Accessible Marketing: Avoid These Mistakes!

Common Accessible Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Are you excluding a significant portion of your audience from your marketing efforts? It’s a sobering thought, but many marketing campaigns inadvertently create barriers for people with disabilities. Accessible marketing isn’t just about doing the right thing; it’s about expanding your reach, improving brand perception, and even boosting your bottom line. Are you making these common accessibility mistakes?

Mistake 1: Ignoring Alt Text on Images

One of the most frequent oversights in accessible marketing is forgetting to add alt text to images. Alt text (alternative text) provides a textual description of an image for users who cannot see it, whether due to visual impairment or technical issues. Without alt text, screen readers simply skip over the image, leaving these users with a gap in their understanding of your content.

• Be Specific: Don’t just write “image.” Describe the image’s content and context. If it’s a product image, include the product name and relevant details. If it’s a photo of a person, describe their appearance and what they’re doing.
• Keep it Concise: Aim for under 125 characters.
• Context is Key: The alt text should be relevant to the surrounding content.
• Decorative Images: If an image is purely decorative and doesn’t convey any meaningful information, use an empty alt text attribute (alt=””). This tells screen readers to ignore the image.

For example, instead of `alt=”logo”`, use `alt=”ExampleCorp logo featuring a stylized blue bird on a white background”`.

Failure to provide adequate alt text is a common accessibility violation that can negatively impact your marketing campaign’s reach and effectiveness.

According to a 2025 WebAIM Million report analyzing the home pages of the top 1,000,000 websites, missing or inadequate alt text is one of the most prevalent accessibility errors.

Mistake 2: Poor Color Contrast

Color contrast is crucial for readability, especially for users with low vision or color blindness. If the text color doesn’t sufficiently contrast with the background color, it can be difficult or impossible to read. This can lead to a frustrating user experience and cause people to abandon your website or other marketing materials.

• WCAG Guidelines: The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) defines specific contrast ratios for different text sizes. For normal text (less than 18pt or 14pt bold), the contrast ratio should be at least 4.5:1. For large text (at least 18pt or 14pt bold), the contrast ratio should be at least 3:1.
• Contrast Checkers: Use online color contrast checkers to verify that your color combinations meet WCAG standards. Many tools are available, allowing you to input your foreground and background colors and receive instant feedback. Consider using the WebAIM Contrast Checker.
• Consider Color Blindness: Simulate how your designs appear to people with different types of color blindness to ensure that important information isn’t lost.

For instance, using a light gray text on a white background is a common example of poor color contrast.

Mistake 3: Inaccessible Forms

Online forms are an essential part of many marketing campaigns, whether you’re collecting leads, gathering feedback, or processing transactions. However, poorly designed forms can create significant barriers for users with disabilities.

• Proper Labeling: Ensure that all form fields have clear and descriptive labels that are associated with the correct input fields using the `` tag. This helps screen reader users understand the purpose of each field.
• Keyboard Navigation: Make sure users can navigate through the form using the keyboard alone, without relying on a mouse. This is essential for users with motor impairments.
• Error Handling: Provide clear and helpful error messages when users make mistakes. The messages should be easily understandable and should indicate which fields need to be corrected. Use both text and visual cues to highlight errors.
• CAPTCHA Alternatives: Avoid CAPTCHAs that rely solely on visual or auditory perception, as these can be inaccessible to many users. Consider using alternative methods like reCAPTCHA v3 or other challenge-response tests that are more accessible. reCAPTCHA v3 analyzes user behavior to determine if a user is a bot, rather than requiring the user to solve a puzzle.
• Instructions: Provide clear instructions for completing the form, including any required formats or specific information.

By following these guidelines, you can create forms that are accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities.

Mistake 4: Neglecting Keyboard Navigation

Many users rely on keyboard navigation to interact with websites and applications. Users with motor impairments, visual impairments, or those who simply prefer using a keyboard can be significantly hindered by websites that don’t support keyboard navigation.

• Logical Tab Order: Ensure that the tab order follows a logical sequence, allowing users to navigate through the page in a predictable manner.
• Visible Focus Indicators: Provide clear and visible focus indicators to show users which element currently has focus. This helps users understand where they are on the page and how to interact with it.
• Avoid Keyboard Traps: Ensure that users can’t get “trapped” within a particular element, such as a modal window or a navigation menu. They should be able to easily exit the element using the keyboard.
• Testing: Thoroughly test your website or application using only the keyboard to identify and fix any navigation issues.

A common example of a keyboard navigation issue is a website where the tab order jumps around randomly, making it difficult for users to follow.

Mistake 5: Ignoring ARIA Attributes

ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes are HTML attributes that provide additional semantic information to assistive technologies like screen readers. They can be used to improve the accessibility of dynamic content, complex widgets, and other interactive elements.

• Use ARIA Sparingly: Only use ARIA attributes when native HTML elements are not sufficient to convey the necessary semantic information. Overusing ARIA can actually decrease accessibility.
• Use ARIA Correctly: Ensure that you use ARIA attributes correctly and consistently. Incorrectly implemented ARIA can create more problems than it solves.
• Understand ARIA Roles: ARIA roles define the type of element, such as “button,” “menu,” or “dialog.”
• Understand ARIA States and Properties: ARIA states and properties provide information about the current state of an element, such as “aria-expanded” or “aria-disabled.”

For example, using `role=”button”` on a `

Yuki Hargrove

Lead Marketing Architect Certified Marketing Professional (CMP)

Yuki Hargrove is a seasoned Marketing Strategist with over a decade of experience driving growth for organizations across diverse industries. She currently serves as the Lead Marketing Architect at NovaTech Solutions, where she spearheads innovative campaigns and brand development initiatives. Prior to NovaTech, Yuki honed her skills at the prestigious Zenith Marketing Group. Her expertise lies in leveraging data-driven insights to craft impactful marketing strategies that resonate with target audiences and deliver measurable results. Notably, Yuki led the team that achieved a 30% increase in lead generation for NovaTech in Q2 2023.

Credentials 12+ years experience