When we talk about accessibility in UX design, we're really talking about creating products and services that everyone can use, no matter their abilities, situation, or the context they're in. It's not about ticking off boxes on a compliance checklist. Instead, it’s a core philosophy of great design that ensures digital experiences are truly inclusive and work for all.

But what is accessibility in UX design all about — and what are some common examples of real-world apps that adhere to key accessibility principles? That's exactly what we'll cover in this article.

So let's get started.

Why Accessibility in UX Design Is Essential?

Thinking about accessibility as just a technical task completely misses the point. At its heart, it’s about people. When we make accessibility a priority, we're recognizing the vast and varied spectrum of human ability and consciously building products that don't exclude anyone. This mindset isn't an optional add-on; it's a non-negotiable part of modern UX.

Imagine a stunning building with a grand staircase but no ramp or elevator. It might look incredible, but it's completely unusable for a huge portion of the population. Digital products are exactly the same. A sleek app that only uses color to share important information shuts out users with color blindness, just as a video without captions alienates anyone with a hearing impairment.

The Ethical and Legal Imperative

At its core, designing for accessibility is simply the right thing to do. It’s our ethical responsibility to make sure everyone has equal access to information, services, and opportunities in our increasingly digital society. This principle is so fundamental that it's often written into law.

Regulations like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States establish clear legal standards for digital accessibility. Failing to meet them can lead to serious lawsuits and hefty financial penalties, turning what should be a design principle into a major business risk. But beyond the legal threat is the simple human need to build a more equitable world.

By designing for disability first, you often stumble upon solutions that are better than those when we design for the norm. This approach forces creative thinking and leads to innovations that benefit a wider audience.

The Powerful Business Case for Accessibility

Beyond the ethics and legal requirements, there's an incredibly strong business case for making accessibility a priority in your UX design. Building inclusive products isn't just good for society, it's great for your bottom line. An accessible product is, by its very nature, a more usable product, and that leads to better results all around.

Just look at the key business drivers:

• Expanded Market Reach: Around 1.3 billion people worldwide live with some form of disability. By designing inclusively, you're opening your doors to a massive and frequently overlooked market segment with real spending power.

  
  

• Enhanced Brand Loyalty: Companies that show a real commitment to inclusivity forge much stronger bonds with their customers. When users feel seen and valued, they develop a deep loyalty and often become your most passionate advocates.

  
  

• Improved Overall Usability: The fascinating thing is that many accessibility features benefit all users. High-contrast text is easier for anyone to read in bright sunlight, and well-structured navigation helps everyone get things done faster. The vast majority of sites remain difficult to use for individuals with disabilities, yet Microsoft research shows that inclusive design can improve usability for all user groups by up to 30%.

  
  

Ultimately, weaving accessibility into your design process from day one creates products that are more resilient, flexible, and enjoyable for everyone. You can see how leading companies put these ideas into action with these powerful inclusive design examples.

Understanding the Four Pillars of WCAG

Jumping into accessibility can feel a bit like learning a new language, complete with its own acronyms and technical rules. The most important one you'll hear is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which is the global standard for making digital products usable for everyone. But you don't need to memorize a dense rulebook to get started.

Instead, we can boil WCAG down to four fundamental principles. They form a simple acronym, POUR, which stands for Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. Thinking in these terms transforms abstract rules into a practical framework you can use for every design decision.

Perceivable: Making Information Available to the Senses

First up is Perceivable. This one’s pretty straightforward: people need to be able to perceive the information you're presenting. It can’t be invisible to all their senses. This is all about providing alternatives for content that some users might not be able to see or hear.

Think of it like a restaurant menu. A perceivable menu isn't just a printed piece of paper. It’s also available in large print for someone with low vision, in braille for a blind customer, or read aloud by a waiter for anyone who needs it.

In the digital world, this translates to things like:

• Providing alt text for images: This is a short, descriptive text that screen readers announce, telling a user what an image shows.

• Offering captions and transcripts for videos: This ensures users who are deaf or hard of hearing don't miss out on any audio content.

• Ensuring strong color contrast: This simple check helps users with low vision or color blindness easily distinguish text from its background.

  
  

Operable: Ensuring Users Can Interact with Your UI

Next, we have Operable. This means people have to be able to actually operate the interface. They need to navigate and interact with every component, no matter how they access the web, whether that's with a mouse, keyboard, voice commands, or other assistive technology.

