The 5 most common barriers to a website

and how to recognize and fix them

Designing a website to be accessible means optimizing many small components. Simply adjusting colors is not enough, even if it is a good first step. In order to adapt your Drupal website to comply with legal requirements, there are a few key components that must be taken into account, not only when making initial improvements, but also when maintaining new content in the future.
In this article, we provide a rough overview of the most common barriers that need to be improved.

But first, why should my website be accessible?

There are three good reasons for this. The first is legal protection. The European Accessibility Act, which came into force in 2025, stipulates accessibility in the digital space. Find out whether this affects you in our article: Does my website have to be accessible?

In addition to the possible legal requirement, there are also other advantages.
94% of large e-commerce sites are not accessible, so you will stand out from your competitors if your website is designed to be accessible.
Improved visibility in search engines: you will be easier to find and reach more people through SEO optimization as part of accessibility adjustments.
Inclusion means increased reach, which opens up new users and customers and thus higher sales.
Lower bounce and exit rates thanks to an accessible website. It is not only people with disabilities who benefit from the adaptation. All your website visitors benefit from the optimized processes, which can also increase sales.

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The 5 most common barriers

Alt text for images and interactive elements

Poor or missing alt text is a major problem for people who use screen readers: content is not conveyed clearly, important functions remain unclear, and barriers arise where accessibility should be the norm. This is particularly critical for interactive elements such as icons, buttons, or links—if only “Icon.png” or nothing at all is stored there, no one knows what is behind it.

Good alt text, on the other hand, describes what is relevant in a meaningful and context-related way: For images with informational content, there should be a brief description of what can be seen and why it is important. For purely decorative images, on the other hand, no alt text is set (or an empty alt text so that screen readers skip them). For control elements, the alt text describes **the function**, not the appearance – i.e., “open menu,” “start search” instead of “magnifying glass” or “three lines.” This makes content understandable, usable, and truly inclusive.

Keyboard navigation of the website

If a website lacks functional keyboard navigation, important areas become simply inaccessible to many users—especially those who cannot use a mouse or who use screen readers.

Without a logical tab order, skippable areas, and clearly recognizable focus states, users lose their orientation, get “stuck” in elements, or cannot access central functions such as navigation, forms, or buttons.

Visible focus states are essential because they indicate where you are and which element is active. Adjustments to keyboard control make the page comprehensible, usable, and thus truly accessible—not only technically, but also practically in everyday life.

Color contrasts in text and elements

Sufficient color contrasts in text, controls, and important content are crucial for accessibility, as many people with visual impairments, color blindness, or age-related limitations can hardly recognize certain content, if at all.
If contrasts are too low, text blends into the background, buttons are overlooked, and information is lost—even with good design.

Good contrasts ensure that information is clearly perceptible, regardless of visual acuity, display quality, or ambient light. This significantly improves overall orientation, readability, and usability, making the website more inclusive and usable for everyone.

Viele dieser Barrieren stehen in direktem Zusammenhang mit den Anforderungen der WCAG 2.2 sowie dem Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG). Wer seine Website barrierefrei machen möchte, sollte daher sowohl technische als auch gestalterische Aspekte systematisch prüfen und priorisieren.

Blogartikel: Muss meine Website barrierefrei sein?

Accessible forms and error handling

Accessible forms are crucial to ensure that all users can understand and submit their entries correctly.

Common problems arise when fields are not clearly labeled, error messages are incomprehensible or only displayed visually, or when information such as mandatory fields is missing.

Good error handling clearly shows which field is affected, explains the error in an understandable way, and provides immediate feedback—ideally both visually and for screen readers.

Labels should be clear, logically positioned, and linked to the input fields; placeholder text alone is not sufficient. This makes forms intuitive to use, reduces frustration, and ensures that all users can interact successfully.

Website structure with headlines and landmarks

A clear website structure with meaningful headlines (H1–H6) and landmarks (e.g., <header>, <nav>, <main>, and <footer>) significantly improves accessibility, as screen reader users can grasp content more quickly and navigate in a targeted manner.

Headlines structure text logically, while landmarks provide orientation on the page and enable users to navigate directly to areas such as navigation, main content, or side columns.

Common problems arise when headings are skipped, incorrectly nested, or used purely for decorative purposes. This makes the page confusing for people using assistive technologies and makes important content difficult or impossible to access.

A clean, semantic structure therefore makes websites more understandable, efficient, usable, and significantly more inclusive.

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But how do I get started?

Now you know what barriers may exist, but how do I identify them and how can I best remove them?

In our blog post: How can I make my website accessible? we explain how you can work with us and our 5-step process to make your Drupal website accessible, customize it, and keep it accessible in the future, so that you are legally compliant and can attract new customers/users.

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