The Main Digital Accessibility Offenses and How to Fix Them

I recently invited Chloe Arielle, an accessibility-focused website designer, onto my podcast to educate us all about the digital accessibility mistakes we might be making on our own sites — and she shared that it’s possible over 16.67% of your audience cannot use your site.

(or more, because diagnosis and reporting barriers are very real!)

SO many people write off website accessibility as an “issue” that “doesn’t have anything to do with them.”

…meanwhile, a FAT CHUNK of your audience can’t even SEE or USE your website (meaning they can’t buy from you, even if they wanted to)!

It’s not something to ignore, and caring about it isn’t as scary or overwhelming as it sounds, either.

But First, What Even Is Digital Accessibility?

Digital accessibility means making sure that people with disabilities can actually access your website, your content, your emails, all of it.

And before you think “that doesn’t apply to my audience” — one in six people experience significant disability, according to the World Health Organization.

That’s 16% of your audience who literally cannot buy from you, even if they want to. 

Here’s the analogy Chloe used that I haven’t stopped thinking about:

Imagine you’re standing in a group of six people. They’re having a great conversation about something you’re genuinely interested in. But they’re all speaking a different language. You can’t get a word in. Nobody’s even looking at you. You feel invisible — not because anyone’s trying to be mean, but because they just… didn’t think about you.

That’s what an inaccessible website feels like to someone with a disability.

But never fear, it doesn’t take a full rebrand to fix it.

Digital accessibility takes small, intentional changes. Let’s walk through the big ones.

1. Color Contrast

THE ISSUE: Not using enough contrast between colors (hello, pastel pink on white) that look cute but are nearly impossible to read for anyone with a visual impairment.

THE FIX: Run your colors through an online color contrast checker. If they’re too similar, either swap one out or adjust the shades—slightly darker on one end, slightly lighter on the other.

2. Alt Text and Image Descriptions

THE ISSUE: People who are blind or visually impaired use screen readers to navigate the web. Screen readers read the back-end code of your site, which means that if your images don’t have alt text, those users get nothing. Or worse, a file name like “image_753.”

THE FIX: Name all of your images, and add alt text to describe what’s most important in the image, not every single detail.

Here’s a free alt text generator tool from my friend Mariah!

3. Images of Text

If you’ve ever had a designer upload a Canva graphic to your website instead of actually coding in the text—this one’s for you.

THE ISSUE: Text that lives inside an image can’t be read by screen readers. It doesn’t resize properly when someone’s on a different device. It can’t be adjusted by accessibility browser extensions. And if the image doesn’t load (slow connection, email client that blocks images, etc.), your content just… disappears.

THE FIX: Use live text, meaning text that’s actually coded into your site. As in: use the text block to write the text, do not upload a picture of the text. Please.

4. Long Blocks Of Centered Text

THE ISSUE: Centering anything longer than a sentence or two. Our brains are pattern-seeking machines. When text is left-aligned, it’s easy to find the beginning of each new line.

When everything is centered, the starting point shifts constantly, and the eye has to work harder to track. The result is that large blocks of centered text are genuinely harder to read for everyone, not just people with disabilities.

THE FIX: Left-align your body copy. Save centering for short headlines or short paragraphs, and the occasional button.

5. Too Much Written In All Caps

THE ISSUE: When everything is in all caps, letters lose their shapes and start to blur together. The brain can’t differentiate as easily, and reading slows down.

THE FIX: Don’t do that.

If your website platform converts your text to all caps through styling (like an H3 eyebrow header), that’s actually better than manually typing everything in caps, because the screen reader will still read it as a normal sentence.

Which Website Platform Is Most Accessible?

Here’s how the platforms ranked in an accessibility study from Squarespacestylist:

• Shopify — 82%
• Squarespace — 72%
• Webflow — 63%
• Wix — 58%
• Showit — 28%

Showit (you know my love for Showit) came in last by a significant margin, with screen readers reportedly unable to navigate Showit sites at all because of its code structure. If you’re on Showit, it might be worth doing some digging into what areas of your digital accessibility can be improved.

WordPress wasn’t included because it’s such a massive variable depending on how it’s built,  but Squarespace was Chloe’s top recommendation for people who want a good balance of accessibility and ease of use.

Where To Start Fixing Digital Accessibility Issues

First: don’t panic. You didn’t know. Now you do. That’s the whole point.

Here’s Chloe’s starting plan:

Run a free accessibility audit. There’s a browser extension called Deque Systems Axe DevTools (a free version is available) that automatically scans your site and flags accessibility issues. Start with your homepage. Just the homepage. One page at a time.​

Make small changes, not big spirals. Accessibility is easiest to build in from the start, but that doesn’t mean you can’t improve it now. Fix what you can, when you can. Done is better than perfect.

If you liked these digital accessibility tips, you would love Tuesday Table of Contents, my weekly newsletter full of ridiculous stories and tips about copywriting, email marketing, blogging, storytelling, website copy, SEO, and running a business online.

Working With Chloe

Chloe is a designer who actually thinks about this stuff — which, as we established, is rarer than it should be. She primarily designs in Squarespace and is very much your accessibility fairy, whether she’s officially claimed that title yet or not.

Find her on Threads and Instagram at @chloearielle — and seriously, DM her about the sticker shop.

Chloe’s Links:

• Follow Chloe on Instagram and Threads.
• Check out her gorgeous AND accessible website.
• Tune in to her podcast Brand Jam.