A great real-world analogy is an automatic door. It can be opened by walking up to a sensor, pressing a large button with your hand or elbow, or being activated by a wheelchair sensor. The goal is the same, get inside, but the ways to make it happen are flexible.

The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.
– Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web

Key actions for making your product operable include:

• Full keyboard accessibility: Every single interactive element—links, buttons, forms—must be reachable and usable with just a keyboard.

• No keyboard traps: A user should never get stuck on an element they can't navigate away from using their keyboard. That's a dead end.

• Giving users enough time: Avoid quick time-outs on tasks, or at least give people a simple way to extend their time.

  
  

Understandable: Making Content Clear and Predictable

The third pillar is Understandable. It’s not enough for users to be able to see and operate your site; they also have to understand it. Your information and UI should be easy to comprehend, without causing confusion or frustration.

Imagine getting a piece of furniture with instructions that are just complex engineering diagrams. Now, picture another set with clear, step-by-step illustrations and simple language. That second set is understandable. It avoids jargon and presents information logically. In UX, this means creating consistent navigation and always using plain language.

Robust: Ensuring Compatibility Across Technologies

Finally, Robust means your content can be interpreted reliably by all sorts of user agents, especially assistive technologies like screen readers. As technology evolves, your content has to keep up and remain accessible. This is all about building with clean, standards-compliant code.

A well-made USB cable is a perfect example. It works whether you plug it into a laptop, a wall adapter, or your car. Its design is robust because it follows a universal standard, so it functions reliably across different devices. A robust website works just as well on different browsers, operating systems, and with assistive tools. This is where technical quality becomes absolutely critical for accessibility in UX design.

As websites grow, so do the errors. For instance, data tables are frequently coded incorrectly. One study found that only 16.6% of nearly one million tables had valid markup, creating huge barriers for screen reader users. You can dig into more of these common issues in WebAIM's analysis.

The POUR Principle of Accessibility Explained

To bring it all together, here’s a quick-reference table that breaks down each POUR principle into what it means for your users and what you can do about it in your design process.

This framework isn't just about ticking boxes; it's a mindset that helps you build better, more inclusive products from the ground up.

A, AA, and AAA Conformance Levels

Within WCAG, there are three levels of conformance that act as a scorecard for accessibility:

• Level A: This is the baseline. If you don't meet these criteria, you have significant barriers that are likely preventing some users from accessing your product at all.

  
  

• Level AA: This is the gold standard for most organizations and the target for most accessibility laws. It addresses the most common and significant barriers to access.

  
  

• Level AAA: This is the highest level of accessibility. It’s not always possible to achieve for all content, but it provides a benchmark for excellence.

  
  

Navigating these standards can be complex, but working with pros can make all the difference. The best accessibility design agencies specialize in building products that meet and exceed these crucial guidelines, ensuring your product is truly open to everyone.

Integrating Accessibility into Your UX Design Process

True accessibility isn't something you can just "bolt on" at the end. Trying to make a product accessible after it's already built is like adding a foundation to a house that’s already standing—it’s clunky, expensive, and never quite right.

The real secret is to weave accessibility into every single stage of your design and development process. This isn't about adding extra steps; it's about shifting your mindset. You move from "fixing" accessibility problems to "building" inclusive experiences from day one. When you do this, you save a ton of time, avoid frustrating rework, and frankly, you just end up with a better product.

Stage 1: Research and Discovery

Your journey toward an accessible product starts way before you even think about wireframes. It begins with truly understanding the people you're designing for, in all their diversity. Inclusive research is the bedrock of accessibility in UX design, making sure you’re solving real problems for a wide range of users, not just some imaginary "average" person.

Here's where to focus your energy:

• Recruit Diverse Participants: Make a real effort to find and include people with various disabilities in your user interviews and research sessions. Their lived experiences will uncover barriers and insights you’d never spot on your own.

  
  

• Create Inclusive Personas: Don't stop at basic demographics. Build out personas that reflect different needs and abilities. Think about a user who only uses a keyboard, someone who depends on a screen reader, or a person with a cognitive disability. These personas keep real-world needs front and center for the whole team.

  
  

• Understand Assistive Tech: Get familiar with how people actually use tools like screen readers, screen magnifiers, or voice control software. Knowing how these technologies interact with websites and apps is essential for making smart design choices down the road.

  
  

This workflow shows how the four core principles of accessibility (POUR) should guide every decision you make, from the first sketch to the final code. When you build them in from the start, you create a product that works for everyone.

