Barriers to Accessibility: Identifying and Removing Digital Barriers

Barriers to Accessibility are the obstacles that stop people with disabilities using websites, apps or digital documents. This article lists the typical digital barriers, explains how to find them, and gives a clear, step-by-step plan to remove them.

What counts as a barrier to accessibility?

A barrier is any design, code or process that prevents someone from perceiving, understanding, navigating or interacting with content. Barriers come from technical choices, content authorship, testing gaps and organisational practice.

User needs categories

• Visual: blindness, low vision, colour blindness.
• Hearing: deafness, hard of hearing.
• Motor: limited dexterity, inability to use a mouse.
• Cognitive and learning: memory, attention, reading difficulties.
• Neurological: photosensitivity, seizure risk.

Common digital barriers and concrete examples

Below are recurring problems that cause most accessibility failures. Each example notes how it affects people and where it violates standards like WCAG 2.1 or 2.2.

Poor semantic HTML and missing keyboard support

• Links or buttons are not real <a> or <button> elements. Keyboard users cannot activate them.
• No logical heading order. Screen reader users struggle to navigate.

Images without useful alternative text

Decorative images need null alt text. Informative images need concise alt text. Complex images require long descriptions or data tables.

Low colour contrast and colour-only cues

Low contrast between text and background makes reading hard for low-vision users. Information conveyed only by colour blocks people who are colour blind.

Unlabelled or poorly structured forms

Inputs missing labels, missing error messages, and controls without accessible names block form completion for assistive technology users.

Multimedia without captions or transcripts

Videos without captions exclude deaf users. Audio-only content without transcripts excludes people who cannot hear.

Inaccessible PDFs and documents

Scanned images of pages, missing tags, or poor reading order make PDFs unreadable by screen readers.

ARIA misuse and over-reliance on scripts

Incorrect ARIA attributes can hide native semantics. Heavy JavaScript without accessibility considerations can break keyboard focus and screen reader behaviour.

Organisational and process barriers

• No accessibility policy or procurement rules.
• Lack of training for content authors and developers.
• QA that uses only automated tools and skips manual testing.
• No budget or roadmap for remediation.

How to find barriers

Use layered testing. Automation finds many low-hanging problems. Manual checks and assistive tech testing find what automation misses. Real user testing finds real-world issues.

Basic checks to run first

• Keyboard-only navigation through pages and forms.
• Screen reader check with a popular screen reader on at least one operating system.
• Automated scan across representative pages for WCAG A and AA issues.
• Contrast checks on headings, body text and buttons.

Deeper checks

• Task-based user testing with people who have disabilities.
• Manual review of semantic HTML, ARIA use and focus order.
• Audit of PDFs and office documents for tags and reading order.

Practical remediation workflow (step-by-step)

1. Gather baseline: run automated scans and record top pages by traffic and by importance.
2. Triage by impact and effort: prioritise fixes that block core tasks and are quick to fix.
3. Fix templates and components before pages. A single component fix scales across the site.
4. Apply fixes: semantic markup, labels, captions, contrast, keyboard order.
5. Smoke test: keyboard, screen reader, and automated check after each release.
6. Schedule user testing with people who use assistive tech.
7. Document and train: update authoring guides and developer checklists.

Quick triage matrix

Assess each issue by two factors: impact on users and effort to fix. Fix high-impact, low-effort items first. Then treat high-impact, high-effort items as projects with clear owners and timelines.

Checklist: fixes that produce the most benefit fast

• Add meaningful alt text to all informative images.
• Ensure all interactive elements are keyboard reachable.
• Fix heading order and add ARIA only where needed.
• Add captions and transcripts for new video and audio content.
• Improve colour contrast to meet WCAG AA for normal text.
• Label form controls and provide clear error messaging.
• Tag critical PDFs and offer HTML alternatives for complex documents.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Relying only on automated tools. They miss usability and many WCAG issues.
• Using ARIA to fix structural problems instead of fixing HTML.
• Production releases without keyboard and screen reader smoke tests.
• Procurement that does not require WCAG conformity or testing evidence.

Legal and standards pointers

Design and testing should follow recognised standards such as WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2 and aim for level AA for public-facing services. In the UK, consider obligations under the Equality Act and the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations. In other jurisdictions, check local law such as the ADA and Section 508.

When to call in experts or users

Bring in accessibility specialists if you face complex ARIA, dynamic widgets or legal risk. Always include people with disabilities for usability testing. Their feedback catches real barriers that technical checks miss.

Final practical roadmap

Start with a low-effort sweep of high-traffic pages. Move to component-level fixes in the next sprint. Schedule user testing after the first component release. Update procurement and training within the quarter. Keep a public accessibility statement and a remediation plan with timelines.

Use this guide as a working checklist. Remove the obvious barriers first, then invest in system changes so new content stays accessible.