# Web accessibility

> Making websites and apps usable by everyone, including people with disabilities.

- Level: Basic
- Topics: Software
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/web-accessibility/
- In Spanish: [Accesibilidad web](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/web-accessibility/)

**Web accessibility** means building sites so that people can use them however they perceive and operate a computer. A blind person uses a **screen reader**, software that reads the page aloud; someone with a tremor may navigate only with the keyboard; a deaf person needs captions on videos; someone with low vision zooms the page to 300%. An accessible site works for all of them.

Much of it is careful, ordinary work. Every image gets **alt text** describing it ("a nurse checking a patient's blood pressure"). Buttons are real buttons in the HTML, not decorated boxes, so a keyboard and a screen reader can find them. Text has enough contrast against its background. Forms say in words what went wrong, not only in red. Nothing important depends on color, sound or a mouse alone.

The reference rulebook is **WCAG**, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines from the W3C, and many laws point to it: the European Accessibility Act, the ADA in the United States and similar rules in Latin America. Beyond the law, it helps far more people than expected: older users, anyone on a phone in bright sunlight, someone with a broken arm. The community often shortens the word to **a11y** (an "a", 11 letters, a "y").

## An analogy

A ramp at the entrance of a building. It was put there for wheelchairs, but parents with strollers, delivery workers and travelers with suitcases use it every day too.

## Keep in mind

- Covers blindness, low vision, deafness, motor and cognitive disabilities.
- Basics: alt text, real HTML buttons and labels, keyboard access, good contrast, captions.
- WCAG is the international reference, and many laws require it.
- Helps everyone, not only people with permanent disabilities.

## Go deeper

- [Introduction to Web Accessibility (W3C WAI)](https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-intro/)
- [WCAG overview (W3C WAI)](https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/)
- [Accessibility (MDN)](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility)

## Related terms

- [HTML](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/html/): The text format that describes what is on a web page: headings, paragraphs, links.