This guide is for Australian small business owners who have heard the words "website accessibility" or "WCAG" and want to know what they mean in plain English. You don't need to be technical. If you can edit a page on your website, or brief the person who does, you can use everything here.
Accessibility matters for two reasons. A large share of Australians live with disability, so an inaccessible site turns real customers away. And the Disability Discrimination Act covers services provided online, so it is a legal question as well as a practical one.
We'll start with the basic terms, then cover who your site affects, what the law and the Australian Human Rights Commission say, how the WCAG levels work, a checklist you can work through yourself, and free tools to test your site. This is general information, not legal advice.
Website accessibility terms, explained simply
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the body that sets web standards, says web accessibility means websites are designed and built so that people with disabilities can use them. That covers visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive and neurological disabilities.
- WCAG: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, published by the W3C. They are the standard almost everyone uses to measure whether a website is accessible.
- Screen reader: software that reads the screen aloud, or sends it to a braille display. Many blind and low vision people use one to browse the web.
- Alt text: short alternative text attached to an image that describes what it shows or does. Screen readers read it aloud in place of the image.
- Colour contrast: the difference in brightness between text and its background. Pale grey text on white is low contrast and hard for many people to read.
- Keyboard access: being able to reach and use every link, button and form field with the Tab and Enter keys, without a mouse.
The W3C also points out that accessibility helps people without a disability: older people whose eyesight or hearing is changing, someone with a broken arm, a customer reading your site on a phone in bright sun, or someone watching your video in a noisy place.
How many of your customers it affects
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers found that 5.5 million Australians, or 21.4% of the population, had disability in 2022. That was up from 17.7% in 2018.
Disability is much more common with age. The same survey found 52.3% of Australians aged 65 and over had disability. If your customers skew older, as they do for many clinics, trades and local services, the share of visitors who benefit from an accessible site is higher again.
Not every disability affects how someone uses a website. But low vision, hearing loss, arthritis in the hands and memory or concentration difficulties all can, and those customers will leave a site they can't read or use.
Is website accessibility a legal requirement in Australia?
The short answer: there is no law that names WCAG and says every business website must meet it. But the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) does apply to websites, and that is the part business owners need to understand.
What the Disability Discrimination Act says
Section 24 of the DDA makes it unlawful for anyone who provides goods or services, paid or free, to discriminate against a person because of their disability. That includes refusing the service, or the terms or the way it is provided. The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) says that information and services provided online are themselves a service, so they are covered.
The best-known example is Maguire v SOCOG. Bruce Maguire, who is blind, complained that the Sydney Olympics website was not accessible to him, and the Commission found in his favour. It is still the case most Australian guidance points to.
The DDA also has a defence of unjustifiable hardship. A business does not break the law if making something accessible would cause it unjustifiable hardship, judged on things like the cost, the business's finances and the benefit to people affected. The business claiming it has to prove the hardship.
What the Human Rights Commission recommends
The AHRC publishes Guidelines on equal access to digital goods and services, updated in 2025. They are issued under the DDA to help organisations meet their obligations, and they recommend conforming with WCAG 2.2 at Level AA as a minimum.
Two points are easy to miss. First, the guidelines are not legally binding. Second, the AHRC says that following them does not by itself protect a business from a finding of discrimination. They show what good practice looks like, and the DDA remains the law.
If someone finds your site inaccessible, they can make a complaint to the AHRC. If you have a specific concern about your own obligations, speak to a lawyer. This guide is general information only.
WCAG 2.2 and the A, AA and AAA levels
WCAG 2.2 is the current version of the guidelines. The W3C published it on 5 October 2023, with an update in December 2024. It is also an international ISO standard.
WCAG is made up of testable rules called success criteria. Each one sits at one of three levels:
- Level A: the minimum. Without these, some people can't use the site at all. Example: images that carry meaning have alt text.
- Level AA: meets all of Level A plus a second set of criteria. This is the level the AHRC recommends and most organisations aim for. Example: body text has enough colour contrast.
- Level AAA: the highest level. The W3C itself says it is not recommended as a requirement for whole sites, because some content can't meet every AAA criterion.
For a small business, Level AA is the sensible target. You don't need to memorise the criteria. The checklist below covers the ones that most often trip up small business sites.
A website accessibility checklist for small business
Work through these on your home page, your main service page and your contact page first. Those are the pages that turn visitors into calls and bookings.
