Tips and tools for more accessible, inclusive, and sustainable websites

Accessibility checklist: can everyone use your website?

Accessibility means improving usability for everyone, including disabled and neurodivergent people, those using assistive technologies and mobile devices, and those with slow internet connections. You can learn more from W3C.

Check colour contrast

• Use: WebAIM Contrast Checker (to assess specific colour combinations) or WAVE (to assess a full webpage)
• Aim for: a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text so that your content is  readable for users with low vision or colour blindness

Test keyboard navigation

• Use: WAVE
• Aim for: users can move through your entire website using only a keyboard

Check screen reader compatibility

• Use: NVDA Screen Reader or VoiceOver (Mac)
• Aim for: content is accessible and makes sense without visual context
• Tip: avoid including text content or data in an image (or when you do, replicate it in the body text as well)

Add helpful alt text to images

• Use: WAVE (to check for missing alt text), Harvard’s  resource on best practices (to help you write alt text), and your website editor (to add alt text to your images)
• Aim for: all images include alt text described in a way that conveys meaning and context
• Example: “Three people holding handmade protest signs outside the Dáil Éireann in Dublin during a rally for trans liberation.”

Inclusivity checklist: is your website community-centred?

Inclusion means building your website in a way that centres the diversity of lived experiences among those you are communicating with. Learn more at InclusionHub.

Review readability of your content

• Use: Hemingway Editor and NALA’s resource on plain English
• Aim for: language is clear to people who struggle with reading and understanding information (be sure to check for acronyms, complex sentences, and jargon)

Share your content in multiple languages

• Use: Local translators and Polylang (for WordPress websites) or other multilingual tools
• Aim for: content availability across the languages spoken by the people you are trying to reach

Prioritise community-rooted photography

• Use: Local photographers from the communities you serve, directories within your country such as  Trans Photographers Directory or Blak Lens
• Aim for: authentic imagery that showcases the diversity of your communities

Use diverse stock images

• Use: Disabled and Here, The Gender Spectrum Collection, and TONL
• Aim for: images that reflect different body types, ages, genders, disabilities, and cultural contexts (if you don’t have custom photography)

Sustainability checklist: what environmental impact does your website have?

While individual websites may seem small, collectively the internet has a significant carbon footprint. Sustainable web practices can reduce emissions while improving performance and user experience. You can learn more from Sustainable Web Design and Green SEO.

Check your site’s carbon impact

• Use: Website Carbon Calculator, Ecograder, or Digital Carbon Online
• Aim for: reduced emissions and improved carbon rating

Switch to a green hosting provider

• Use: The Green Web Directory
• Aim for: website hosting powered by renewable energy (if your host isn’t already!)

Shift to low carbon images

• Use: ClimateAction.tech’s resource on images and TinyIMG or Squoosh (to convert to WebP or AVIF formats)
• Aim for: reduced reliance on images and conversion site-wide to WebP or AVIF for lower weight and faster loading pages

Remove excess content

• Use: Google Analytics report or similar (to extract all current website pages) and your website CMS
• Aim for: a clean website structure without extraneous pages, documents, and media that add weight (and confusion) to your site

Remember that tools are a starting point

Automated tools are helpful starting points for working on the accessibility, inclusion, and sustainability of your website, but they alone aren’t enough. Pair your efforts with direct engagement with the community:

• Ask people about their experiences of and needs from your website
• Hire writers, translators, and photographers from the communities you serve
• Engage (and pay!) people to review and test your website (e.g. a blind person to assess content with a screen reader)
• Gather community feedback regularly

Looking to do more?

At Comotion, our Digital Justice & Sustainability Audit helps organisations assess and improve their digital presence across accessibility, inclusion, and sustainability through technical review, stakeholder engagement, and implementation planning.

If your organisation is thinking about how to build a more accessible, inclusive, and sustainable website, we’d love to talk.