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Web accessibility guides

Six free guides on what the rules actually say, which law applies to you, and where to spend your first hour of fixing. Plain English, every claim sourced, no badge at the end of it.

If you only read one guide, read the first one. If you read three, read these three, in this order.

Where to start

  1. Start with the checklist

    Nearly every accessibility law, including the EAA and ADA Title II, points back to the same technical standard. Read the WCAG 2.2 checklist first so you know what "accessible" is actually being measured against before you worry about which law applies to you.

  2. Then find the law that applies to you

    Selling into the EU, even from outside it? Read the EAA compliance guide. Running a US state or local government site? Read the ADA Title II deadline guide — the date moved in 2026, and a lot of pages online still quote the old one.

  3. Then fix alt text first

    Once you know the target, fix the highest-volume problem. Missing, vague or simply wrong alt text shows up on more elements than any other check we run, and it's usually the fastest way to see a score move. The alt text guide covers the four ways it fails.

All guides

  • Alt text: how to write it and how it fails

    The four ways alt text fails — inaccurate, vague, filename-as-description, and decorative images that get narrated anyway — with a fix for each. Alt text touches more elements than any other check, so it's usually the fastest place to see a score improve.

  • WCAG 2.2 checklist

    Every Level AA success criterion in WCAG 2.2, organised as a working checklist instead of a wall of spec text. This is the technical standard nearly every accessibility law points back to, including the EAA and ADA Title II.

  • EAA compliance guide

    What the European Accessibility Act actually covers, and why the microenterprise exemption means a lot of small "SMB" targets aren't in scope at all. Includes the verified national penalty maxima, because there is no single EU-wide fine.

  • ADA Title II deadline guide

    The compliance date for US state and local government websites moved in April 2026 — this guide has the real dates for entities above and below 50,000 population. The underlying standard, WCAG 2.1 AA, didn't change even though the deadline did.

  • Why rule-based scanners miss issues

    What an automated scanner can and can't see, including why roughly a third of WCAG is the defensible estimate of what's machine-detectable at all. Worth reading before you trust any tool's score out of 100 — including ours.

  • Accessibility overlays and the FTC

    What the FTC's $1,000,000 case against accessiBe actually charged, and why "automatically remediates your site" is now a claim regulators are willing to punish. Read this before buying anything that promises compliance from a script tag.

Guides tell you what to fix. The scanner finds it.

Once you know which checks matter for your site, run the free scan — 16 rule-based checks across up to three pages, no signup required.

Scan my site — free