Digital accessibility for businesses and charities means making websites, documents and online services easy for as many people as possible to use.
This includes disabled people, older people, people using assistive technology and anyone facing a temporary or situational barrier.
For a charity, accessibility can help more people find support, access services, volunteer, donate or take part in a campaign. For a business, it can make it easier for customers to find information, make a purchase or get in touch.
Accessibility is not only about meeting a standard. It is about removing barriers and helping more people engage with your organisation.
Why digital accessibility matters?
Every customer, service user, supporter and volunteer should be able to use your digital content.
However, inaccessible design can make simple tasks difficult or impossible.
Someone may struggle to:
- Read low-contrast text
- Navigate a website without a mouse
- Understand an image with no written description
- Complete a form with unclear labels
- Watch a video without captions
- Access information in an inaccessible PDF
For charities, these barriers may prevent people from finding essential support, applying for a service, making a donation or understanding important information.
For businesses, they may lead to missed enquiries, abandoned purchases and a poor customer experience.
Improving accessibility can help you:
- Reach a wider audience
- Support more service users and customers
- Make information clearer
- Build trust in your organisation
- Improve the usability of your website
- Support your legal responsibilities
- Create more inclusive services and campaigns
Many accessibility improvements also support good search engine optimisation. Clear headings, descriptive links, useful image descriptions and well-structured pages help people and search engines understand your content.
Why accessibility is important for charities
Charities often work with people who may face barriers when using digital services.
This can include disabled people, older people, people with low digital confidence, people using older devices and those with limited access to fast internet.
An accessible charity website can help people:
- Find support quickly
- Understand eligibility requirements
- Complete referral or application forms
- Register for activities
- Volunteer
- Donate
- Read updates and impact reports
- Contact the right person
Accessibility also matters when charities communicate with funders, partners, staff and volunteers.
Documents, reports, event materials, newsletters and social media posts should all be created with accessibility in mind.
A charity may have a clear and inclusive mission. However, inaccessible digital content can unintentionally stop people from taking part.
What the European Accessibility Act means?
The European Accessibility Act sets accessibility requirements for certain products and consumer services across the European Union.
It has applied since 28 June 2025. It covers specified areas such as ecommerce, consumer banking, transport information and booking services, electronic communications and some digital devices.
A UK business or charity may be affected if it provides an in-scope product or service to consumers in the EU.
However, the Act does not apply to every website, digital product or online service. Some exemptions also apply. For example, certain microenterprises providing services may be exempt.
Enforcement and penalties are set by individual EU countries, so the position can vary depending on where products or services are offered.
Businesses and charities that may be affected should seek appropriate legal advice about their specific responsibilities.
What about organisations in the UK?
UK businesses, charities and community organisations should still take accessibility seriously, even when the European Accessibility Act does not apply to them.
The Equality Act 2010 includes duties relating to disabled people and reasonable adjustments.
UK public-sector websites and mobile apps also have specific accessibility requirements. Some charities delivering public services or working closely with public-sector organisations may need to consider additional contractual or accessibility requirements.
Following accessibility guidance does not automatically confirm that every legal duty has been met. However, it provides a valuable framework for identifying and removing digital barriers.
More importantly, accessible digital services help organisations welcome and support more people.
What is WCAG 2.2?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, usually shortened to WCAG, explain how to make web content more accessible.
The latest recommended version is WCAG 2.2.
It includes guidance for people with visual, hearing, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning and neurological disabilities.
WCAG is organised around four principles. Digital content should be:
Perceivable
People must be able to access information in a way that works for them.
For example:
- Add useful alt text to meaningful images
- Provide captions and transcripts for video
- Use strong colour contrast
- Do not rely on colour alone to explain something
- Allow text to be enlarged without losing information
Operable
People must be able to navigate and use your website.
For example:
- Make menus and forms work with a keyboard
- Use clear, visible focus indicators
- Give people enough time to complete a task
- Avoid flashing or rapidly moving content
- Make buttons and links easy to select
Understandable
Content and controls should be clear and predictable.
For example:
- Use plain English
- Keep navigation consistent
- Label forms clearly
- Explain errors and how to correct them
- Use descriptive links instead of phrases such as “click here”
Robust
Content should work with different browsers, devices and assistive technologies.
This includes screen readers, voice controls, magnification tools and alternative keyboards.
Read the official WCAG 2.2 accessibility guidance from W3C for the full technical standard.
Simple accessibility improvements you can make today
Accessibility can feel like a large subject. Start with a few practical checks.
1. Review your headings
Use one H1 for the main page title. Then use H2 and H3 headings in a logical order.
Do not use bold text as a substitute for a heading.
Proper headings help screen-reader users understand and move through a page.
This is particularly important on charity websites with detailed service information, advice pages, reports or application guidance.
2. Improve your link text
A link should explain where it leads.
Instead of:
“Click here to learn more.”
Use:
“Read our website accessibility guidance.”
This helps people scanning the page and people using a screen reader’s list of links.
For charities, descriptive links are especially useful on donation pages, service directories, referral forms and downloadable resources.
3. Check your colour contrast
Text needs enough contrast against its background.
Light grey text on a white background may look stylish, but it can be difficult for many people to read.
