7 Accessibility Checklist Priorities for Websites

A useful website accessibility checklist should examine more than an automated scan. It should cover how people navigate, understand, and interact with your content, including keyboard access, page structure, forms, images, visual presentation, media, and testing. The checklist below gives Calgary and Alberta business owners, marketers, and website managers a practical first review. It supports improvement, but completing it does not prove complete accessibility or legal compliance. The University of Michigan provides a helpful website and web application accessibility checklist based on commonly applied WCAG 2.1 AA requirements.

1. Keyboard access and visible focus

People who cannot use a mouse need to reach and operate the same essential features as other visitors. That includes navigation menus, search, buttons, links, forms, dialogs, accordions, carousels, and checkout or inquiry flows.

What to check: Can you reach every interactive element with the Tab key? Can you move backward with Shift+Tab and activate controls with Enter or Space where appropriate? For components such as menus or date pickers, do the expected arrow-key interactions work? Does the focus indicator remain visible, and does focus move in a logical order rather than jumping around the page?

First-pass test: Put your mouse aside and complete a key task, such as finding contact information or submitting an inquiry, using only the keyboard. If you become trapped in a menu, cannot tell where focus is, or cannot operate a control, document the page and component involved. Keyboard access is a sensible early priority because a failure can prevent a person from completing the task at all. Carleton University’s web accessibility checklist offers further practical checks for navigation and interaction.

2. Page structure, headings, and navigation

Clear structure helps visitors understand what a page contains and move directly to the information they need. It is especially important for people who use screen readers or other assistive technology, but meaningful headings and consistent navigation benefit everyone scanning a busy page.

What to check: Does each page have a meaningful title? Do headings describe the sections that follow and progress in a sensible hierarchy? Are navigation labels consistent from page to page? Do long pages provide useful section headings or a way to skip repeated navigation? Are lists, tables, landmarks, and other structural elements represented correctly rather than created only through visual styling?

First-pass test: Read the headings without the surrounding paragraphs. Could someone understand the page’s main purpose and find its key sections? If you have access to assistive technology, navigate by headings and landmarks. A heading outline that is empty, repetitive, or out of order is a useful signal that the underlying structure needs review. The University of Michigan checklist provides a broader reference for reviewing website structure and content.

3. Images, alternative text, and meaningful content

Images can communicate products, instructions, destinations, charts, or brand information. If their meaning is not available in text, visitors who cannot see them may miss important context. Alternative text should describe the image’s purpose on that page, not simply repeat a file name.

What to check: Do meaningful images have concise, contextual alternative text? Are decorative images treated as decorative so they do not add distracting, redundant information? For charts, diagrams, infographics, and text embedded in images, is the essential information also available in nearby text? Do image links or buttons explain their destination or action?

First-pass test: Temporarily hide images or review the alternative text in your content system. Can a visitor still understand the page’s message, product, offer, or next step? If an image is purely decorative, adding an elaborate description may be less helpful than excluding it from the reading experience. The Web Accessibility Checklist explains why meaningful and contextual alternative text matters.

4. Forms, labels, and error messages

Forms are often where an accessibility problem becomes a blocked business task. Contact requests, registrations, donations, event sign-ups, account creation, and purchases all depend on visitors understanding what information is required and how to correct mistakes.

What to check: Does every input have a clear, programmatically associated label? Are instructions available before the visitor needs them? Is required information communicated in more than one way? When a submission fails, does the message explain what went wrong and how to fix it? Can users identify the affected field, preserve information they already entered, and complete the form with a keyboard?

First-pass test: Complete the form without a mouse and intentionally leave required fields empty or enter information in an invalid format. Confirm that error messages are specific, easy to find, and connected to the relevant fields. Avoid relying on color alone, such as turning a border red without providing text or another clear indication. UC San Diego notes that a checklist helps identify issues but cannot make a website completely accessible on its own; its website accessibility checklist provides useful context for this limitation.

5. Color, contrast, and visual presentation

Visual design should support comprehension rather than require visitors to distinguish subtle colors, tiny text, or disappearing focus indicators. Review not only body text but also buttons, placeholders, links, charts, alerts, form states, and other elements that communicate information.

