Website Accessibility Checklist for Small Sites, Starting With What Fails Most

Key takeaways

• Six problems make up 96% of detected errors. Low contrast text, missing alt text, missing form labels, empty links, empty buttons and missing page language, according to the 2026 WebAIM Million.
• Low contrast is the big one. It appeared on 83.9% of home pages, up from 79.1% in 2025, with an average of 34 instances per page.
• A clean scan does not mean an accessible site. WebAIM and the W3C both say automated tools miss failures. Keyboard use and alt text quality need a person.
• You can do a useful first pass in about an hour. We estimate that from the 12 checks below, on a site of a few templates. It finds common barriers, not every barrier.
• A widget will not do this for you. The US Federal Trade Commission ordered accessiBe to pay $1 million over claims that its AI tool could make any website compliant.

This guide is general information and not legal advice. For what the law asks of your business, speak to a qualified adviser.

The short answer

Start with your home page, your contact form and your most visited page. Fix contrast first, then add alt text and form labels, then name your links and buttons, then set the page language. After that, put your mouse away and use the site with the Tab key alone. That order follows how often each problem appears, and it covers the failures people run into first. One easy miss is a sticky header that hides the item a keyboard user has tabbed to, covered in our sticky header guide.

What the ranking checklists leave out

On 4 November 2026 we searched Google (United States, English) for "website accessibility checklist". The first page held checklists from webaccessibilitychecklist.com, Michigan State University, The A11Y Project, Recite Me, Webflow, UC Merced and two US state governments. Many of them are good, and we link to two below.

They are mostly written for developers, or for staff at large institutions, and they follow the structure of the standard. None of the pages on that results page, from what we could see, sorts its items by how often they fail, or separates what a scanner can find from what it cannot. A small business owner with an hour to spare needs both.

Checklist part 1: the six problems that fail most

These come from the WebAIM Million 2026, which tested the top million home pages in February 2026 with the WAVE tool. Your site may differ, since these are popular sites, but the same errors have led the list for seven years.

1. Contrast

Normal text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background, under WCAG 2.2. The usual offenders are pale grey text on white, text over photos, and small print in footers. Paste your colors into a contrast checker, and if a color fails, darken it across the site rather than page by page. Our guide to website color schemes covers how to choose them.

2. Alt text

Describe what the picture is there to do. A photo of a repaired boiler can read "new boiler installed in a utility cupboard". WebAIM found that 45% of images missing alt text were linked images, which leaves a link with nothing to announce, so check logos and linked pictures first. It also found that 10.8% of images that did have alt text used weak or repeated text, such as a file name or the word "image". A scanner counts those as passes, so read yours.

3. Form labels

Each field needs its own visible label, tied to the field. A greyed-out hint inside the box disappears as soon as someone types. WebAIM found a third of form inputs on home pages had no proper label. Our contact page guide covers how to keep forms short as well.

4 and 5. Empty links and empty buttons

These are usually icons: a social logo, a menu button or a search magnifying glass with no text behind it. To a screen reader they are announced with no useful name. Most builders have a field for this in the element's settings, often called an accessible name or ARIA label.

6. Page language

This is one attribute on the page, such as lang="en". It tells screen readers how to pronounce your words. Most builders set this from your site settings, so check it there.

Checklist part 2: what you have to check yourself

Scanners cannot judge these, and the W3C's Easy Checks cover most of them. The W3C warns that a page could pass these basic checks and still have serious barriers, so treat this as a first look and not a pass mark.

On touch screens, also check that small buttons are easy to hit. WCAG 2.2 sets a minimum target size of 24 by 24 CSS pixels, with exceptions. Close buttons on pop-ups often fall short.

Then try a screen reader for ten minutes if you can. VoiceOver is built into Macs and iPhones, and Windows includes Narrator. You will not become an expert in that time, but you will hear what an unnamed button sounds like. Check any cookie banner, chat widget and booking tool too, since third-party tools can bring their own barriers.

