Accessible design: small changes that include everyone
Contrast, labels, and focus states take minutes to fix and open your product to thousands more users. Start here.
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Accessibility has a reputation for being a large, legal, intimidating topic. In daily design work, most of its value comes from a handful of small habits that take minutes each. Fix these five and your product works dramatically better for a lot more people — including everyone on a sunny bus ride with a cracked screen.
Contrast: the five-minute audit
Run your palette through any contrast checker. Fix body text to at least 4.5:1 and large headings to 3:1. Pale grays on white are the usual offenders — one shade darker usually solves it, and honestly, the design usually looks better for it.
Labels and names
A placeholder disappears the moment someone types — as the only label, it is a memory test. Keep a visible label on every input. Icon-only buttons need an accessible name. If an image carries information, say so in alt text; if it is decoration, mark it decorative so screen readers skip it.
Touch and motion
Buttons and links should be at least roughly 44×44 pixels with breathing room between them. If anything animates, honor the reduced-motion preference — some users get genuinely sick from movement they cannot stop.
The habit that beats them all
Tab through your own page before shipping. No tool, no audit — just the tab key and one minute. If you can reach and operate everything by keyboard and read everything that appears, you have covered more real accessibility than most checklists.
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