Website accessibility and WCAG: why it’s now a requirement from donors and educational institutions

WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is, put simply, the global set of rules that make websites usable for absolutely everyone — including people with disabilities.

Picture this: a site has to work just as well for you on a brand-new smartphone, for a blind person listening to the screen through special software, and for someone with a broken arm who can only use a keyboard.

Below I explain how this works in practice, why donors now require it in applications, and how we upgraded one college’s website so it became easy to use for everyone.

The four rules of WCAG, or the POUR principle

All of WCAG’s features break down into four simple letters. Easy to remember — POUR (as in "pouring" accessibility into the code):

P — Perceivable. Everyone must be able to see and hear the content. If there’s an image, there has to be text describing it (alt text). If there’s a video, add captions.

O — Operable. The site shouldn’t glitch out if you ditch the mouse. Everything has to be clickable and navigable with a plain keyboard — the Tab key, for instance.

U — Understandable. Text has to be plain, not written like a philosophy textbook. Navigation has to be predictable: if you press "Back," you should actually go back, not land on the homepage.

R — Robust. The site has to open reliably on any hardware — from an old computer to the latest iPhone, or a screen reader for blind users.

Why does this even matter?

Building a site to WCAG standards isn’t just about "being nice." It pays off:

Google loves it. Search bots "read" a site’s code the same way blind users do. Clean, accessible code boosts your ranking.

It’s convenient for everyone. Large fonts and high-contrast buttons are a lifesaver when you’re squinting at your phone in the sun, or when your grandparents are trying to read something.

No fines. In many countries, if a college or government website isn’t accessible to people with disabilities, that can mean a very real fine.

This is no longer a nice-to-have — it’s a requirement

A couple of years ago, accessibility was a nice bonus "if there’s budget left." Now it’s a line item in the technical brief.

Donors. The UCF, USAID, and EU programmes are increasingly writing WCAG directly into grant conditions — and checking it during audits just as carefully as logos or reporting. An inaccessible site can draw findings even when every other feature works flawlessly.

Educational institutions. Schools, colleges, and universities are obligated to ensure inclusive education — and the website is often the first thing a prospective student with a disability encounters. An inaccessible admissions form or a class schedule with no alt text isn’t a minor detail anymore; it’s a barrier to education.

In other words, accessibility is no longer "we’ll do it if there’s time." It’s just as much a mandatory item on the acceptance checklist as working forms or a correct mobile layout.

A case study: how we made a college website accessible

One example is a college website getting ready for an inclusive student intake. At first the team treated accessibility as "we’ll add it at the end, if we have time." But after the very first pass through an automated auditor and a manual keyboard check, the list of issues turned out to be longer than expected.

Contrast and font size. Light-grey text on a white background looked stylish but failed the minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratio. We switched to a darker palette and added the ability to enlarge the font without breaking the layout.

Alt text for every image. Half the photos had no description — to a screen reader, that’s just "image, image, image" with no meaning. We wrote a meaningful alt for every photo, and marked decorative elements as empty so they wouldn’t clutter up the narration.

Keyboard navigation. The dropdown menu and admissions form only opened on a mouse click. We added a visible focus outline and a proper tab order, so everything — from the menu to the "Submit application" button — worked with Tab and Enter.

Captioned video. The student-life promo video had no text support at all. We added captions and a text transcript under the player.

The result: the site passed its re-audit with no accessibility findings, and the admissions form became easier for every applicant — not just the ones using assistive technology. That’s the real secret of WCAG: when you make something easier for one person, it usually gets easier for everyone.

If you’re preparing a website for a grant audit or a student intake, it’s worth checking accessibility ahead of time — rather than waiting for an expert or an applicant who simply couldn’t submit their form to point it out for you.