Accessibility is one of those subjects that charities usually mean to address. Then a campaign launches, an event needs promoting and the website slips down the list.
The problem is that an inaccessible website does not merely frustrate visitors. It can prevent someone from finding support, registering to volunteer or completing a donation.
Good charity website accessibility removes those barriers. It helps people read, understand and use your website whether they navigate with a mouse, keyboard, screen reader, voice control or magnification. It also creates a calmer, clearer experience for everybody else.
This practical WCAG 2.2 checklist explains what UK charities should examine, where the law fits and which improvements deserve attention first.
If you are planning the wider structure of your site, begin with our guide to what a charity website should include.
What does charity website accessibility mean?
An accessible charity website allows people with different needs and abilities to access the same information and complete the same important tasks.
That includes reading about your work, requesting help, applying for a service, making a donation, joining an event and contacting your team.
Accessibility is not a switch that can be turned on with a widget. It is the result of sensible design, clean development, thoughtful content and regular testing.
The internationally recognised framework is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, usually shortened to WCAG. The current standard is WCAG 2.2, which the W3C published as a formal web standard in October 2023. You can review the complete WCAG 2.2 quick reference on the W3C website.
WCAG is organised around four principles. Content should be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.
In ordinary language, people must be able to find the content, operate the interface, understand what is happening and use it with a range of browsers and assistive technologies.
Do UK charity websites have to meet WCAG 2.2?
There are two separate legal ideas that often get mixed together.
First, the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations apply directly to public sector websites and mobile applications.
Government accessibility guidance explains that non government organisations such as charities are generally exempt from those specific regulations unless they are mainly financed by public funding, provide services that are essential to the public, or provide services specifically aimed at disabled people.
Second, service providers still have duties under the Equality Act 2010. Section 29 of the Equality Act confirms that the duty to make reasonable adjustments applies to a service provider.
For charities in Northern Ireland, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 may apply instead.
This means that being outside the public sector regulations does not make charity website accessibility optional.
For most UK charities, WCAG 2.2 level AA is the most sensible working benchmark. It gives trustees, staff, designers and developers a shared standard against which the website can be tested.
The precise legal duties will depend on your organisation and services, so take specific legal advice where required.
A practical WCAG 2.2 checklist for charity websites
A full WCAG audit is detailed work, but the following checks expose many of the barriers commonly found on charity websites.
Start with the journeys that matter most, such as getting help, donating, volunteering and making contact.
1. Make every important action work with a keyboard
Put the mouse to one side and press the Tab key.
You should be able to move through the navigation, open menus, select donation amounts, complete forms and activate buttons. The order should follow the visual layout and focus must never become trapped inside a menu, banner or pop up.
Provide a skip link near the beginning of each page so keyboard users can move past repeated navigation.
Make sure the Escape key closes overlays where people would reasonably expect it to. If a supporter cannot reach the Donate button without a mouse, the donation journey is not accessible.
2. Keep keyboard focus clearly visible
Keyboard users need to see which link, field or button is currently selected.
Never remove the browser focus outline unless it is replaced with something equally clear. Check that cookie banners, sticky headers and chat tools do not cover the focused item.
WCAG 2.2 added further requirements intended to stop keyboard focus from being obscured.
3. Check colour contrast properly
Pale brand colours can look elegant on a mood board and disappear on a real screen.
Standard text generally needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 against its background. Large text can use 3 to 1. Important controls and meaningful graphics also need sufficient contrast.
Do not use colour as the only way to communicate meaning.
A red outline around a required donation field is not enough on its own. Add a clear written message explaining what is wrong and how to correct it.
The W3C guidance on minimum colour contrast explains the relevant ratios in detail.
4. Allow text to resize without breaking the page
Visitors should be able to enlarge text to 200 per cent without losing content or functionality.
Test the website at increased browser zoom and on a narrow mobile screen. Look for overlapping headings, clipped buttons, donation amounts that disappear and navigation that can no longer be opened.
Avoid locking content into rigid boxes. Responsive layouts, flexible spacing and properly sized text containers cope far better when someone needs larger text.
5. Use a clear heading and link structure
Every page should have a descriptive title and one clear main heading.
