Web accessibility means building your site so that people with disabilities can use it including people who are blind or have low vision, people who are deaf or hard of hearing, people with motor impairments who use a keyboard instead of a mouse, and people with cognitive disabilities who need clear, simple content.
The standard most organizations aim for is WCAG the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, maintained by the W3C. WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the benchmark cited in most legal contexts, and it's the baseline we recommend for nonprofit websites.
Here are the problems we find most frequently when auditing nonprofit sites.
1. Images without alt text
Alt text is a written description of an image that screen readers read aloud to people who can't see the image. When an image has no alt text, a screen reader will often read out the file name instead something like IMG_4502.jpg which is meaningless.
This is by far the most common accessibility failure on nonprofit websites. It's especially common on hero images, team photos, event photos, and logos. Every image that conveys meaning needs descriptive alt text. Decorative images (backgrounds, dividers) should have empty alt attributes (alt="") so screen readers know to skip them.
2. Low color contrast
Color contrast refers to the difference in lightness between text and its background. When the contrast is too low, text becomes difficult or impossible to read for people with low vision or color blindness.
WCAG requires a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Common failures include light gray text on white backgrounds, white text on light-blue buttons, and colored text on colored backgrounds used in infographics or callout boxes.
You can check contrast ratios using free tools like WebAIM's Contrast Checker. If your brand colors don't meet contrast requirements, a small adjustment to the shade is usually all that's needed.
Low color contrast is the second most common issue we find in accessibility audits and one of the easiest to fix without a full redesign. In many cases, darkening a text color by 10–15% is enough to pass.
3. Missing form labels
Every form field contact forms, donation forms, newsletter signups needs a visible label that is programmatically associated with the input. A placeholder like "Enter your email" is not a substitute for a label. When the user starts typing, the placeholder disappears, and screen readers may not associate the field with any description.
This is a critical issue on donation forms, where users need to clearly understand what information is being requested at every step. Missing labels make forms difficult or impossible to use with assistive technology.
4. Keyboard navigation that doesn't work
Not everyone uses a mouse. People with motor impairments often navigate entirely by keyboard, using Tab to move between elements and Enter or Space to activate them. If your site's navigation menus, dropdown buttons, or modal dialogs trap keyboard focus or don't work without a mouse, those users are effectively locked out.
A simple test: put your mouse aside and try to navigate your entire site using only the keyboard. Can you reach every link? Can you open and close your mobile navigation menu? Can you complete your donation form? If anything gets stuck or unreachable, that's a failure.
5. No visible focus indicator
When you press Tab to move through a page, a visible focus indicator shows which element is currently selected typically a colored outline around a link or button. Many websites suppress this indicator because designers feel it looks messy. The result is that keyboard users have no idea where they are on the page.
WCAG 2.2 has made focus visibility a more explicit requirement. Your site should always show a clear, high-contrast focus ring on interactive elements.
6. Poor heading structure
Screen readers use heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to help users understand the structure of a page and jump between sections. A page with no headings, skipped heading levels, or headings used purely for visual styling (making text bigger) fails to provide that structure.
Every page should have exactly one H1 (the main title), followed by H2s for major sections, and H3s for subsections within those. Headings should describe the content that follows, not just look big.
7. Videos without captions
If your nonprofit uses video to tell your story and many do those videos need accurate closed captions for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Auto-generated captions from YouTube or Vimeo are a starting point but are frequently inaccurate, especially with names, terminology, or accents. Reviewing and correcting auto-captions is a reasonable minimum.
Why this matters for nonprofits specifically
Accessibility is a mission issue. If your organization serves or employs people with disabilities, an inaccessible website contradicts that mission. More broadly, accessibility barriers exclude potential donors, volunteers, and community members who can't navigate your site effectively.
There's also a legal dimension. While the law in the U.S. has evolved in this area, nonprofit websites particularly those receiving federal funding or providing public accommodations face increasing scrutiny under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
And practically: accessible websites are better websites. The fixes that make a site more accessible almost always make it clearer, faster, and easier to use for everyone.
Where to start
If you're not sure how your site currently performs, an accessibility audit is the clearest way to find out. A good audit will rank findings by severity critical failures that affect all screen reader users, serious issues that affect most, and moderate issues that affect some so you can prioritize your fixes effectively.