In this guide (7)
- 1What are the WCAG (and why they concern your business too)
- 2The 4 WCAG principles explained simply: POUR
- 3The practical checklist: 12 checks for your website
- 4How accessibility is checked (tools + limitations)
- 5Accessibility and SEO: the same work, two advantages
- 6The KeideaCMS approach: carefully built accessibility, not an extra plugin
- 7In summary
If you've read that your website needs to be "accessible" and "WCAG compliant", but have no idea what that means in practice, you're in the right place. Website accessibility requirements aren't a puzzle reserved for developers only: most of them can be understood with common sense and checked in a few minutes. In this guide, we translate the WCAG into a practical checklist you can use right away to find out how far you are from being compliant.
If you've read that your website needs to be "accessible" and "WCAG compliant", but have no idea what that means in practice, you're in the right place. The accessibility requirements for a website aren't a puzzle reserved for developers only: most of them can be understood with common sense and checked in a few minutes. In this guide we translate the WCAG into a practical checklist that you can use right away to see how far you are from being compliant.
If you first want to get a clear picture of the legal obligation (who is involved, since when, what's at stake), start from the main article: Website accessibility: what the law says (European Accessibility Act). Here we focus on "what do I need to check".
What are the WCAG (and why they concern your business too)
The WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are the international guidelines that define what makes a website "accessible", meaning usable even by people with visual, hearing, motor or cognitive disabilities. They are the technical reference standard referenced by European legislation (the EN 301 549 standard and, further upstream, the European Accessibility Act): when a law says "the website must be accessible", in practice it means compliant with the WCAG, usually at level AA.
The WCAG provide for three levels of conformance — A (minimum), AA (the standard required in most cases) and AAA (advanced). For a business website, the practical goal is level AA.
The 4 WCAG principles explained simply: POUR
All the WCAG revolve around four principles. In English they form the acronym POUR:
1. Perceivable
Users must be able to perceive content with the senses available to them. In practice: alternative text for images, captions for videos, sufficient contrast between text and background, content that works even without color.
2. Operable
Everything must be usable, even without a mouse. In practice: full keyboard navigation, no elements that flash dangerously, enough time to read and fill in forms, recognizable links and buttons.
3. Understandable
Content and interface must be clear and predictable. In practice: understandable language, consistent page behavior, clear error messages in forms, labels that explain what to enter.
4. Robust
The site must work with different technologies, including assistive ones (such as screen readers). In practice: correct, semantic HTML code, compatibility with screen readers, components that correctly declare role and state.
The practical checklist: 12 checks for your website
You can carry out a first, high-level check yourself. It doesn't replace a professional audit, but it tells you where you stand:
| # | Check | How to verify it quickly |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alternative text on all informative images | Do images have an alt attribute describing the content? |
| 2 | Adequate text/background contrast | Is the text easy to read even in non-ideal lighting conditions? |
| 3 | Keyboard navigation | Can you use the entire site with just the Tab and Enter keys? |
| 4 | Visible focus | When navigating with Tab, can you always see where the cursor is? |
| 5 | Heading structure (H1-H2-H3) correct and in order | Do headings follow a logical hierarchy, not just a "visual" one? |
| 6 | Form labels | Does every field have a clear, properly linked label? |
| 7 | Understandable error messages | If you make a mistake in a field, does the site explain what to fix? |
| 8 | Captions/transcripts for audio and video | Is multimedia content usable even without audio? |
| 9 | No content conveyed by color alone | Is information ("required field in red") also given in words? |
| 10 | Resizable text without breaking the layout | Does the layout hold up when the page is zoomed to 200%? |
| 11 | Descriptive links (not "click here") | Do the anchor texts say where they lead? |
| 12 | Declared page language | Is the lang attribute set (e.g. it)? |
If you answered "no" or "I don't know" to more than a few points, the site is not yet AA-level compliant and it's worth planning an intervention.
How accessibility is checked (tools + limitations)
There are automatic tools that help identify some of the issues (contrast, missing alt attributes, heading structure). They're useful as a first screening, but they have an important limitation: they only cover part of the WCAG criteria. Many requirements — keyboard usability, clarity, screen reader experience — require manual verification. Be wary of anyone who promises a site that's "100% accessible with one click": there's no plugin that makes a site compliant on its own.
Accessibility and SEO: the same work, two advantages
The good news is that almost everything that makes a site accessible also makes it stronger on Google: a clean heading structure, alternative texts, semantic HTML, fast and understandable pages. Accessibility and SEO pull in the same direction: one job done well, two results — more users reached and better rankings.
The KeideaCMS approach: carefully built accessibility, not an extra plugin
On many open CMS platforms, accessibility is "outsourced" to an external plugin — which needs to be installed, updated, and which often only addresses things on the surface. It's the same logic that creates fragile sites full of components to keep an eye on.
KeideaCMS follows a different approach, #ZeroPlugin: it's a proprietary CMS with no third-party plugins in the core, where code quality — semantic HTML, proper structure, form handling — is part of the platform, not an add-on. On this foundation, accessibility is built properly, with the help of a single point of contact and support in Italian, 7 days a week, for a fixed fee. Want a new site that's already set up the right way? See business website development.
In summary
The WCAG requirements for a business website can be summed up in four principles — perceivable, operable, understandable, robust — and in practice in a series of concrete checks: alternative texts, contrast, keyboard navigation, clear forms, correct structure. The target reference is level AA. No plugin makes a site accessible on its own: it takes code quality and real verification — and it's also an investment that pays off in SEO.
👉 Next step: read the lead article on what the law (EAA) says, or book a demo to see how KeideaCMS sets up a site that's already clean and compliant.
