Every year, WebAIM conducts its annual accessibility analysis of the top one million home pages. And every year, the results tell the same story: a small handful of errors account for the vast majority of accessibility failures. In the 2025 report, 95.9% of home pages had detectable WCAG 2 failures, and just six error types were responsible for nearly all of them.

The good news? These are not obscure, deeply technical problems. They are straightforward issues that anyone — business owner, content editor, marketing manager — can understand and, in most cases, fix without writing a single line of code.

If you have been putting off accessibility because it feels overwhelming, this article is your starting point. Fix these five issues first, and you will eliminate the majority of barriers on your website.

1. Low Contrast Text

What it is: Text that does not have enough color difference from its background. Light gray text on a white background is the classic example, but it also includes colored text on colored backgrounds, text over images, and placeholder text in form fields.

Why it matters: Over 300 million people worldwide have some form of color vision deficiency. Beyond that, anyone using a device in bright sunlight, looking at a dimmed screen at night, or simply dealing with aging eyesight will struggle to read low-contrast text. WCAG 2.2 requires a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text (18px bold or 24px regular).

How to fix it:

• Use a free contrast checker like the WebAIM Contrast Checker to test your color combinations
• Enter your text color and background color, and the tool will immediately tell you if you pass or fail
• If your brand colors fail the contrast test, adjust the shade slightly — often a small change (making a blue 10% darker, for example) is enough to pass without changing your brand identity
• Pay special attention to text on images, buttons, links, and form placeholder text — these are the most commonly overlooked areas
• If you use a website builder like WordPress or Squarespace, check your theme’s color settings and adjust the defaults

2. Missing Alternative Text on Images

What it is: Images without alt attributes — the text descriptions that screen readers announce when a user cannot see the image. When alt text is missing, a screen reader might read the file name instead (“IMG_3847.jpg”), which is meaningless.

Why it matters: Screen reader users rely entirely on alt text to understand what images communicate. This affects approximately 7 million people in the US alone who use screen readers. It is also a legal requirement under the ADA, EAA, and WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Level A — the most basic level of compliance).

How to fix it:

• Go through every image on your site and add descriptive alt text that conveys the purpose of the image
• For informational images, describe what the image shows and why it matters in context: “Bar chart showing 40% increase in mobile traffic from 2024 to 2025” is better than “chart”
• For decorative images (visual flourishes, background patterns), mark them as decorative so screen readers skip them. In most CMS platforms, there is a checkbox or an option to leave the alt text field empty intentionally
• Keep alt text concise — aim for one to two sentences at most
• Do not start with “Image of” or “Picture of” — screen readers already announce that it is an image

For a deeper dive, see our Complete Guide to Writing Effective Alt Text.

3. Missing Form Labels

What it is: Form fields (text inputs, dropdowns, checkboxes) that do not have properly associated labels. A sighted user might see the word “Email” next to a text box, but if that label is not programmatically connected to the field, a screen reader user will hear only “text input” with no indication of what to type.

Why it matters: Forms are where users take action — signing up, making purchases, submitting inquiries. If your forms are inaccessible, you are blocking potential customers at the exact moment they are trying to engage with your business. Missing labels affect screen reader users, voice control users (who navigate by saying field names), and anyone using assistive technology.

How to fix it:

• In most website builders, make sure every form field has a visible label (not just placeholder text). Placeholder text disappears when users start typing, which creates problems for people with cognitive disabilities and short-term memory difficulties
• If you are editing HTML directly, ensure every <input> has a matching <label> element with a for attribute that matches the input’s id
• If you use a form builder plugin (Gravity Forms, WPForms, Typeform), check that the “label” field is filled in for every question — most plugins handle the technical connection automatically
• Test your forms with a screen reader or use the free WAVE browser extension to flag unlabeled fields

Learn more about building inclusive forms in our Accessible Forms Guide.

4. Empty Links and Buttons

What it is: Links or buttons that have no text content — often icon-only buttons (a hamburger menu icon, a shopping cart icon, a social media icon) that look obvious visually but provide no information to screen readers.

Why it matters: When a screen reader encounters a link or button with no text, it might announce just “link” or “button,” leaving the user with no idea what it does. For icon-only navigation elements, this effectively makes parts of your site completely unusable for screen reader users. This violates WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value) and 2.4.4 (Link Purpose).

How to fix it:

• For every icon-only button or link, add descriptive text. If you want the text to be invisible to sighted users, use a screen-reader-only CSS class (most CSS frameworks include one, often called sr-only or visually-hidden)
• Social media icon links should say “Facebook” or “Follow us on Twitter,” not just show the icon
• Your mobile menu button should say “Menu” or “Open navigation,” not just display three horizontal lines
• In WordPress, check that your icon plugins and theme features include an “aria-label” or “screen reader text” option for icon buttons
• Shopping cart icons should say “Shopping cart (3 items)” rather than just showing a cart icon

5. Missing Document Language

What it is: The HTML document does not declare what language it is written in. This is set with the lang attribute on the <html> tag (for example, <html lang="en"> for English).

Why it matters: Screen readers use the language declaration to select the correct pronunciation engine. Without it, a French screen reader might try to read English text with French pronunciation rules, making the content incomprehensible. This affects every screen reader user who visits your site and is a Level A requirement under WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 3.1.1.

How to fix it:

• If you use WordPress, go to Settings > General and make sure your Site Language is set correctly — WordPress will handle the HTML lang attribute automatically
• In Squarespace, the language is set in Settings > Language & Region
• In Shopify, check your theme’s theme.liquid file for the <html> tag and ensure it includes lang="en" (or your site’s primary language)
• If you have multilingual content, each page should declare its own language, and sections in different languages should use the lang attribute on their container elements

How to Check Your Site Right Now

You do not need to hire a consultant or learn to code to find these issues. Here are two free tools you can use today:

1. WAVE Browser Extension — Install it in Chrome or Firefox, navigate to your website, and click the WAVE icon. It will highlight missing alt text, missing labels, contrast errors, and empty links directly on the page with visual indicators.

2. Google Lighthouse — Built into Chrome DevTools (press F12, then go to the Lighthouse tab). Run an accessibility audit and Lighthouse will score your page and list specific issues with links to remediation guidance.

Both tools catch the five errors described in this article, along with many others. Run them on your home page, your most important landing pages, and any page with forms.

Beyond the Top Five

Fixing these five errors will not make your site fully WCAG-compliant — automated tools can only catch about 30 to 40 percent of accessibility issues. But these fixes address the most common and most impactful barriers, and they demonstrate a good-faith effort toward accessibility.

For a more thorough review, see our Five-Minute Accessibility Audit to learn how to spot additional issues, or read our WCAG Explained in Plain English to understand the full standard.

Related Reading

• Complete Guide to Writing Effective Alt Text — deep dive into image descriptions
• Color Contrast Guide: Meeting WCAG Standards — everything about contrast requirements
• Accessible Forms Guide — building forms everyone can use

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