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Design and accessibility: what can be measured objectively
Taste cannot be scored. Contrast ratios, tap target sizes, field labels and keyboard navigation can — and they decide whether the site is usable at all.
- Weight in the score
- 9/100
- checks in this category
- 46
Why it matters
These checks run on axe-core and WCAG criteria. Contrast below 4.5:1 makes text unreadable for a real share of your visitors; a button with no accessible name does not exist to a screen reader; a tap target under 24 px gets missed. These cost customers before they cost points.
The checks that run
The list below is the audit's own, generated from its catalogue — it follows the product rather than describing it from memory.
- lang attribute in valid format
- No positive tabindex
- No empty headings (h1-h6)
- No console errors on load
- No WCAG violations detected (axe-core)
- Viewport tag present (responsive site)
- Buttons with accessible text
- Required fields with accessible error handling
- Clickable targets of at least 24×24 px (WCAG 2.5.8)
- Consistent typography scale
- aria-hidden elements not focusable
- Custom elements with ARIA labels
- Fieldsets with legend
- Visible focus not disabled
- Forms allowing paste
- Geolocation not requested on load
- Unique IDs on the page
- Images displayed without distortion
- Images with declared width/height (no layout shift)
- Images served at a suitable resolution
- Labels correctly associated with an existing field
- Landmark roles present (main, nav, header...)
- Links with descriptive text
- Skip links present
- Line length adapted for reading
- Sufficiently airy layout
- Controlled number of font families
- Reasonable number of fonts
- Notifications not requested on load
- Correct heading hierarchy order
- Consistent color palette
- Balanced first screen between text and visuals
- Satisfactory Lighthouse Accessibility score
- SVG with accessible title or aria-label
- Tables with <th> headers
- Legible font sizes (actual measurement)
- Comfortable body text size (≥ 14 px)
- Reasonable length alt texts
- Alt texts without redundant wording
- Descriptive alternative texts
- All forms have associated labels
- Single <main> tag present
- Autoplay videos correctly muted
- Videos with playback controls
- Videos with captions
- Touch targets sufficiently large
Check your site against these
A free scan runs these checks and those of the other 10 categories, and returns the detail of every failure with its fix.
Scan my site for freeOther categories
- Website security: what an audit actually checks
- Website performance: what an audit really measures
- Technical SEO audit: the foundations before the keywords
- Content quality: readability, structure and intent
- Visibility to generative AI (GEO)
- Tech stack: what your infrastructure gives away
- Business information: what a visitor looks for and cannot find
- Mobile friendliness: beyond responsive layout
- Web analytics: knowing what happens on your site
- Performance budgets: thresholds, not impressions