Use subheadings in a logical order rather than choosing a heading level because of how it looks. Someone using a screen reader may navigate by headings, so a sensible structure acts like a contents page.
Link text should make sense without the surrounding sentence.
Replace vague phrases such as “click here” or “read more” with specific wording such as “read our annual report” or “apply to volunteer”.
This improves accessibility, makes pages easier to scan and gives search engines clearer context.
6. Give images and video useful alternatives
Images that communicate information need alternative text that explains their purpose.
A photograph of a fundraising event may need a short description. A chart showing how donations were spent needs the important figures and conclusion in the surrounding page content.
Decorative flourishes should use empty alternative text so they do not create unnecessary noise for screen reader users.
Recorded videos need accurate captions when the audio carries information. If important meaning is only visible, consider audio description or a written alternative.
Do not rely on automatically generated captions without checking names, figures and specialist terms.
7. Make donation and enquiry forms easy to understand
Forms are where accessibility failures turn into lost donations and missed requests for support.
Every field needs a visible label that remains present while the person types. Placeholder text alone is not a reliable label.
Group related choices, such as donation frequency and Gift Aid, and explain any unusual information before asking for it.
Keep the form short. Request only what you genuinely need and use the correct autocomplete settings for names, email addresses, telephone numbers and postal details.
A shorter form reduces effort for everyone, particularly people using voice control or switch devices.
8. Write error messages that help people recover
A message saying “something went wrong” is almost useless.
Identify the field, explain the issue in text and say how to fix it. Preserve information that has already been entered.
Where several errors occur, provide a clear summary and move focus to it so the person knows what happened.
This matters on donation forms because a failed payment attempt is a fragile moment. The user should never have to guess whether money was taken or start the entire form again because one field was incomplete.
9. Make buttons and touch targets large enough
Small icons and tightly packed links are difficult for people with limited dexterity and frustrating on a mobile phone.
WCAG 2.2 level AA sets a minimum target size of 24 by 24 CSS pixels, with defined exceptions. The W3C provides further guidance on minimum target sizes.
For important controls such as Donate, Submit and Next, a larger target with generous spacing is usually the better design decision.
10. Give people control over movement
Carousels, animated figures and background video can distract, disorient or physically affect some visitors.
Avoid autoplay where possible. Provide a clear way to pause or stop moving content, respect reduced motion settings and never make animation essential to understanding the page.
11. Do not forget PDFs and reports
Annual reports, safeguarding documents and service guides are often uploaded as PDFs and then forgotten.
A scanned document may be completely unreadable to a screen reader. PDFs need a proper title, tagged headings, meaningful link text, a logical reading order and alternative text for relevant images.
Where possible, publish important information as an accessible web page as well.
Web content is usually easier to search, resize, translate and use on a phone. Keep the PDF as a download for people who need it, not as the only way to access essential information.
12. Test every third party service
Your charity remains responsible for the experience even when a donation form, event booking system, map or volunteer portal comes from another supplier.
Ask vendors about WCAG 2.2, review their accessibility documentation and test the actual journey before signing a contract.
If an embedded donation form cannot be used with a keyboard or screen reader, placing it on an accessible page does not solve the problem.
Provide an alternative route while the issue is being fixed and make that option easy to find.
How to test charity website accessibility
Testing charity website accessibility needs more than a single automated score.
Automated tools are useful for finding missing labels, contrast failures and structural problems, but they cannot decide whether alternative text is meaningful or whether a donation journey makes sense.
Use a layered process:
- Run an automated scan on the homepage and every important page template.
- Complete the main journeys using only a keyboard.
- Test text enlargement and narrow mobile layouts.
- Listen to key pages with a screen reader and check heading, link and form announcements.
- Ask disabled users to test the service wherever the budget and risk justify formal research.
- Repeat the checks after design, content or platform changes.
The W3C publishes a useful set of easy accessibility checks and maintains a directory of evaluation tools.
Use those resources as a starting point, not as a certificate of compliance.
Should a charity publish an accessibility statement?
An accessibility statement is mandatory for organisations covered by the public sector regulations. For other charities, it is still good practice.
It tells visitors what standard you are working towards, which parts of the website are known to be difficult and how to request information or support in another format.
