SaaS Website Accessibility Checklist 2024

Why Accessibility is a Non-Negotiable for Modern SaaS

Let’s be blunt: in today’s digital landscape, treating web accessibility as an afterthought isn’t just a technical oversight—it’s a significant business liability and a missed opportunity. Building a SaaS platform that excludes people with disabilities means you’re voluntarily shutting out a market segment larger than the population of China. We’re not just talking about ethics here; we’re talking about a fundamental business strategy. An accessible website isn’t a “nice-to-have” feature for your corporate social responsibility page; it’s a core component of your product’s usability, your brand’s reputation, and your legal compliance.

The Business and Ethical Case for Accessibility

The case for accessibility is built on a powerful dual foundation. From a commercial standpoint, it directly impacts your bottom line by expanding your total addressable market to include the over one billion people worldwide with disabilities. But the benefits extend far beyond market reach. Accessible design inherently creates a cleaner, more structured user experience for everyone. This leads to tangible improvements in search engine optimization (SEO), as the same principles that help screen readers navigate your site—like proper heading structure and semantic HTML—also help search engines understand your content. Furthermore, with legal frameworks like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) being applied to websites, proactive accessibility is your strongest defense against costly litigation.

Understanding WCAG 2.2 A/AA

So, what does “accessible” actually mean? In practical terms, it means conforming to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These guidelines, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), are the globally recognized standard. While WCAG has three levels of conformance (A, AA, AAA), most organizations—and many legal frameworks—target Level AA. This is the sweet spot: it’s achievable without being overly burdensome and robust enough to ensure a genuinely usable experience for people with a wide range of disabilities, including those related to vision, hearing, mobility, and cognition.

Conforming to WCAG isn’t about checking boxes for a compliance audit; it’s about baking inclusivity into your product’s DNA from the ground up.

What to Expect: Your Operational Checklist

Knowing the “why” is only half the battle. The real challenge for SaaS teams is the “how.” How do you translate these high-level principles into actionable tasks for your developers, designers, and content creators? That’s where this guide comes in. We’ve moved past the theoretical to provide you with a practical, operational checklist. This isn’t just a list of guidelines; it’s a tactical playbook designed to help your team systematically achieve and maintain WCAG 2.2 AA compliance, covering everything from keyboard navigation and color contrast to form labels and ARIA landmarks. Consider this your roadmap to building a product that doesn’t just work for some, but works for all.

Laying the Foundation: Perceivable and Operable Content

Think of your website’s accessibility as a house. You can have the most beautiful furniture (your content), but if users can’t get through the front door or navigate the hallways, it’s all for nothing. This is where the principles of Perceivable and Operable content come in—they are the very foundation and framework of your digital property. Getting these elements right ensures that all users, regardless of their abilities or how they access your site, can perceive your information and operate your interface. Let’s break down the practical steps to build this robust foundation.

Color Contrast and Text Legibility

Have you ever tried to read light grey text on a white background? It’s a strain for anyone, but for users with low vision or color blindness, it can render your content completely invisible. Sufficient color contrast isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a critical requirement. The WCAG 2.2 AA standard mandates a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker are your best friend here, allowing you to plug in hex codes and get an instant pass/fail grade.

But it’s not just about static colors. You also need to ensure your text can be resized up to 200% without breaking your site’s layout. A user should be able to zoom in without having to scroll horizontally to read a line of text. Most importantly, never use color as the sole means of conveying information. If a form field is invalid, don’t just turn the border red; include an icon and a text message like “This field is required.” This practice helps users who cannot perceive color differences and ensures the message is clear for everyone.

Text Alternatives and Media Accessibility

Images, videos, and audio are powerful tools for engagement, but they create immediate barriers if not handled correctly. Every meaningful image on your site needs a descriptive alt text. This isn’t just for SEO; it’s a verbal description read by screen readers, painting a picture for users who can’t see it. For a SaaS dashboard, an alt text for a graph shouldn’t just be “sales chart.” It should be more like, “Bar chart showing a 15% increase in Q3 sales, with October being the highest-performing month.”

For video and audio content, you’re not truly inclusive until you provide captions and transcripts. Captions aren’t just for the deaf and hard of hearing; they’re used by people in loud environments, quiet libraries, or anyone who simply prefers to read along. A full transcript takes it a step further, making your video’s content searchable, indexable by Google, and accessible to those using screen readers. It’s a single effort that pays dividends in both accessibility and content reach.

Many users, including those with motor disabilities or who simply prefer efficiency, navigate the web entirely with a keyboard—typically using the Tab key. Your first task is to ensure that every single interactive element on your page is reachable and usable this way. This includes links, buttons, form fields, and custom widgets. Try it yourself: can you tab through your entire login form, use your main navigation, and activate all buttons without ever touching a mouse?

