Web accessibility has long been a niche subject, confined to public administrations and large companies subject to regulatory obligations. In 2025, the landscape has changed. The European Accessibility Act progressively extends accessibility requirements to a much broader range of economic actors, including private companies offering online services.
In concrete terms, making a site accessible means ensuring that every person, regardless of their disabilities — visual, auditory, motor or cognitive — can navigate, understand and interact with your content. This involves compliance with the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), a technical framework covering HTML structure, colour contrasts, keyboard navigation, text alternatives for images, form readability, and many other criteria.
The legal framework is tightening, and sanctions are becoming concrete. Beyond the legal risk, inaccessibility represents a net loss of market. Approximately 15% of the global population lives with some form of disability. Excluding them from your site is closing the door on a considerable audience.
But accessibility is not merely a constraint. It is a formidable quality lever. An accessible site is a better-structured, faster, better-ranked site. Accessibility best practices largely overlap with SEO best practices: semantic markup, heading hierarchy, alt text, loading performance. Google favours sites that offer an inclusive experience.
Accessibility also prompts a rethink of the user experience as a whole. A button large enough to be tapped benefits all users, not just those with motor difficulties. Sufficient colour contrast improves readability for everyone, including the person checking their phone in bright sunlight. A well-structured form reduces errors for all visitors.
Web accessibility is not a separate workstream. It is an integrated component of quality web design. At AKREA DIGITAL, we build accessibility principles into the design and development phase from the outset. If you would like to assess your current site's compliance, our digital audit includes an accessibility review.