Stage 2: Design and Prototyping

With a solid foundation of inclusive research, the design phase is where empathy becomes a tangible interface. This is about so much more than picking nice colors. You're architecting an experience that needs to be clear, logical, and usable for all.

In this critical stage, designers need to nail a few key things:

• Semantic Structure: Design with a clear hierarchy in mind. Use headings, lists, and other structural elements properly in your wireframes. This ensures the page layout makes logical sense to someone using assistive technology.

  
  

• Color and Contrast: Every piece of text and important UI element must meet WCAG AA contrast ratio standards—that's at least 4.5:1 for normal-sized text. And remember, never use color as the only way to convey information.

  
  

• Interactive States: Think through and design every state for your interactive elements: focus, hover, active, and disabled. A highly visible focus state isn’t optional; it's a lifeline for anyone navigating with a keyboard.

  
  

Integrating accessibility at the design stage isn't a constraint—it's a catalyst for better design. It forces you to think more deeply about clarity, structure, and usability, which ultimately benefits every single user.

Stage 3: Handoff and Development

A smooth handoff is where your well-designed intentions become reality in code. Just throwing a static mockup over the wall to your developers won't cut it. Your design files need to be annotated with clear accessibility specs.

This "accessibility-aware" handoff document should spell out:

• Keyboard Navigation Order: Specify the exact, logical order a user should follow when "tabbing" through the interactive elements on the screen.

  
  

• ARIA Roles and Properties: Call out any custom components that need specific ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes. Things like custom dropdown menus or tab panels need these extra bits of code to make sense to screen readers.

  
  

• Alternative Text: Write meaningful alt text for all important images and provide it directly in the design file or a separate spec doc.

  
  

Stage 4: Testing and Validation

Finally, no design is truly done until it’s been rigorously tested. Accessibility testing isn't a one-time check before launch; it’s an ongoing activity. You’ll want a mix of automated tools and, most importantly, manual testing to catch the kind of nuanced issues that machines always miss.

A solid testing strategy includes:

• Automated Scans: Use browser extensions and other tools to quickly find low-hanging fruit like contrast errors or missing image alt text.

  
  

• Manual Keyboard Testing: This is a simple but powerful one. Unplug your mouse. Now, try to use your product with only the Tab, Enter, Spacebar, and arrow keys. Can you get to everything and make it work?

  
  

• Screen Reader Testing: Spend some time learning the basics of a screen reader like NVDA (free), JAWS, or VoiceOver (built into Apple devices). Testing key flows this way gives you an incredible window into the non-visual experience.

  
  

• User Testing with People with Disabilities: This is the gold standard. Nothing beats watching real users with disabilities interact with your product. If you're looking for ways to structure these sessions, you can get great ideas by exploring different approaches to usability testing.

  
  

To stay on track, a resource like an ADA compliance checklist for websites can be an invaluable guide for your team. By building these four stages into your workflow, accessibility stops being a task and starts becoming part of your team's DNA.

Common Accessibility Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Even teams with the best intentions can ship products with glaring accessibility flaws. These common mistakes create real barriers for users, completely undermining an otherwise great design. Knowing what these tripwires are is the first step to building something truly inclusive.

When you learn to spot these issues early in the process, you can fix them before they snowball into expensive, time-consuming problems. It's a proactive mindset that reinforces the core of accessibility in UX design and makes your work better for everyone.

Over-Reliance on Color Alone

Using color as the only way to signal something important is one of the most frequent mistakes I see. It's an easy trap to fall into, but it instantly shuts out users with color vision deficiencies who can't distinguish between a red error state and a green success one.

Think about a standard sign-up form. If the only thing marking a required field is a red border, someone with red-green color blindness might completely miss it. They're left frustrated and unable to move forward, all because of a simple design choice.

The fix is to always double up your visual cues.

• For form fields: Don't just use a red border. Add an error icon and a clear, text-based message right next to the field.

• For charts and graphs: Use different patterns, textures, or direct labels on pie slices or bars so color isn't the only differentiator.

• For status indicators: Pair that green "success" color with a checkmark icon or explicit text like "Upload Complete."

This layered approach guarantees that every user gets the memo, no matter how they perceive color.

Vague and Ambiguous Link Text

Another huge one? Generic link text. Phrases like "Click Here," "Read More," or "Learn More" might seem innocent enough, but they're a usability nightmare for people who use screen readers.