Once you’ve confirmed keyboard operability, the next question is: can users see where they are on the page? This is the job of the focus indicator—that often blue or black outline that appears around a link or button when you tab to it. It’s a common victim of CSS resets, where a well-meaning developer adds outline: none; to “clean up” the design. This is a catastrophic mistake for accessibility. Instead of removing it, you should design it. Make your focus indicator highly visible with a strong color contrast and a distinct style that fits your brand. A clear focus ring is like a lighthouse for keyboard users, guiding them safely through your interface.

To quickly audit your site’s operability, run through this checklist:

Can you tab to every interactive element in a logical order?
Is there a highly visible focus indicator at all times?
Can you easily skip repetitive navigation links with a “Skip to Main Content” link?
Do all custom widgets (like date pickers or accordions) respond to keyboard commands?
Can you open and close modal dialogs and then return to the main content?

By meticulously addressing these areas of perceivability and operability, you’re not just checking boxes for compliance. You’re building a foundation of trust and inclusivity, ensuring that your powerful SaaS tool is truly powerful for everyone who needs it.

Building Robust Interactions: Forms, Components, and Compatibility

You’ve nailed the basics of perceivable content and keyboard navigation—now it’s time to tackle the interactive heart of your SaaS application. This is where many teams stumble, as static accessibility principles meet the dynamic, complex nature of modern web apps. The forms, widgets, and live-updating components that power your user experience must be just as robust for someone using a screen reader as they are for a mouse user. Let’s break down how to build interactions that don’t just function, but communicate.

Creating Accessible Form Fields and Labels

A form is a conversation with your user, and for that conversation to be clear, every field needs a proper introduction. Relying on placeholder text as a label is like whispering instructions in a noisy room—the moment a user starts typing, the hint disappears. Every single input, from a simple text field to a complex date picker, requires a programmatically linked, persistent <label> element. Screen reader users navigate forms by tabbing through these labels, so ambiguity here creates immediate friction.

But what happens when the conversation hits a snag? Clear error handling is non-negotiable. Vague messages like “Invalid input” are utterly unhelpful. Instead, error messages should be specific, instructional, and programmatically associated with the relevant field using aria-describedby. For a multi-step form, don’t just highlight the problematic field in red; summarize the errors at the top of the form with role="alert" to immediately inform screen reader users of the issue. This turns a moment of frustration into a solvable problem.

For complex inputs, the instructions need to be just as robust. A password field with specific character requirements, for instance, should have those requirements listed before the field and programmatically connected using aria-describedby. This ensures the user hears the rules before they start typing, not after they’ve made a mistake. The goal is to create a guided experience where users feel confident they can provide the right information the first time.

ARIA Landmarks and Dynamic Content

Think of ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) as a translator between your complex JavaScript widgets and a user’s assistive technology. Used correctly, it’s incredibly powerful; used incorrectly, it can create more confusion than it solves. The first rule of ARIA is simple: don’t use it if you can use native HTML. A native <button> is always better than a <div> with role="button" slapped on. But for truly custom components, ARIA becomes essential.

For complex widgets like custom dropdowns, tabs, or tree menus, you’ll need a suite of ARIA attributes to describe their state and function. This includes:

role: Defines what the element is (e.g., role="tablist", role="tab").
aria-expanded: Communicates whether a collapsible section is open (true) or closed (false).
aria-selected: Indicates which item in a list is currently chosen.
aria-haspopup: Signals that an element triggers a popup menu or dialog.

For live-updating content—think of a real-time dashboard, a chat interface, or a progress bar—you need to manage screen reader announcements carefully. Using aria-live regions, you can define the politeness level of these updates. Use aria-live="polite" for non-critical updates that should be announced when the user is idle, and reserve aria-live="assertive" for critical, time-sensitive alerts that must interrupt the user immediately.

Cross-Device and Assistive Technology Compatibility

You can write the most semantically perfect, ARIA-enhanced code in the world, but its true test is in the wild. The ecosystem of assistive technologies (AT) is incredibly diverse, and their interpretation of your code can vary. A component that works flawlessly with the NVDA screen reader on Firefox might behave strangely with VoiceOver on Safari. This isn’t a theoretical concern—it’s a daily reality for millions of users.

The bottom line: Your accessibility statement isn’t complete until you’ve verified it across the matrix of real-world usage. Automated tools can catch about 30-40% of issues; the rest requires manual, empathetic testing.

This is why a rigorous testing protocol is your final, non-negotiable step. You don’t need a massive lab, but you do need to cover the key combinations. Start by testing all interactive components using only a keyboard. Then, move on to screen reader testing. At a minimum, you should validate your experience with:

NVDA + Firefox: A very common combination in the Windows ecosystem.
VoiceOver + Safari: The built-in AT for all Apple devices.
JAWS + Chrome: Another prevalent setup for Windows users.

