How-to
Step-by-step fixes for common accessibility issues
Most accessibility issues are not new ideas. They are the same handful of patterns showing up across sites in different costumes. Each guide below covers the symptom, why it fails WCAG, the wrong pattern to avoid, and the right pattern to copy. No filler. The three most common findings in Certvo's 2026 scan of 1,564 websites were content placed outside any landmark region (62.4%), insufficient colour contrast (51.3%) and links without an accessible name (50.1%).
Critical — fix immediately
Serious — high priority
low color contrast
Body text in pale gray on white, sale prices in faint red, focus rings invisible against background.
form fields without labels
Screen readers announce "edit text, blank" with no idea what to enter.
empty links and image-only links
Screen reader announces "link" with no destination context.
empty buttons / icon-only buttons
Screen reader announces "button" with no purpose.
auto-playing video with sound
Video plays sound on page load with no immediate pause control.
data table without headers
Screen readers announce table cells with no column or row context.
invisible focus indicator
Tabbing through the page shows nothing about which element has focus.
missing or duplicate page titles
Browser tab shows "Untitled" or every page has the same title.
session timeouts without warning
Form data is lost when an idle session expires without warning.
placeholder used as label
Once typing starts, the field has no visible label.
Moderate — schedule next sprint
missing H1 / wrong heading order
No H1 on the page, or multiple H1s, or skipped levels (H2 → H4).
missing skip-to-main-content link
Tab on every page goes through 20+ nav items before reaching content.
missing lang attribute on <html>
Screen readers read content with the wrong language phonetics.
ARIA misuse and conflicting roles
Custom components break in screen readers because of conflicting or invalid ARIA.
missing autocomplete attributes
Browsers cannot autofill names, addresses, or payment fields.
iframe without title
Screen readers announce "frame" with no description.
lists not marked up as lists
Screen readers do not announce list count or position.
duplicate id attributes
aria-describedby and label-for break unpredictably.
small touch targets
Mobile users miss-tap small icons.
Minor — cleanup pass
Run a free Certvo scan first to see which of these issues actually exist on your site, sorted by impact. The audit takes 60 seconds and points to the exact page and element for each finding.
Get a real audit, not an overlay.
Free 60-second AI scan, every issue mapped to a WCAG rule.