Accessibility Questions to Include in a Website Brief

Describe the tasks people must complete

Identify navigation, contact, booking, browsing and any account tasks the website supports. Ask how a keyboard user or someone enlarging text can complete each task. Accessibility is more than adding alternative text or a badge; shared menus, form errors and dialogs affect multiple pages.

Ask for concrete design expectations

Discuss readable contrast, focus visibility, meaningful headings, labels and mobile reflow. Images need appropriate alternatives based on their purpose. Motion should respect reduced-motion preferences. State any agreed standard and scope explicitly, rather than assuming a tool’s score is a complete compliance assessment.

Include interaction and content responsibility

Forms should explain requirements, preserve input and announce validation or completion meaningfully. Dialogs need a sensible focus entry, dismissal and return. Ask who reviews newly added content after launch. A technically sound component can still be undermined by unclear labels or misleading link text.

Request evidence appropriate to the site

Combine automated checks with keyboard, zoom and representative browser testing. Include error and expanded states rather than testing only the initial page. Record known limitations and remediation responsibilities. A successful scan does not establish full WCAG compliance, and an unsupported accessibility guarantee should not be used as a sales promise.

Use this planning checklist

Mark the decisions you have resolved and bring the remaining questions to your project discussion. You can print this guide without providing an email address.

• List important visitor tasks and interactive states.
• Agree contrast, focus and reflow expectations.
• Assign content and image-alternative responsibility.
• Test forms, dialogs and navigation with a keyboard.
• Review zoom and reduced-motion behavior.
• Ask for documented evidence and remaining limitations.