Don’t forget zoom and magnification tools. Test your layout at 200% and 400% zoom to ensure nothing breaks or becomes unusable. And finally, run your core user journeys on mobile devices. Touch targets need to be large enough, and gestures must be manageable for users with motor disabilities. This multi-faceted validation is what separates a theoretically accessible site from one that is genuinely, reliably usable for everyone. It’s the final piece that ensures your robust interactions stand strong, no matter how a user chooses to access them.

The SaaS-Specific Accessibility Audit: A Step-by-Step Checklist

Theory is great, but compliance lives and dies in the details of your code. An accessibility audit can feel overwhelming, but breaking it down into a systematic, repeatable process makes it manageable for any team. Think of this not as a one-time scramble, but as a quality assurance checklist you integrate into every development cycle. Let’s roll up our sleeves and dive into the practical steps that will transform your SaaS website from technically functional to genuinely accessible.

Page Structure and Semantic HTML Check

Before a single screen reader is fired up, the first place to look is your underlying HTML. Semantic markup is the unshakeable foundation of accessibility—it’s the scaffolding that gives your content meaning and structure. When you use elements for their intended purpose, you’re automatically providing a wealth of context to assistive technologies. Start by running through this core checklist:

Heading Hierarchy: Is there one, and only one, <h1> per page? Do your headings follow a logical, sequential order (e.g., H2 to H3) without skipping levels? This creates a reliable table of contents for users navigating by headings.
List Usage: Are you using <ul>, <ol>, and <li> for all lists, rather than just styling paragraphs with bullets? This tells a user, “Here are 5 related items,” or “These 3 steps must be followed in order.”
Landmark Regions: Are key areas of your page identified using HTML5 sectioning elements like <header>, <nav>, <main>, and <footer>? These act as signposts, allowing users to jump directly to the primary navigation or main content.
Data Table Markup: For any tabular data, are you correctly using <th> with appropriate scope attributes to define row and column headers? This makes complex data intelligible.

Getting this foundation right solves a huge percentage of basic navigability issues. It’s the equivalent of building a house with a clear floor plan instead of a maze of identical rooms.

This is where many SaaS applications stumble. Your modals, dropdown menus, and interactive dashboards might look slick, but are they usable by someone who can’t use a mouse? Keyboard operability isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a fundamental requirement for users with motor disabilities, visual impairments, or anyone who simply prefers keyboard shortcuts for efficiency. Your testing list should focus on:

Keyboard Focus Visibility: Can you tab through every interactive element? Is there a clear, highly visible focus indicator that shows where you are on the page at all times? A faint dotted line often isn’t enough; you may need to enhance it with a bold border or background color change.
Logical Tab Order: Does the focus move in a predictable, logical sequence that follows the visual layout of the page? Or does it jump erratically because of your CSS layout?
Component Behavior: Do your custom widgets, like accordions and modals, respond to expected keystrokes? Can you open and close a modal with the Esc key? Can you navigate a menu with the arrow keys?
Focus Management: This is critical for dynamic content. When a modal opens, does focus move inside it and get trapped there until it’s closed? When the modal closes, does focus return to the element that opened it? Poor focus management is a common reason users get completely lost.

Pro Tip: Try navigating your entire application using only the Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, and Space keys. If you get stuck or lost, so will your users.

Media, Forms, and Content Compliance Verification

The final leg of the audit deals with the content itself—the images, forms, and media that deliver your core value proposition. This is often the domain of content creators and designers, making clear guidelines essential.

For media, the rule is simple: all informative images must have descriptive alt text. Decorative images should have empty alt attributes (alt=""). For video, accurate captions are non-negotiable, and audio-only content needs a full transcript. It’s not just about compliance; it’s about ensuring your message isn’t lost.

Forms are another high-stakes area. Every single input field must be programmatically associated with a visible label using the <label for="id"> element. Don’t rely on placeholder text as a label—it disappears and causes confusion. Furthermore, you must provide clear, specific error messages that not only state something is wrong but explain how to fix it. Instead of “Invalid email,” try “Please enter an email address in the format ‘[email protected]’.”

Finally, conduct a color and contrast sweep. Use a tool like the WebAIM Contrast Checker to ensure all text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background. Crucially, never use color as the only means of conveying information. A form field shouldn’t just have a red border to indicate an error; it should also have an icon and text message.

By systematically working through these three pillars—structure, interaction, and content—you transform the abstract goal of WCAG compliance into a concrete, actionable process. This checklist isn’t the end of the journey, but it’s the reliable map that will get your entire team there, together.