Take extra care with campaign graphics, fundraising materials, event posters and social media templates. Your message should not become difficult to understand because of the design.
4. Test your website using a keyboard
Try navigating without a mouse.
Can you reach every menu item, button, link and form field? Can you see which item is currently selected?
If you become stuck or lose track of your position, other users may face the same problem.
Test important journeys such as:
- Making a donation
- Booking an event
- Applying for support
- Registering as a volunteer
- Completing a contact form
- Buying a product
- Signing up for a newsletter
5. Review your forms
Every field should have a clear label.
Instructions should be easy to understand, and error messages should explain what went wrong and how to fix it.
Do not use placeholder text as the only label for a field. It often disappears when someone starts typing.
Charities should pay particular attention to referral, grant, volunteer and service application forms. These may contain sensitive information, so the process should feel clear and reassuring.
6. Check downloadable documents
Many organisations publish annual reports, application forms, policies, guides and impact reports as PDFs.
These documents should use:
- Proper heading styles
- Clear reading order
- Descriptive links
- Accessible tables
- Alternative text for meaningful images
- Plain English
- Good colour contrast
Avoid uploading scanned documents that screen readers cannot interpret.
Where possible, provide important information as an accessible web page as well as a downloadable document.
How to write useful alt text
Alt text gives a written alternative to a meaningful image.
Screen readers can read it aloud to people who cannot see the image.
Good alt text explains the purpose of the image in its context.
Instead of:
“People in a room”
Use:
“Charity staff learning how to make online services more accessible.”
For a fundraising image, you may need to explain what is happening and why it is relevant.
For example:
“Volunteer delivering food parcels as part of the charity’s winter support programme.”
Keep alt text focused. You usually do not need to begin with “image of” or list every visual detail.
Decorative images do not need a description. They should normally use an empty alt attribute so screen readers can skip them.
If an infographic contains important figures, include those figures in the page text as well. Do not make readers rely on the image alone.
Making Microsoft 365 content more accessible
Accessibility also applies to documents, presentations, spreadsheets and emails.
Microsoft 365 includes an Accessibility Checker that can identify common issues.
Depending on the application, this may include:
- Missing alt text
- Unclear slide reading order
- Poor table structure
- Low colour contrast
- Missing document headings
- Links with unclear descriptions
The checker is a helpful starting point, but it cannot identify every barrier. Human review is still important.
When creating a document or presentation:
- Use built-in heading styles
- Give every slide a unique title
- Add alt text to meaningful images
- Keep tables simple
- Use descriptive link text
- Check the reading order
- Add captions or transcripts to video and audio
These checks are useful for business proposals, board papers, training materials, charity reports, funding applications and volunteer resources.
Making social media more accessible
Businesses and charities often use social media to promote services, events, campaigns and fundraising appeals.
A few small changes can make posts easier to understand:
- Add alt text to meaningful images
- Include captions on every video
- Provide a transcript for audio content
- Use CamelCase (use capital letters at the start of each word) in hashtags, such as #DigitalAccessibility
- Use emojis sparingly
- Avoid putting essential information only inside an image
- Write descriptive links
- Keep paragraphs short
- Explain acronyms the first time you use them
When sharing an event poster, repeat the date, time, location and booking information in the post itself.
This means people do not have to read text embedded in the image.
Accessibility and online donations
Donation journeys should be simple, clear and reassuring.
Check that supporters can:
- Understand where their money will go
- Select a donation amount using a keyboard
- Read all form labels
- Identify required fields
- Correct errors easily
- Understand payment and privacy information
- Receive a clear confirmation
Avoid creating unnecessary time limits or asking for more information than you need.
A complicated or inaccessible donation form can prevent someone from completing their gift.
Accessibility is an ongoing process
A website can change every time someone adds a page, publishes a blog, uploads a document or installs a new feature.
That means accessibility is not a one-off task.
Build simple checks into your normal process.
Review content before publishing, test important journeys and invite feedback from the people using your services.
For charities, this could include disabled service users, volunteers, supporters and staff.
Automated tools can highlight some technical issues. However, they should be combined with manual testing and, where possible, feedback from disabled users.
How Cosmic can help businesses and charities
Cosmic has been designing and building accessible websites since 1997.
Our team considers clear navigation, colour contrast, keyboard access and screen-reader compatibility throughout the design and development process.
We use WCAG 2.2 Level AA as our target for the websites we produce.
We can support businesses, charities and community organisations with:
- Accessible website design and development
- Website accessibility reviews
- Charity and nonprofit website development
- Accessible donation and application journeys
- Clear, user-friendly page structures
- Accessible content and document guidance
- Improvements to an existing website
- Practical digital training for staff and volunteers
- Ongoing website management and support
Explore Cosmic’s accessible website design and development support to see how we create websites that work better for more people.
Make your digital content easier for everyone
Small changes can remove major barriers.
By making digital accessibility for businesses and charities part of your everyday work, you can create clearer content, reach more people and offer a more welcoming experience.
Whether you run a small business, charity, social enterprise or community organisation, you do not need to fix everything at once.
Contact Cosmic for a practical conversation about improving your website or digital content. We can help you identify a useful and manageable place to begin.