Accessibility is a launch requirement, not a phase two

One in five people lives with a disability, and every one of us will need larger text, captions or a keyboard shortcut at some point. Accessibility is not an edge case; it is good design.

Design for it

We check colour contrast, focus states and touch targets in the first wireframes. Every component in our design systems has accessibility notes before it has a visual style.

Build for it

• Semantic HTML first, ARIA only when it is really needed
• Everything works with a keyboard and a screen reader
• Animations respect the reduced-motion setting
• Forms explain errors in plain language

Test with people

Automated tools find about a third of issues. We test every major release with screen-reader users and people with low vision or motor impairments.

The business case

Accessible products reach more customers, rank better in search and reduce legal risk. On the Northshore Health platform, the accessible booking flow was also the fastest for every age group.

Start with five quick checks

• Unplug the mouse and complete your main task with the keyboard
• Zoom the page to 200% and look for overlapping text
• Turn on a screen reader and listen to your navigation
• Read every form error message out loud
• Switch on reduced motion and see what still moves

None of these needs special tools, and together they catch most of the problems real users hit first.

Make it part of the definition of done, and phase two never has to exist.