Integrating Accessibility into Your SaaS Development Workflow

Achieving WCAG compliance isn’t a feature you can bolt on at the last minute. It’s a fundamental characteristic of your code, which is why the most successful SaaS teams treat it as a core part of their development process, not a final-box-checking audit. This is the essence of “shifting left”—integrating accessibility considerations from the very first wireframe and user story. When you wait until the QA phase, you’re not just fixing bugs; you’re undertaking costly, time-consuming refactors of entire components. A contrast ratio fix in a design file takes seconds; rebuilding a complex data table because it was coded with non-semantic <div> tags takes days. Proactive compliance saves money, reduces technical debt, and ensures your product is born accessible.

Shifting Left: Proactive vs. Reactive Compliance

So, what does “shifting left” look like in practice? It means your designers are using plugins like Stark or Contrast Checker directly in Figma to validate color palettes before a single line of CSS is written. It means your product managers are including accessibility acceptance criteria in every ticket, such as “User can complete entire form using keyboard only.” For developers, it means linters and IDE plugins that flag accessibility issues as you code. This integrated approach transforms accessibility from a scary, monolithic project into a series of small, manageable tasks spread across the entire development lifecycle. The goal is to catch a potential barrier before it ever makes it to a pull request, let alone a production environment.

The Right Tool for the Right Job

You can’t automate empathy, but you can automate a significant portion of grunt work. A robust testing strategy leverages both automated tools and manual expertise. Start by integrating an engine like axe-core directly into your CI/CD pipeline or using browser extensions like WAVE to catch common issues like missing alt text, improper ARIA attributes, and color contrast failures. But here’s the reality check: automation alone only catches about 30-40% of potential issues. There is no substitute for manual testing. Your team must regularly perform these critical checks:

Full Keyboard Navigation: Can you access every interactive element and complete all key user flows using only the Tab, Enter, Space, and arrow keys?
Screen Reader Testing: Use NVDA with Firefox or VoiceOver with Safari to experience your site as a blind user would. Is the content announced logically and meaningfully?
Zoom and Magnification: Does your layout remain functional and non-scrolling at 200% and 400% zoom?

As Deque Systems often notes, “Automated testing finds the easy, binary issues. Human testing finds the usability issues.” Your most complex custom components—dynamic dashboards, interactive charts, and sophisticated data grids—live entirely in this human-testing domain.

Fostering an Inclusive Culture

Ultimately, tools and processes are useless without the right culture. Accessibility can’t be the sole responsibility of one “accessibility champion” who chases people down. It needs to be a shared value, woven into the fabric of your team. This starts with foundational training for every role. Designers need to understand WCAG principles for visual design, developers need deep knowledge of semantic HTML and ARIA, and content writers need to master creating descriptive link text and clear headings. Encourage empathy-building exercises, like having the team navigate your app using only a keyboard for an hour. When everyone understands the “why” behind the rules—that you’re building for real people with diverse abilities—the “how” becomes a point of pride, not a burden. This cultural shift is what turns a compliance checklist into a genuinely superior user experience for everyone.

Conclusion: From Compliance to Competitive Advantage

You’ve now moved from understanding why accessibility matters to having a concrete, actionable roadmap for achieving it. The journey to WCAG 2.2 A/AA conformance boils down to a few critical, human-centered principles: ensuring every user can perceive your content, operate your interface, understand your information, and trust that your technology will work with their tools. You’re not just building a compliant website; you’re building a more resilient and user-friendly product for everyone.

Remember, accessibility isn’t a one-and-done project you can tick off a list. It’s a continuous commitment woven into your development lifecycle. As you update your UI, add new features, and publish fresh content, you must continually ask: does this change maintain or improve the inclusive experience we’ve built? This ongoing process of testing, learning, and refining is what separates truly accessible companies from those who merely perform a single audit.

Your Immediate Next Steps

So, where do you go from here? Don’t let this be another article you simply bookmark. The most successful teams turn insight into immediate action. Here’s how you can start today:

Perform a Sprint Audit: Take 30 minutes and run your core landing page through the checklists. Use your keyboard to navigate and a tool like WAVE to catch low-hanging fruit.
Socialize the Checklist: Forward this guide to your product, design, and development teams. Frame the conversation around building a better product, not just avoiding legal risk.
Commit Publicly: Add an accessibility statement to your website. This public commitment creates accountability and signals to all users that you value their experience.

By embracing these practices, you transform web accessibility from a compliance hurdle into a genuine competitive advantage. You open your doors to a wider market, foster immense user loyalty, and ultimately build a superior SaaS product. The question isn’t whether you can afford to do this work—it’s whether you can afford not to.

The most innovative companies aren’t just meeting standards; they’re setting new ones for inclusivity. Your journey to a more accessible web starts with a single, deliberate step. Take it today.

Accessibility checklist for SaaS websites