Quick answer
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 covers goods and services provided online, including business websites. The Australian Human Rights Commission's 2025 guidance recommends meeting WCAG 2.2 at Level AA as a minimum, so that is the practical target. Start with alt text, colour contrast, keyboard use and form labels. This is general information, not legal advice.
Accessibility means people with disability can use your website: someone using a screen reader, someone who cannot use a mouse, someone with low vision who zooms to 200%. This guide explains the rules in plain English, gives you ten checks you can run today and covers the common fixes on WordPress. It is part of our Website help centre.
Not legal advice: if you have received a complaint or need to know your legal position, talk to a lawyer.
WCAG in plain English
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are published by the W3C, the body that sets web standards. The current version, WCAG 2.2, became a W3C Recommendation in October 2023 and was updated in December 2024. It is built on four principles, often shortened to POUR: content must be perceivable, operable and understandable, and it must work reliably with browsers and assistive technology.
Each rule is called a success criterion and has a level. Level A is the bare minimum, AA is the level most laws and policies point to, and AAA is the strictest. When people say "WCAG compliant" they almost always mean 2.2 AA.
WCAG 2.2 is backwards compatible: a site that meets 2.2 also meets 2.1 and 2.0. It added nine new criteria, several aimed at mobile and cognitive accessibility, such as minimum tap target sizes and not making people re-enter information they already gave you.
The Australian legal context
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) makes it unlawful to discriminate against people with disability when providing goods, services and facilities. The Australian Human Rights Commission has long taken the view that this includes services delivered through websites and apps.
In 2025 the Commission released its Guidelines on equal access to digital goods and services, replacing its older advisory notes. They recommend that organisations conform with WCAG 2.2 at a minimum of Level AA. If a developer or platform built your site, it is still your business providing the service to customers, so treat accessibility as your responsibility rather than theirs.
WCAG itself is not written into the DDA for private businesses, so there is no "certificate" that makes you compliant. What WCAG 2.2 AA gives you is a recognised benchmark. If someone believes they were discriminated against, they can lodge a complaint with the Commission, which usually starts with conciliation.
Ten quick checks you can run today
You need a browser, a keyboard and about an hour. These catch the problems we see most often on small business sites.
- Alt text on images. Every meaningful image needs a short description of what it shows. Decorative images should have empty alt text so screen readers skip them. (WCAG 1.1.1)
- Colour contrast. Normal text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background; large text needs 3:1. Pale grey text on white and white text on light photos usually fail. Free contrast checkers will give you the ratio. (1.4.3)
- Keyboard only. Put the mouse away and press Tab through the page. Can you reach the menu, every link, the form and the submit button, and open dropdowns with Enter? (2.1.1)
- Visible focus. As you Tab, can you always see where you are? If the outline disappears, or a sticky header or chat bubble covers the focused item, keyboard users get lost. (2.4.7 and 2.4.11)
- Form labels. Every field needs a visible label that stays put, not just placeholder text that vanishes when you start typing. (3.3.2)
- Error messages. Submit the form with a mistake. Does it say in words which field is wrong and how to fix it, not just turn a box red? (3.3.1)
- Headings in order. One H1 per page, then H2s and H3s that outline the content. Screen reader users jump between headings, so do not pick a heading level because of its font size. (1.3.1)
- Link text that makes sense alone. "Click here" and "Read more" repeated ten times tell a screen reader user nothing. Use "Read our NDIS pricing guide" instead. (2.4.4)
- Zoom and reflow. Zoom your browser to 200%, then to 400%. Text should still be readable and the page should reflow to one column without sideways scrolling. (1.4.4 and 1.4.10)
- Captions on video. Pre-recorded videos with speech need accurate captions. Automatic captions are a starting point; check and correct them. (1.2.2)
On phones, also check tap targets. WCAG 2.2 asks for interactive targets of at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or enough spacing around smaller ones (2.5.8). Tiny social icons squeezed together are a common fail.
Common problems and fixes
| What you see | What it means | How to fix it | How long it takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Images with no alt text or file names as alt text | Screen readers announce nothing useful | Add descriptions in the media library or image block | 1 to 3 hours for a small site |
| Light grey or brand-colour text that is hard to read | Contrast below 4.5:1 | Darken the text colour in the theme settings | Under 1 hour |
| No outline when tabbing | The theme removed focus styles | Add a clear focus style in the theme CSS | Under 1 hour |
| Form fields with placeholders only | No proper labels | Turn on visible labels in the form plugin settings | Under 1 hour |
| Menu or popup cannot be closed by keyboard | Built for mouse only | Fix the component or replace it | 2 hours to a day |
| Headings used for styling, levels skipped | Page outline makes no sense | Re-assign heading levels in the editor | 1 to 2 hours |
Common fixes on WordPress sites
- Alt text: in Media, open each image and fill in the Alternative Text field. Alt text added in the media library may not update images already placed in pages, so check the image block too.
- Themes: the WordPress.org theme directory has an "accessibility-ready" tag. A theme with that tag is a better starting point, though your content can still introduce problems.
- Page builders: builders make it easy to choose headings by size and to add sliders, animations and icon-only buttons. Check each widget's heading level and give icon buttons a text label.
- Forms: most form plugins can show labels above fields and announce errors properly once those options are switched on.
Accessibility and speed often improve together, because both reward lighter, cleaner pages. See why your website is slow, and if you are choosing a platform for a rebuild, WordPress vs Shopify vs Wix.
Accessibility overlays and plugins
Overlays are scripts that add a toolbar or claim to fix accessibility automatically. They cannot rewrite missing alt text meaningfully, repair a menu that traps keyboard users, or fix a form with no labels. People who rely on screen readers or keyboard navigation already use their own assistive technology, so what they need is a site that is built properly underneath.
Automated checkers are still useful for finding problems. Just treat them as a first pass. As the W3C puts it, "Web accessibility evaluation tools can not determine accessibility, they can only assist in doing so." Real testing means a keyboard, a screen reader and a person checking the results.
Why it matters for NDIS providers
If you provide NDIS services, people with disability are your customers, and many of them, or their support coordinators and families, will use your website to decide whether to contact you. A site they cannot use sends them to the next provider. For NDIS providers, accessibility is part of the service, not an extra.
When to get help
A specialist will test key templates against WCAG 2.2 AA with a keyboard and screen reader, list each failure with the criterion it breaks, and fix the theme so problems do not come back with every new page. If your checks above turned up more than a few issues, or a menu or form fails the keyboard test, get it looked at.
Talk to our web design team about accessibility
About this guide
Written by Amann Jhamb, Director of AR Digital Solutions, 17 years in web design, SEO and paid ads. Last checked: 3 November 2026 against W3C: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. Change note: first published 3 November 2026. Part of our Website help centre.