Accessibility checklist

The 18 failures found most often, in three passes: six a scanner finds, six that take a keyboard, six that take a screen reader, zoom or a ruler. Each row links to the guide that fixes it.

95.9%

of 1,000,000 home pages had at least one failure a scanner can detect, in February 2026.

WebAIM Million 2026 (opens in a new tab)

detectable failures per home page, on average. The six most common are the first pass below.

checks on this sheet: 6 a scanner finds, 12 that take a keyboard, a screen reader or zoom.

0 / 18 ticked Ticks stay in this browser.

Pass 1: Run a scanner

The six failures the WebAIM Million found on the most home pages, of a million checked in February 2026. axe or Lighthouse catches each one, so there is no reason to ship any of them. WebAIM Million (opens in a new tab)

Every piece of text reaches 4.5:1 against what is behind it, or 3:1 from 24px (18.66px bold), in hover and focus states too.
Scanner WCAG 1.4.3 Shuts out: Low vision Colour vision

Guide: Low-contrast text on brand colours, photos and hover states

83.9% of home pages
Every image that tells something has alt text that says it. Decorative images have alt="".
Scanner WCAG 1.1.1 Shuts out: No vision Low vision

Guide: Missing alt text on images that carry information

53.1% of home pages
Every field has a label element, or aria-labelledby to its visible text. A placeholder is not a label.
Scanner WCAG 1.3.1 · 2.5.3 · 3.3.2 Shuts out: No vision Motor Cognitive

Guide: Form fields with missing or mismatched labels

51% of home pages
Every link has text, or an image with alt, that says where it goes.
Scanner WCAG 2.4.4 Shuts out: No vision Motor

Guide: Banner and image links with no name

46.3% of home pages
Every icon-only button has a name in words: hidden text, aria-label or a visible label.
Scanner WCAG 4.1.2 · 1.1.1 Shuts out: No vision Motor Cognitive

Guide: Icon-only buttons with no accessible name

30.6% of home pages
The html element’s lang matches the language of the page.
Scanner WCAG 3.1.1 Shuts out: No vision Cognitive Low vision

Guide: Pages read aloud in the wrong language

13.5% of home pages

Pass 2: Put the mouse away

Put the mouse away and press Tab through the page. A scanner passes all six of these on a page that fails them.

Every control is a button, a link or a form element, so Tab reaches it and Enter or Space works.
Keyboard WCAG 2.1.1 · 4.1.2 Shuts out: Motor No vision

Guide: Div buttons that can't be reached with Tab
Where focus is can be seen on every control, on every background. No outline: none without a replacement.
Keyboard WCAG 2.4.7 Shuts out: Motor Cognitive

Guide: Missing focus indicators on custom buttons
Control edges, icons and the focus ring reach 3:1 against what is next to them.
Keyboard WCAG 1.4.11 Shuts out: Low vision Motor

Guide: Low-contrast form fields, icons and focus rings
Opening a dialog moves focus into it, Tab stays inside, and closing it returns focus to the control that opened it.
Keyboard WCAG 2.4.3 Shuts out: Motor No vision

Guide: Modals that leave keyboard focus behind them
Tab leaves every editor, embed and widget, or the page says in text which key releases it.
Keyboard WCAG 2.1.2 Shuts out: Motor No vision

Guide: Keyboard traps in editors and embedded widgets
The first Tab press reveals a skip link to the main content, and it works.
Keyboard WCAG 2.4.1 Shuts out: Motor No vision Low vision

Guide: Skip links that are missing or can't be reached

Pass 3: Listen, zoom and measure

Each of these can pass every rule and still fail the person. The method is named on each row.

Saved, failed, added-to-basket and search-result messages are announced without moving focus.
Screen reader WCAG 4.1.3 Shuts out: No vision Low vision

Guide: Status messages that are shown but never announced
Each error says what went wrong, in words next to its field, and the page leads people to it.
Screen reader WCAG 3.3.1 · 3.3.3 Shuts out: No vision Colour vision Cognitive

Guide: Form errors that don't say how to fix them
Every section title is a heading at the level of its place in the outline, under one h1.
Screen reader WCAG 1.3.1 · 2.4.6 Shuts out: No vision Low vision

Guide: Headings chosen by size, not by structure
Each page’s title names the page first and the site last, and changes when the view changes.
Screen reader WCAG 2.4.2 Shuts out: No vision Cognitive Low vision

Guide: Page titles that are the same on every page
At 400% zoom, or in a 320px-wide window, nothing scrolls sideways and nothing is cut off.
Zoom WCAG 1.4.10 Shuts out: Low vision Motor Cognitive

Guide: Pages that scroll sideways on a narrow screen
Every target is at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or has that much clear space around it.
Target measurement WCAG 2.5.8 Shuts out: Reach, strength Motor Low vision

Guide: Tap targets too small and too close together

All 18 ticked is a floor, not conformance

WCAG 2.2 AA asks for much more than this list, and most of it takes a person going through the tasks that matter with a keyboard, a screen reader and zoom. That is what an audit is for.

Testing and fixes What automated checks miss See a sample report