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Accessible Website: Is Your Website Truly Accessible to Everyone?

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Imagine you run a restaurant, but a large portion of your guests can’t even get inside because the step at the entrance is too high. In a restaurant, such a barrier would be immediately noticeable. On the internet, however, it often goes unnoticed.

Did you know that there are about 1.8 million people living in Switzerland with a disability, such as visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive impairments? That’s just under one in five people.

What do digital barriers mean in everyday life?

Digital barriers manifest themselves in everyday life in the following ways, for example:

  • Without alternative text (alt text), an image remains silent

    People who are blind or visually impaired use screen readers—software that reads screen content aloud. If the image description is missing, the program doesn’t know what the image depicts and, in the worst case, will only read out an incomprehensible filename like “IMG_4092.jpg.” Good alt text doesn’t describe every visible detail; rather, it conveys the meaning within the specific context. “Photo” or “picture of a man” doesn’t say anything, but “Employee advising a customer at the reception desk” does.

  • Insufficient color contrast

    Light-colored text or pale shades on a light background may look subtle and modern, but they are often difficult for people with visual impairments to see. Reading on a smartphone in direct sunlight also becomes much more difficult for many others.

  • Navigation using only the mouse

    Not everyone can control a mouse with precision. People who rely on the keyboard—for example, due to a motor impairment—use the Tab key to move from field to field. If your “Order” button only responds to mouse clicks, that person may not be able to complete the purchase.

  • Videos without subtitles

    If a video lacks subtitles, people with hearing impairments may not be able to fully understand important content. Subtitles also help anyone who wants to watch a video on the go—on public transportation or at the office—without sound. This ensures your message gets across in a variety of situations.

What makes a website accessible?

An accessible website works like a well-run restaurant: All guests find a seat, understand the menu, and order on their own. That’s exactly how your website should work, too: Content is clearly visible and organized in an easy-to-understand way. Navigation and features can be accessed in a variety of ways.

But the technology behind the scenes must also be up to the task: Short loading times and a stable hosting environment help ensure that your website remains reliably accessible even on slower connections.

The web hosting from Green provides a solid foundation for this. The entry-level package is available for a limited time with a 50% discount starting at CHF 6.45/month.

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The 2-Minute Self-Test: How Accessible Is Your Website? 

The following 2-minute self-test will give you an initial idea of where barriers might exist on your website. Open your CMS tool and any website that includes text, images, and navigation, and perform the following five tests on it. 

  1. The Image Test: Open your CMS. Does the “Alternative Text” field for each image contain a brief description (e.g., “Employee advising a customer”) or just a filename like “IMG_4092.jpg”?
     
  2. The Sunlight Test: Pick up your cell phone and go outside. Can you still read even small or low-contrast text easily in bright daylight?
     
  3. The Keyboard Test: Put the mouse aside and use only the Tab key. Can you navigate to all links, buttons, and form fields in a logical order? Is it always clear which element is currently selected?
     
  4. The Mute Test:  If your website contains videos, turn off the sound. Is all the important information still understandable?
     
  5. The Read-Aloud Test: Use your browser’s “Read Aloud” feature. Does the text sound fluent and understandable, or do you quickly lose track of the meaning in long, complex sentences?

Anywhere you or the technology gets stuck, there could be a barrier. Every hurdle you remove opens your digital door to more people and reduces the risk that interested visitors will leave the site.

Legal Requirement: Do I Need to Update My Website Now?

In Switzerland, the digital accessibility requirement currently applies primarily to the public sector. Private companies, online stores, and service providers are not yet directly affected.

Does improving accessibility also improve search engine optimization? 

Many measures designed to improve accessibility also support search engine optimization. Alt text, captions, and clear headings help search engines better understand your content and match it to relevant search queries. 

  • Image descriptions (alt text): Help search engines better categorize images and make them easier to find in image search results. 

  • Subtitle: They make spoken video content easier for search engines to index and can help ensure that videos appear in relevant search results. 

  • Clear headings: Help search engines understand the topic and structure of a page more quickly. 

Accessibility alone does not guarantee a top spot in search results. However, a well-structured and easy-to-understand website creates the right conditions for better discoverability. Short loading times and reliable accessibility are also key factors. This requires high-performance hosting as the technical foundation.

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