Where these problems come from on your platform

WebAIM's report also averaged errors by platform. It warns that a technology's numbers cannot always be attributed to the technology itself, so read this as a pointer and not a verdict.

Two things follow. A tidy theme does not protect you, because your colors, images and form fields are your own choices. And on WordPress or Shopify, apps, plugins and sliders can add markup you did not write. WebAIM links several popular carousel and pop-up libraries with more errors, so a simple page often starts ahead. Webflow publishes its own checklist with no-code fixes, and The A11Y Project's checklist is a good next step if you want more depth.

Do you legally have to do this?

We are not lawyers, and this varies by country, but here is what official pages say.

In the US, the Department of Justice's guidance (18 March 2022, read 4 November 2026) says it has consistently taken the position that the ADA applies to the goods and services that businesses open to the public offer online. It gives examples such as retail stores, banks, restaurants and medical offices. It also says there is no detailed regulation setting a standard for those businesses, which have flexibility in how they comply, and it points to WCAG as helpful guidance. The page states that it is informal guidance. Separate requirements published in 2024 cover state and local governments.

Our accessibility statement guide covers other countries, and what to publish once you have done these checks.

Do accessibility widgets work?

A widget adds a toolbar to your page for adjusting text size or contrast. Some sellers go further and claim that the tool makes a site compliant. Be careful of that claim. In 2025 the FTC finalized an order requiring accessiBe to pay $1 million, over claims that its AI product could make any website compliant with WCAG.

A toolbar does not add the missing labels and alt text underneath, and nobody on your team learns anything from it. If you already pay for one, you can still run the checks above. Fix the page itself and judge the toolbar separately.

How to keep it fixed

• Check new pages before publishing, using a free browser scanner such as WAVE or Lighthouse in Chrome.
• Set your colors and fonts once, at the site level, so a new section cannot drift.
• Make alt text part of adding an image. Add it at upload and not as a clean-up job.
• Recheck after any redesign, new plugin or new form, and add a line to your website audit.
• Give people a way to tell you about problems, as a clear contact route, and reply when they do.

The checks overlap with other work. Larger tap targets and readable text help everyone using a phone, as our mobile website design guide explains, and clear headings help readers and search engines to follow your page.

How we help at Amariq

If your checks turn up problems you cannot fix from the builder's settings, we can fix contrast, labels, keyboard paths and headings on Webflow, Framer, WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace or a custom build, and nothing has to move platform. We quote from the scope, never by the hour, with 40% to start, 30% at design approval and 30% before launch. See our website optimization service.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free way to check website accessibility?

Use WAVE or Lighthouse in Chrome for a first scan, then go through the keyboard checks above by hand. Scanners find missing labels and low contrast quickly, but they cannot tell you whether a page makes sense when you use it without a mouse.

What are the most common website accessibility problems?

According to the WebAIM Million 2026: low contrast text on 83.9% of home pages, missing alt text on 53.1%, missing form labels on 51%, empty links on 46.3%, empty buttons on 30.6% and a missing page language on 13.5%.

Which WCAG level should a small business aim for?

Level AA is the usual target, and it is the level WebAIM measured against. Your own legal duty depends on where you operate, so ask an adviser if you need a firm answer.

Does a 100 Lighthouse accessibility score mean my site is accessible?

No. It means the automated tests that ran found nothing. WebAIM says that the absence of detected errors does not show a page is accessible. Keyboard use, the meaning of alt text and form behaviour still need a person.

Are accessibility overlays legal?

Using one is not the issue. The risk lies in relying on one, or in repeating a claim that it makes you compliant. The FTC's accessiBe order concerned claims of that kind, and a toolbar does not fix the underlying page.

How long does it take to make a website accessible?

A small site with a clean theme can often fix the six common problems in a day or two. A site with many plugins, custom forms or a video library takes longer. Run the checks first, since the list of failures tells you more than any general estimate.

Do I need an accessibility statement?

It depends on where you are and what you do. UK public sector sites must have one, for instance. For most small businesses it is a helpful page, and our guide explains what to include.