Screen reader users often navigate by jumping from link to link, hearing a list of all the links on the page. Imagine hearing "Click here, click here, read more, click here." It’s completely meaningless without context.

Good design is about communication, not decoration. Vague link text fails to communicate and forces users to guess, which is the opposite of a good user experience.

Instead, your link text needs to be descriptive enough to stand on its own.

• Before: To learn more about our services, click here.

• After: Learn more about our B2B SaaS design services.

That small tweak makes a world of difference. The second example clearly states the link's destination, allowing screen reader users to navigate with confidence and efficiency.

Missing Form Labels and Focus Indicators

Forms and keyboard navigation are two other areas where accessibility often falls apart. A form field without a proper label is a total mystery to a screen reader, it has no idea what information to ask the user for.

Likewise, a missing or faint focus indicator makes the interface impossible for keyboard-only users. The focus indicator is that outline you see when you "Tab" through a page from one interactive element to the next. Without it, navigating with a keyboard is like fumbling for a light switch in a pitch-black room.

Thankfully, the solutions here are fundamental.

1. Always Use <label> Tags: Every single form input needs a programmatically connected label. Don't rely on placeholder text; it vanishes as soon as you start typing and is often skipped by assistive tech.

2. Ensure Visible Focus States: Never, ever remove the browser's default focus outline unless you replace it with a custom one that is crystal clear and has high contrast. This should be a non-negotiable part of your design system.

   
   

These are just a few of the common web design mistakes that can derail a user's experience. By sidestepping these predictable pitfalls, you move beyond just being compliant and start building interfaces that are genuinely welcoming to everyone. Mastering these fundamentals is a key part of understanding broader UX/UI design principles that strengthen all of your work.

Real-World Examples of Great SaaS Accessibility

Reading about accessibility guidelines is one thing, but seeing them in action is where it all clicks. When you move from abstract principles to actual products, you start to see what's really possible. Some of the biggest names in SaaS didn't just bolt on accessibility as an afterthought; they baked it into their product strategy and turned it into a competitive advantage.

By looking at how these companies approach inclusive design, we can break down complex ideas into things we can actually use. These examples prove that building an accessible product doesn't mean you have to compromise on beautiful design or cool features. In fact, it almost always leads to a better, more solid experience for every single user.

Let’s dive into a couple of companies that are knocking it out of the park.

Slack: A Masterclass in Keyboard and Screen Reader Support

Millions of people live in Slack all day. Its entire value is based on being fast and efficient. The team there figured out early on that for a huge chunk of their users, especially power users and people with motor impairments, being able to do everything with a keyboard isn't just a nice-to-have. It's essential.

Slack provides a massive, well-documented list of keyboard shortcuts that let you do just about anything without ever reaching for a mouse. You can jump between channels, write messages, add emoji reactions, and tweak your settings. It’s a perfect real-world application of the "Operable" WCAG principle.

But they didn't stop there:

• Logical Tabbing Order: As you hit the Tab key, the focus moves through the app in a way that just makes sense. This helps keyboard and screen reader users build a mental map of the interface and get around without getting lost.

• Clear Focus Indicators: You always know exactly which button or link is selected. The focus state is bright and obvious, so there’s no guesswork involved in navigating the screen.

• Screen Reader Compatibility: Slack has clearly put a ton of work into making its interface play nicely with screen readers. They use ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes to give context to all the custom bits and pieces of their app, making a complex tool perfectly understandable for someone who can't see it.

  
  

True accessibility is invisible to most but essential for many. It's the silent work of thoughtful design that ensures no user is left behind, turning a good product into a great one.

Trello: Visual Clarity and Structural Integrity

At first glance, Trello's visual, card-based system seems like it could be an accessibility nightmare. But they’ve managed to pair that visual interface with an incredibly solid structure underneath, making the product both perceivable and understandable for everyone.

One of Trello's biggest wins is its clean visual hierarchy. Lists and cards are clearly defined, and while you can drag and drop with a mouse, there are keyboard-only alternatives for every single action. Someone who can't use a mouse can still organize boards, add labels, and manage their tasks just as effectively.

Here’s what makes Trello’s approach so successful:

• High-Contrast Design: The default theme has great color contrast, which makes everything easy to read. They also have a colorblind-friendly mode that adds patterns to labels, which is a textbook example of not relying on color alone to get information across.