- Alt text on images: every image that carries information gets a short description, such as "Plumber fixing a kitchen tap". Purely decorative images get empty alt text so screen readers skip them.
- Colour contrast: WCAG Level AA asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text (18 point, or 14 point bold). Pale grey text and text over busy photos are the usual problems.
- Headings in order: one main heading per page, then subheadings beneath it. Use real heading styles, not just bold text, because screen reader users jump between headings to find what they need.
- Clear link text: links say where they go, such as "See our prices". "Click here" and "Read more" mean nothing when read out of context.
- Keyboard use: press Tab from the top of the page. You should be able to reach every link, button and form field in a sensible order, and see clearly which one is selected.
- Forms with labels: every field has a visible label, like "Phone number", not just grey placeholder text that disappears when you start typing. Error messages say what went wrong and how to fix it.
- Captions on video: any video with speech has captions, and audio-only content has a transcript.
- Readable text size: WCAG Level AA asks that text can be zoomed to 200% without content being cut off or features breaking. Try it in your browser with Ctrl and plus, or Cmd and plus on a Mac.
How to test your website's accessibility for free
Free automated tools catch a lot of the common problems in a few seconds. Two are worth knowing:
- WAVE: a free tool from WebAIM at Utah State University. Enter your web address at wave.webaim.org, or install the browser extension for Chrome, Firefox or Edge. It marks errors such as missing alt text, low contrast and empty links directly on your page.
- Lighthouse: built into the Chrome browser. Right-click your page, choose Inspect, open the Lighthouse tab and run an Accessibility report. You get a score and a list of failed checks.
Automated tools have limits. The W3C notes that a tool can tell you an image has no alt text, but only a person can judge whether the alt text it does have makes sense. A page can pass every automated check and still be hard to use.
So pair the tools with the W3C's Easy Checks, a free step-by-step guide to checking page titles, images, headings, contrast, text resizing, keyboard access, forms and video yourself. Then do the keyboard and screen reader tests from the checklist above.
What to do if your site fails
Most small business sites fail a few checks. That's normal, and most fixes are small. Start with what blocks customers from contacting you: form labels, contrast on buttons and your phone number, keyboard access to the menu and contact form, and alt text on key images. Our list of what to put on a small business homepage shows where those details usually sit.
Some problems are harder to fix because they come from an old theme, a page builder or plugins you can't easily change. If that's the case, the same issues usually show up as slow pages and a poor experience on phones too. Our guide to the signs your website needs a redesign helps you decide whether to fix or rebuild, and if visitors arrive but don't get in touch, read why your website gets visitors but no enquiries.
When you plan a new site or a redesign, put accessibility in the brief from the start and ask the designer how they will test it. It costs far less to build it in than to fix it later. Our FAQ covers how a Lumeen build and move works.
Key takeaways
- (01)
Website accessibility means people with disability, and older customers, can read and use your site.
- (02)
The Disability Discrimination Act covers services provided online. The AHRC recommends WCAG 2.2 Level AA as a minimum, though its guidelines are not legally binding.
- (03)
Start with alt text, contrast, headings, link text, keyboard access, form labels, captions and text size.
- (04)
Free tools like WAVE and Lighthouse find common problems, but a quick keyboard and screen reader test finds what they miss.
Frequently asked questions
Is website accessibility a legal requirement in Australia?
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 makes disability discrimination in providing goods and services unlawful, and that includes services provided online. No law requires a small business site to meet a specific WCAG level, but the Australian Human Rights Commission recommends WCAG 2.2 Level AA. This is general information, not legal advice.
What WCAG level should a small business aim for?
Level AA. It is the level the Australian Human Rights Commission recommends and the one most organisations use. Level AAA is not recommended as a requirement for whole sites, even by the W3C.
How do I check if my website is accessible?
Run your main pages through a free tool such as WAVE or the Lighthouse report in Chrome. Then use your site with only the keyboard, zoom the text to 200%, and try your phone's screen reader. The W3C's Easy Checks guide walks you through each step.
Can an accessibility plugin or overlay make my site compliant?
Don't rely on one. Many accessibility problems sit in the site's structure, such as missing form labels, unclear link text or headings out of order, and the reliable fix is in the site itself. The AHRC also notes that even following its own guidelines does not by itself protect a business from a discrimination finding.
More answers on price, hosting and timing in our FAQ.