Why accessibility overlays are not the solution to website accessibility

Accessibility overlays are third-party tools that claim to quickly improve a website’s accessibility by addressing common accessibility issues. Essentially, overlays use automated software that modifies the code of a webpage through Javascript and have a plugin, app or widget that provides a toolbar to customise the page settings. For example, adjusting the colours on a page to suit a specific visual impairment.

When it comes to website accessibility, many website owners may be tempted to rely solely on accessibility overlays because they appear to provide a quicker solution than conducting a full accessibility audit and then doing the remediation. However, they can often only solve a small proportion of issues while actually increasing the number of barriers people experience while using the site. Not only that, you run the risk of encountering significant legal implications due to the level of inaccessibility they can create while they are running.

When assessing the level of accessibility compliance, we rely on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and its various checkpoints. While utilising accessibility overlays could provide a small number of changes that could be beneficial, sadly they can create more problems than they solve. There are many WCAG issues that are not fixed by implementing an overlay, the majority of which are critical and located in the code and need proper developer remediated fixes.

Some examples are:

• The use of automated alternative text can be unreliable and inaccurate.
• Issues with form labels and markup which prevent assistive technology from interpreting them correctly and relaying the significant information.
• Components like buttons not being programmatically associated so assistive technology cannot inform users how to use them.
• Content such as headings, landmarks, lists and tables not being correctly marked up in a way that is structurally sound and logical.
• Interactive components not having correct WAI-ARIA markup resulting in severe barriers for people using assistive technologies.
• Issues with keyboard only interaction such as keyboard traps where users who cannot use a mouse get stuck on part of the page.
• Any error handling (automated error messages or suggestions when filling out forms) can be unreliable and unhelpful to users.
• Links not having sufficiently descriptive text to inform users where they will land if they click through.

A number of organisations have actually come up against legal issues because of their use of overlays, most notably in a European or US context. One notable example is Eyebobs, an online glasses company, who was sued by a blind user due to its inaccessible website. The result of the lawsuit was a settlement where Eyebobs committed to creating an accessibility coordination team to address the accessibility issues across their site and agreed to undergo a full WCAG audit, adopt an accessibility strategy, provide accessibility training internally and only utilise accessible third-party content.

Clients often enquire about the efficacy of accessibility overlays because they have heard the promises of WCAG compliance in a matter of hours, however a strong combination of manual and automated testing against WCAG 2.1 (and in the future 2.2) is the way to go if you want to truly provide an inclusive accessible experience and avoid legal issues. WCAG fails cannot be resolved by using an overlay alone, and unfortunately overlays do tend to create more problems than they can resolve by interrupting the code and not being able to reliably fix any issues that arise with interactive components.

The most effective way of providing an accessible and inclusive experience or service is to seek guidance from accessibility experts who can thoroughly audit the site.