What to check: Is meaning communicated without color alone? Can visitors distinguish links from surrounding text? Do buttons and focus indicators remain visible against their backgrounds? Does text remain readable when enlarged? Do layouts preserve their meaning when viewed on smaller screens or with increased text size? Are spacing, alignment, and responsive behavior preventing content from being clipped or overlapped?

First-pass test: View important pages in grayscale or inspect whether a status, category, or instruction still makes sense without its color cue. Increase text size and resize the browser window. Look for clipped content, overlapping controls, horizontal scrolling that hides information, and focus states that disappear. The AccessibleLibraries.ca website accessibility checklist includes recommendations for making content usable regardless of navigation method.

6. Links, controls, audio, and video

Visitors should be able to tell what a link or button will do before activating it. Custom controls, pop-ups, carousels, audio players, and videos need the same attention as ordinary links and headings because they often combine visual state, timing, and interaction.

What to check: Are link labels meaningful out of context, rather than repeated phrases such as “click here”? Do buttons have names that describe their action? Can users open and close menus, dialogs, and carousels with a keyboard? Can moving content be paused or controlled? Do videos provide captions and, where needed, transcripts or other ways to access the information? Can audio be stopped or muted without searching through an inaccessible player?

First-pass test: Scan the links and buttons on a page without reading the surrounding copy. Would their labels still make sense? Then operate each important control with the keyboard and check whether its current state is clear. Play media with sound off and confirm that the essential message remains available through captions or a transcript. Include third-party embeds and marketing components in this review, not just the site’s main templates.

7. Automated tools plus manual evaluation

Automated accessibility evaluation tools can identify certain code, structure, and content patterns efficiently. They are useful for finding issues across multiple pages and checking whether changes introduce familiar problems. The W3C maintains a web accessibility evaluation tools list to help teams understand available options.

However, a tool cannot reliably judge every question a visitor faces. It may not know whether alternative text conveys the right meaning, whether a heading structure makes sense, whether an error message is understandable, or whether a real task can be completed without confusion. A clean automated result is not proof that a website is fully accessible.

First-pass test: Run an evaluation tool on representative pages, including the home page, a service or product page, a form, and a page with media. Then manually test those same pages with a keyboard, increased text size, different viewport widths, and content review. Where possible, include assistive technology testing or feedback from people with relevant lived experience. The California Department of Rehabilitation’s web accessibility requirements and assessment checklists provide another reference for organizing an assessment, but requirements for a particular organization should be considered separately.

How to prioritize findings after the first review

Start with problems that prevent people from navigating, understanding content, or completing an important task. A keyboard trap, missing form label, unusable menu, or unclear error may deserve attention before a lower-impact spacing or styling refinement. This is a practical order of work, not a legal severity rating.

Record each finding with the page or component, the observed problem, the likely effect on users, the suggested change, and the retest result. Group repeated issues by shared template or component so one development fix can improve several pages. After changes are made, repeat the relevant manual checks as well as the automated scan.

When a website upgrade or development review makes sense

An internal checklist review may be enough to correct content issues such as unclear link text, missing descriptions, or poorly written headings. More involved work may be appropriate when the problem comes from a shared template, custom interactive component, complex form, third-party integration, or older codebase. Rebuilding or upgrading the affected part can be more reliable than applying isolated visual fixes.

Global iTech Systems Ltd is a Calgary-based web design, website development, mobile app, SEO, and digital marketing agency. Its verified services include custom website development, website upgrades, clean-code development, and ongoing website support. Those services may be relevant when a business needs help implementing and maintaining website improvements, but a development project should not be presented as proof of accessibility certification or legal compliance.

Conclusion: use the checklist as a starting point

The strongest website accessibility review combines seven areas: keyboard and focus access, page structure, images and alternative text, forms and errors, visual presentation, links and media, and automated tools with manual evaluation. Begin with a few representative pages and the tasks that matter most to your visitors. Document what you find, address barriers that block access first, and retest after each meaningful change.

A checklist is a practical starting point, not a guarantee that every person can use every part of a website or that a site meets a particular legal standard. If recurring structural or technical problems make improvements difficult, a website upgrade or development review may be the sensible next step. Calgary organizations can contact Global iTech Systems Ltd about web design, website development, website upgrades, or ongoing website support.