Forging Tomorrow
Free accessibility checklist

Is your website actually usable by everyone? Here’s how to check.

Web accessibility means your site works for people using a screen reader, navigating by keyboard only, or living with low vision, color blindness, or a motor impairment. It’s not a niche concern. It’s a growing legal expectation (small businesses and nonprofits alike are seeing more accessibility complaints and lawsuits tied to basic website problems), and more importantly, it’s simply whether your site works for everyone trying to use it. This checklist covers the basics anyone can check, no code, no developer required.

It takes about 5 minutes, it’s free, and you’ll see your results right away.

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Answer honestly, based on how your site actually works today, not how you think it should work. Most sites have gaps here. The point isn’t to catch you out, it’s to show you exactly where to focus.

01 Images have real descriptions Photos and graphics on our site have a short text description behind them (called “alt text”), so someone using a screen reader knows what the image shows. How to check: Right-click any image and look for “Inspect” or check with your website platform’s media library, most let you view or edit alt text directly. If you’re not sure, ask whoever built your site to show you where alt text lives.
02 You can use the whole site with just a keyboard Someone could get through our entire site (menus, buttons, forms) using only the Tab and Enter keys, no mouse required. How to check: Put your mouse aside and press Tab repeatedly from your homepage. If you can reach every link, button, and form field, and submit a form, without touching your mouse, you’re good.
03 You can always see where you are on the page When we tab through the site with a keyboard, it’s obvious which link or button is currently selected (a visible outline, highlight, or color change). How to check: While tabbing through the site (see item 2), watch for a visible box, underline, or color shift around whatever’s selected. If it’s ever unclear where you are, that’s a gap.
04 Text is easy to read against its background Our text color stands out clearly from its background, no light gray text on white, no low-contrast color combinations. How to check: Squint at your site, or view it in black and white (most phones have a grayscale display setting). If any text gets hard to read, the contrast is too low.
05 Every form field has a clear label Every box someone fills out (name, email, message) has a visible label telling them what to type, not just placeholder text that disappears once they click in. How to check: Click into a form field on your site. If the hint text vanishes and there’s nothing left telling you what the field is for, that’s a gap.
06 Links say where they go Our links describe what they lead to (“see our pricing,” “download the guide”), not vague phrases like “click here” or “read more” with no context. How to check: Scan your site for any link text that would make no sense read on its own, out of context, on a list. If you see “click here” or “learn more” with nothing else around it, that’s a gap.
07 Headings are used in order, not just for size The bold, large text breaking up our pages is set up as actual headings (Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on) in our website editor, not just text we made bigger and bolder by hand. How to check: Most website editors (WordPress, Squarespace, Wix) let you select text and see if it’s tagged as a “Heading” versus plain “Paragraph” text made to look big. If your section titles are just bolded paragraph text, that’s a gap.
08 Text can be enlarged without breaking the page Someone can zoom in or increase their browser’s text size and still read everything, without text overlapping, getting cut off, or the layout falling apart. How to check: On a desktop browser, press Ctrl/Cmd and + a few times to zoom to 200%. If text overlaps, disappears, or the page becomes unusable, that’s a gap.
09 Videos have captions or a transcript Any video on our site has captions, and any audio-only content (like a podcast) has a written transcript available. How to check: Play any video on your site with the sound off. If you can’t follow what’s being said, and there are no captions on-screen, that’s a gap.
10 We don’t rely on color alone to explain something Where we use color to show meaning (an error in red, a required field marked in orange), there’s also a word, symbol, or label alongside it, not color by itself. How to check: Imagine the page in black and white. If a red error message or a color-coded status would lose its meaning entirely without the color, that’s a gap.
11 Every page has a clear, specific title Each page on our site has its own descriptive title (visible in the browser tab), not just our business name repeated on every single page. How to check: Open a few different pages on your site and look at the browser tab text for each. If every page says the same thing, that’s a gap.
12 There’s a way to skip straight to the content Someone using a keyboard or screen reader can jump straight to the main content, without being forced to tab through the entire menu first on every single page. How to check: Load any page and press Tab once. If the very first thing you land on is a “skip to content” link (it may be invisible until you tab to it), you’re good. If your first several tabs are all menu items, that’s a gap.
13 Buttons and links are easy to tap on a phone On mobile, our buttons and links are big enough and spaced out enough that someone can tap the right one without accidentally hitting the wrong link. How to check: Pull up your site on your phone and try tapping through it with one thumb. If you keep missing or mis-tapping tightly packed links, that’s a gap.
14 Error messages explain what to do, not just that something’s wrong If someone fills out a form incorrectly, the error message tells them specifically what to fix (“enter a valid email address”), not just “error” or a red box with no explanation. How to check: Try submitting one of your own forms with a field left blank or filled out wrong. Read the message that comes back. If it doesn’t tell you what to fix, that’s a gap.