Accessibility (WCAG)

WCAG assigns every requirement to one of four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, robust. Beneath them sit individual success criteria at levels A, AA and AAA. A page conforms to AA when it meets every level A and level AA criterion.

Three criteria show how concrete the guidelines are. Contrast: normal text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background, large text 3:1 (criterion 1.4.3). Keyboard: every function works without a mouse, from the menu to the submit button; the only exception is input that depends on the path of movement, such as freehand drawing (2.1.1). Text alternatives: images that carry meaning have a text alternative a screen reader can read out (1.1.1).

Testing tools catch missing alt text and weak contrast on flat colours. Whether the alt text actually describes the image, whether the tab order makes sense and whether a form error is reported in words people understand – only a person can judge that.

And tools report errors that aren't there: many cannot compute the contrast of text on a gradient, so they flag it across the board. A test report is a starting point, not a verdict.

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA, SR 151.3) requires federal authorities to make their online services accessible to people with visual impairments without making them harder to use (Art. 14 para. 2).

For private businesses that offer services to the public, it contains a ban on discrimination (Art. 6); anyone discriminated against can ask a court for compensation of up to CHF 5,000 (Art. 8 para. 3, Art. 11 para. 2). The act sets no technical standard for private companies' websites.

If you sell to consumers in the EU, the European Accessibility Act comes into play: Directive (EU) 2019/882 covers, among other things, e-commerce services provided after 28 June 2025.

Microenterprises providing services are exempt – fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than EUR 2 million. Whether an offer falls under it is a question for legal advice in the individual case; this entry does not replace that.

We test our own website for accessibility automatically: every website change that reaches `main` runs a fixed set of sample pages through a check against the WCAG 2.1 AA rules. On top of that, we calculate the contrast of text on gradients at every colour stop, because the usual tools cannot measure it. How this feeds into a new site: website development and UX design.

The fastest test you can run yourself: put the mouse aside and try to send an enquiry through your website using only the Tab key.