A useful statement should:
- Name the website it covers
- Describe its current accessibility status honestly
- List significant known issues
- Explain how the website was tested
- Provide an accessible contact route
- State when the information will be reviewed
Do not claim full compliance unless the whole relevant service has genuinely been assessed.
How to prioritise accessibility improvements
A charity with an older website may uncover dozens of issues.
Trying to fix everything at once often leads to nothing being fixed. Prioritise improvements according to the harm caused and the importance of the journey.
Remove critical blockers first
Start with barriers affecting donation, support, referral, contact and volunteer journeys.
These are the tasks where an accessibility failure has the most immediate effect on the visitor and the charity.
Fix shared website components
Correct issues within templates, navigation, forms and reusable components.
One improvement to a shared component can remove the same barrier from dozens of pages.
Correct important content
Review service information, safeguarding material, annual reports and downloadable documents.
Information that helps people access support should receive priority over less important marketing content.
Improve the publishing process
Build accessibility into the website design system and content publishing process so the same defects do not return.
Staff responsible for updating the website should understand headings, links, alternative text, documents and video captions.
Include disabled people in testing
Plan formal user testing for services used by people who may face greater barriers or arrive in distress.
Automated tools can identify technical failures. Real users reveal whether the website is genuinely understandable and usable.
Charity website accessibility works best as part of ordinary website management.
Add it to design reviews, content checks, supplier selection and acceptance testing. Run a wider audit after a substantial redesign and review critical journeys whenever a significant feature changes.
Accessible design is better charity design
Charity website accessibility is not separate from good user experience.
Clear headings help hurried visitors. Visible labels help people using autofill. Larger buttons help anyone holding a phone with one hand. Useful error messages reduce abandoned forms.
Captions help people watching without sound as well as people with hearing loss.
The strongest charity websites make the important path obvious and remove unnecessary effort.
Our Cuppa Squad charity website project shows how clearer messaging, simple navigation and prominent routes to support can work together within a warmer visual design.
If your organisation is planning a redesign, accessibility needs to be in the brief before colours, layouts and components are approved.
Retrofitting accessibility at the end costs more and usually produces compromises.
Our charity web design service covers website structure, content, technical performance and the journeys that turn visitors into donors, volunteers and supporters.
Charity website accessibility checklist summary
Before publishing or approving a charity website, ask:
- Can every important action be completed with a keyboard?
- Is keyboard focus always visible and unobscured?
- Do text, controls and meaningful graphics have sufficient contrast?
- Can text be enlarged without clipping or lost functionality?
- Are page titles, headings and links descriptive?
- Do images and videos have appropriate alternatives?
- Are donation and enquiry forms correctly labelled?
- Do error messages explain exactly how to recover?
- Are buttons and touch targets large and well spaced?
- Can movement and animation be paused or stopped?
- Are important PDFs and reports accessible?
- Have third party forms and platforms been tested?
Start with the pages that people rely on most. Fix the barriers that prevent action, then improve shared templates and content.
Accessibility is not a one time project. It is a standard your charity applies whenever the website changes.
Frequently asked questions
Do charities have to make their websites accessible?
UK charities may have duties under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people.
Some charities may also fall within the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations because of their funding or the services they provide.
The exact position depends on the organisation, so obtain legal advice where necessary.
What WCAG level should a charity website meet?
WCAG 2.2 level AA is the sensible benchmark for most UK charity websites.
It is the standard referenced in current UK Government accessibility guidance and covers the practical requirements most organisations should be testing.
Can an accessibility widget make a website compliant?
No widget can repair every issue across design, code, content, forms, documents and third party services.
Some tools can help individual users adjust presentation, but they do not replace accessible development, meaningful content and proper testing.
How often should a charity website be audited?
Test critical journeys whenever they change and perform a wider review after a substantial redesign or platform update.
Many charities also benefit from a scheduled annual review, supported by routine checks whenever staff publish new content.
Does accessibility make a charity website more expensive?
Accessibility is considerably easier to manage when it is included from the start.
Clear requirements, reusable accessible components and informed content practices reduce remedial work. Leaving accessibility until the final stage creates avoidable cost and risk.
Last Updated on 1 week ago by Ben
