Accessible websites

An accessible website is one that everyone — disabled and older users included — can see, hear and use, whether with a keyboard or a screen reader. The yardstick is an international standard: WCAG 2.2, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. In some countries it is also a legal requirement; in Türkiye, a Presidential Circular published on 21 June 2025 made it mandatory for many organisations and companies.

We build new sites to WCAG 2.2 AA. We also audit existing sites against the same standard, report what we find and, if asked, fix it. On this page we explain the difference between levels A and AA, how we build and test, and — for organisations operating in Türkiye — what the Circular covers.

Türkiye’s accessibility circular: who it covers, and by when

This section matters if your website or app serves users in Türkiye. If it does not, the rest of the page still applies; only the legal framework differs.

Presidential Circular 2025/10 on the Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications was published in the Official Gazette on 21 June 2025 (issue 32933). The summary below is based on that text.

The Circular requires websites and mobile apps to conform to the “Website and Mobile Application Accessibility Checklist — Level A” and to WCAG 2.2. It sets out its scope and deadlines in two groups:

Group	Listed in the Circular	Deadline
First group	Public bodies, universities, municipalities, state economic enterprises, municipally owned companies and subsidiaries, professional bodies with public-institution status, banks, private hospitals, private schools licensed by the Ministry of National Education, private companies carrying passengers by road (under the Road Transport Law), sea, rail or air, Group A travel agencies licensed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and electronic communications operators with more than 200,000 subscribers	Within 1 year
Second group	Service providers engaged in e-commerce under the Law on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce	Within 2 years

The Circular gives its deadlines as “within 1 year” and “within 2 years”. Planning from the date of publication is sensible, but confirm the exact starting point — and how it applies to your organisation — with your legal adviser.

The Circular also provides for:

• Monitoring. A Monitoring Commission chaired by the Minister of Family and Social Services has been set up. The sites to be monitored each year are set out in a monitoring plan.
• Internal review. Every organisation being monitored forms its own Review Commission, which examines its site technically and submits a report to the Monitoring Commission.
• Accessibility Logo. Organisations whose sites or apps are found accessible are granted the right to display the Ministry’s logo for two years.
• The checklist. The Level A checklist and a WCAG 2.2 guide are published on the Ministry’s website (aile.gov.tr).

If your company falls outside the scope, there may be no legal obligation. Even so, an accessible site reaches more people, is better understood by search engines and is easier for everyone to use.

WCAG 2.2: the difference between levels A and AA

WCAG is a standard published by the W3C. Its latest version, WCAG 2.2, became a W3C Recommendation in October 2023. Its criteria are grouped into three levels — A, AA and AAA — and each level includes the ones below it.

• Level A removes the basic barriers. Without it, some people cannot use the site at all.
• Level AA makes the site comfortable to use. Most public- and private-sector regulations around the world are based on this level.
• Level AAA is the strictest. It is not achievable for every kind of content, so it is rarely the target for an entire site.

Türkiye’s Circular asks for Level A; we aim for AA. A few examples make the difference clear:

Area	At Level A	Added at Level AA
Images	Alt text for meaningful images	—
Keyboard	Every function works by keyboard; the keyboard never gets stuck	The focused element is visible (2.4.7) and is not hidden beneath a sticky header or cookie bar (2.4.11, new in 2.2)
Colour and contrast	Information is not conveyed by colour alone	Contrast of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text (1.4.3)
Text and layout	—	Text can be enlarged to 200% (1.4.4) and read at 320 pixels wide without horizontal scrolling (1.4.10)
Forms	Fields have labels; errors are described in text	A suggested correction is offered for errors (3.3.3); no puzzle or memory test without an alternative at sign-in (3.3.8, new in 2.2)
Touch	—	Click and tap targets are at least 24×24 CSS pixels or adequately spaced (2.5.8, new in 2.2)
Consistency	Help links sit in the same place from page to page (3.2.6, new in 2.2); the same information is not asked for twice in a form (3.3.7, new in 2.2)	Navigation and component names are consistent (3.2.3, 3.2.4)

The numbers in brackets are WCAG success criteria. Every issue in our audit reports carries its number, so the developer reading the report can go straight to the relevant clause of the standard.

