W3C had published WCAG 2.2 as a Recommendation in October 2023, adding nine success criteria to improve accessibility for people with visual, physical, and cognitive disabilities. The dated standard provides a stable reference for that period.
For business owners, the opportunity was to turn accessibility from an unclear line in a proposal into a defined part of design, content, development, and maintenance. A checklist can help organize work. It cannot replace knowledgeable evaluation or guarantee that every person's needs have been met.
Scope the tasks before reviewing the screens
Start by listing what customers need to accomplish. They may need to compare services, find a location, watch an explanation, download a specification, or submit a request. Identify the pages and components involved in each journey.
This creates a more useful scope than “review the homepage.” A beautiful homepage tells you little about an inquiry form, an embedded booking tool, or a document that a buyer must download before proceeding.
Include third-party components in the inventory. If a scheduling widget prevents someone from completing a task, the customer experiences that problem as part of your business, regardless of who supplied the software. Document who can change each component and what happens when a vendor needs to be involved.
Bring accessibility into creative decisions
Design reviews should examine the experience as well as the composition. Can important information be understood without relying on a particular color? Is the hierarchy clear? Does the layout remain usable when text becomes larger? Does motion compete with reading or make an interaction harder to follow?
Use the accessibility target agreed for the project to evaluate specifics such as contrast, keyboard interaction, focus visibility, and target size. These are not aesthetic afterthoughts. They influence component design and should be considered before the team commits to a visual direction.
A brand can still be expressive. Bold typography, distinctive photography, and playful illustration can support a clear interface when the information structure is sound. The objective is to make the creativity available to more people.
Treat content as part of the interface
A page can be technically structured and still be difficult to understand. Use descriptive headings, explain unfamiliar terms, and write links that make sense in context. Make form instructions specific enough to help a customer recover from an error.
For a video, plan the information that people need if they cannot hear the audio or see an essential visual detail. For a downloadable document, determine whether the information should also be available as an accessible web page. These decisions are easier to budget when they are part of production planning.
Content ownership matters after launch. A newly uploaded image, video, or PDF can introduce a problem even if the original templates were carefully built. Give editors practical guidance and a review route for unfamiliar content types.
Ask for testing evidence, not a vague promise
When evaluating a proposal, ask what will be tested, against which target, using which methods, and by whom. Automated checks can identify some issues, while manual review and appropriate assistive-technology testing address things those tools cannot establish on their own.
Where feasible, include people with disabilities in usability research. Record the tasks attempted and the barriers encountered. Avoid assuming that one participant or one testing method represents every user.
Request a findings list that identifies the affected component, the problem, the proposed correction, and the retest result. That record is more actionable than a broad assurance that the site is “accessible.” Legal obligations vary; a project checklist is not a legal opinion or compliance certification.
Keep the business brief and the access brief connected
HalfGenius's web design services include user journeys and responsive design, while its portfolio shows a range of digital projects. Use portfolio reviews to discuss the customer journeys and components relevant to your business, then agree on the specific accessibility target and validation the new project requires.
Define your own requirements explicitly, including the specialist support and validation the project may need. Agree on who owns remediation before launch and who reviews changes afterward.
Make the next step practical
Begin with a scoped review of your most important customer journey. Fix barriers that prevent completion, improve shared components, and build the lessons into future production. Then schedule periodic reviews tied to meaningful site changes.
Talk with Team Genius about a website brief that makes customer access, clear communication, and visual design part of the same conversation. Bring the tasks your visitors need to complete, not just screenshots of the style you like.
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