  
  

• Semantic HTML: Behind the scenes, Trello is built with clean, meaningful HTML. Headings are headings, lists are lists, and buttons are buttons. This creates a logical flow that screen readers can navigate with ease.

  
  

• Actionable and Clear Labels: Buttons don’t just say "Click Here." They use descriptive text that tells you exactly what will happen. This clarity is a game-changer for screen reader users who need context for every action.

  
  

These SaaS giants show us that making accessibility in UX design a priority doesn't hold you back—it pushes you to build a higher-quality product. They’ve created tools that are more flexible, more resilient, and ultimately, more useful for their entire customer base.

To see how these same ideas translate to website design, take a look at this case study on the Writesonic website, which shows how a focus on structure and clarity creates a far better experience for everyone. By learning from examples like these, any product team can start building a more inclusive digital world.

Your Accessibility in UX Design Questions Answered

Starting a new initiative around accessibility in UX design can feel daunting, especially when you're staring down tight deadlines and a long list of other priorities. It’s completely normal for teams to wonder where to even begin, how to get buy-in, and what level of expertise is really needed to make a real difference.

Let's cut through the noise. This section tackles those common questions head-on with clear, straightforward answers to help you get unstuck, build momentum, and empower everyone on your team to create a more inclusive product.

Where Do I Start If My Team Is New to This?

The thought of making an entire product accessible can feel like trying to boil the ocean. The secret? Don't. Start small with high-impact, low-effort changes that build momentum and show value right away.

A fantastic first step is a quick mini-audit focusing on two fundamentals: keyboard navigation and color contrast. These are surprisingly easy to test and often reveal major roadblocks that can be fixed without tearing everything down and starting over.

• Try the Keyboard Test: Unplug your mouse. Seriously. Can you get to and use every button, link, and form field on a key screen with only the Tab, Enter, Spacebar, and arrow keys? You'll quickly uncover dead ends, hidden elements, and keyboard traps that make your product unusable for some people.

  
  

• Run a Contrast Check: Use a free browser plugin to check the color contrast on your main UI. This will instantly flag any text that’s hard to read for people with low vision, a problem that affects a huge portion of the population.

  
  

Starting here gives your team a tangible, manageable entry point. Fixing even a few of these basic issues is a concrete win that makes the bigger goal feel much more attainable.

How Can I Convince Stakeholders It’s Worth the Investment?

Getting leadership on board is often the toughest part. Stakeholders are focused on business metrics, so it’s up to you to connect accessibility directly to the outcomes they care about. Frame your argument around three pillars they can’t ignore: risk, reward, and responsibility.

The business case for accessibility isn't about charity; it's about smart strategy. By designing for everyone, you expand your market, reduce legal risk, and build a brand that people genuinely want to support.

To build your case, walk them through the benefits:

• Mitigating Legal Risk: Accessibility isn't just a good idea—it's a legal requirement in many parts of the world. Remind stakeholders that lawsuits are expensive, time-consuming, and incredibly damaging to a brand’s reputation. Proactive compliance is always cheaper than a reactive legal fight.

  
  

• Expanding Market Reach: An estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide live with some form of disability. By not designing accessibly, the business is effectively slamming the door on a massive, untapped market with serious spending power.

  
  

• Boosting Brand Reputation: In today’s crowded marketplace, companies that champion inclusivity really stand out. A genuine commitment to accessibility builds powerful brand loyalty and attracts customers who want to do business with companies that do the right thing.

  
  

These points shift the conversation from a “nice-to-have” feature to a core business strategy that drives growth and protects the bottom line.

Do I Need to Be an Expert to Make a Difference?

Absolutely not. This is one of the biggest myths holding teams back. The idea that only certified experts can contribute to accessibility is what paralyzes progress. While specialists are invaluable, every single person on a product team has the power to make a meaningful impact.

Think of accessibility as a team sport, not a solo mission. A designer who checks color contrast, a writer who uses plain language, or a developer who adds proper labels to a form is pushing the ball forward. The goal isn't for everyone to become an expert overnight.

The real aim is to build a culture of awareness, where small, consistent actions add up to a huge impact over time. It's a shared responsibility. Every small, inclusive decision you make moves the needle, creating a product that is more usable, more welcoming, and ultimately more successful for everyone.

At Bricx, we believe that great design is inclusive by default. We partner with B2B and SaaS companies to build products and websites that are not only beautiful and effective but also accessible to all users. Learn more about our user-centric design philosophy at https://bricxlabs.com.