Building accessibility into a new site

Accessibility is easiest when it is there from the start. Adding it later often means taking apart what has been built and doing it again. On a new web design project, this is how we work:

1. We begin with the design system. The contrast of every colour pairing is measured at the design stage. The look of the focus outline, the minimum size of buttons and the type scale are settled early. Every page is derived from these shared rules.
2. We write proper HTML. A button for a button, a link for a link, a list for a list. One main heading per page, with headings beneath it in order. Page regions — header, navigation, main content, footer — are marked up. ARIA (extra labels for assistive technology) only where HTML falls short.
3. We treat keyboard users as first-class users. A “skip to content” link, a sensible tab order, menus and dialogs that close with Escape. When a dialog opens, focus stays inside it; when it closes, focus returns to the button that opened it.
4. We build forms with care. Every field has a visible label; error messages sit beside the field and are written in words. The result of a submission is announced to screen readers.
5. We use motion with restraint. If “reduce motion” is switched on in the operating system, animations stop or simplify. Nothing plays sound or video automatically.
6. We write the content accessibly, too. Meaningful alt text, link text that says where it leads rather than “click here”, header rows in tables.

Auditing an existing site

If your site is already live, the first step is knowing where it stands. We carry out accessibility audits on their own or as part of our SEO and maintenance service. The process:

• We agree the scope. The home page, the most visited pages, forms, critical journeys such as checkout or booking, and one example of each template.
• We run automated scans. Across every sample page, with the tools described below.
• We test by hand. Keyboard, screen reader, zoom and narrow screens.
• We report. For each issue: the page, the WCAG criterion, who it affects, its severity and the recommended fix.
• We fix and retest. If you wish, we make the fixes ourselves, then test the same pages again.

Accessibility is not a job that is done once. Each new page, image or form can bring problems back. That is why accessibility checks are part of our monthly maintenance. We explain why maintenance matters in why website maintenance matters, and other technical checks that overlap with accessibility are in our technical SEO checklist.

Keyboard, contrast, screen readers: how we test

No single tool is enough. Automated tools are fast and repeatable, but only a person can tell whether alt text really describes an image, or whether the tab order makes sense. So we use both.

Test	Tool or method	What we check
Automated scan	axe-core, Lighthouse	Missing alt text, unlabelled fields, low contrast, faulty ARIA, heading order
Keyboard	Only Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, Space, the arrow keys and Escape	Can every function be reached, is focus visible, does anything trap the keyboard
Contrast	Measuring colour pairings	Do text, icons, focus outlines and form borders stand out clearly enough
Screen reader	NVDA (Windows) and VoiceOver (macOS and iOS)	Are headings, regions, links, form errors and status messages read out correctly
Zoom and reflow	Browser zoom at 200% and 400%, 320 pixels wide	Does content disappear, is horizontal scrolling needed
Motion	”Reduce motion” switched on	Do animations stop or simplify

We test our own work the same way. Our five sector demo sites — Turkish-language example sites — score 100 for accessibility in mobile Lighthouse. On a real client project, an 85-page website for a psychologist, the Lighthouse accessibility, best practices and SEO scores are all 100; you can find it amongst our work.

A reminder, though: a Lighthouse score of 100 does not mean every WCAG criterion is met. It shows only that the criteria which can be checked automatically have passed. That is why we read the score alongside manual testing, and describe our results as “prepared with WCAG 2.2 AA in mind”.

Mobile apps are included

Türkiye’s Circular covers mobile apps as well as websites, and the same principles apply to apps everywhere — only the tools differ. On iOS we test with VoiceOver and Dynamic Type (the system text size); on Android, with TalkBack and font scaling. The first things we look at are whether buttons are announced to the screen reader by name, the size of touch targets, and whether content survives the screen being rotated. App work falls under our custom software service.

Who benefits from accessibility?

Seeing accessibility only as a legal heading misses most of the point. The benefit reaches a much wider audience:

• Blind users navigate with a screen reader. Heading structure and alt text are their map.
• People with low vision and older users enlarge text and need strong contrast.
• People with motor impairments use a keyboard or similar devices instead of a mouse.
• Deaf and hard-of-hearing users need captions for video and transcripts for audio.
• Anyone temporarily struggling — an arm in plaster, a phone read in bright sunshine, a video watched somewhere noisy.
• Search engines and AI tools also read a page much as a screen reader does. Clean headings, meaningful links and images with a text equivalent help a page to be understood correctly.

If you sell online, checkout and basket journeys deserve particular care — and in Türkiye, e-commerce providers fall into the Circular’s second group. We cover this in commissioning an online shop. If you run a hospital or clinic, the rules specific to healthcare sites are on our clinics and doctors page.

How shall we begin?

If you are planning a new site, write to us with a short description of what you need — the pages, the features, anything you already have. We reply within two working days.

If you would like your current site audited, send us its address, any critical journeys (forms, booking, payment) and, if you operate in Türkiye, whether you fall within the Circular’s scope. We agree the scope together first, then begin the audit.