You open a spreadsheet with 452 accessibility errors. Your automated testing tool flagged them all in under three minutes, and now your development team is staring at you in silence. Half of the issues are labeled "critical," but nobody knows whether a missing image description on a blog post from 2018 is more urgent than a signup form that lacks a clear focus state.
When you face a massive accessibility backlog, paralysis is the natural reaction. You cannot fix all 452 issues by next Friday. If you try to tackle the list in alphabetical or chronological order, you will burn through your budget without actually making your website easier to use.
You need to triage.
The triage mindset: Why you can't fix everything at once
When an emergency room gets crowded, doctors do not treat patients in the order they walked through the door. They treat the person who cannot breathe before they bandage a sprained finger.
Your accessibility backlog requires the exact same approach.
Automated tools like Lighthouse or Axe are excellent for finding code-level errors, but they lack human context. They treat a missing image description on a decorative background pattern with the same severity as a checkout button that a screen reader cannot announce.
If you try to resolve every warning simultaneously, your team will get bogged down in minor code adjustments that do not improve the actual user experience. Instead, focus on the critical paths. If a user cannot navigate your main menu, sign up for your product, or read your pricing page, your website is broken for them.
Treat your accessibility backlog like a triage room, not a linear to-do list. Focus on the barriers that completely block a user from completing a task.
Fix keyboard navigation first
If a user cannot navigate your site with a keyboard, the rest of your accessibility fixes won't matter.
Many users do not use a mouse. They might navigate using the Tab key, a switch device, or a screen reader. If your interactive elements—like links, buttons, and form fields—are not built to handle keyboard input, these users are locked out of your site entirely.
Start by testing this yourself. Put your mouse on the floor and try to log into your product or buy your service using only your keyboard.
Look for two critical issues during this test:
- Missing focus indicators: When you press the Tab key, can you actually see where you are on the screen? If you have CSS rules like
outline: nonein your stylesheet, you have effectively hidden the cursor for keyboard users. - Broken tab order: Does the navigation move logically from top to bottom, left to right? If your cursor jumps from the header to the footer and back to the middle of the page, the underlying HTML structure is out of order.
For example, let us look at a typical SaaS pricing page. Suppose you have 3 pricing tiers, each with a "Select Plan" button. If your focus indicator is hidden, a keyboard user has to press the Tab key roughly 15 times to navigate from the top menu down to those buttons, completely blind. They have no idea which plan they are about to select.
Fixing this is usually a matter of restoring default browser outlines or styling custom, high-visibility focus states in your CSS. It is a quick development win that immediately opens your site to more users.
Clear up the contrast and color issues
High contrast isn't just a compliance check—it is the baseline for readable design.
If your marketing site uses light gray text on a white background, you are making your audience work too hard. This is not just an issue for users with permanent visual impairments. It affects a user trying to read your pricing page on a mobile phone in direct sunlight, or someone working late with tired eyes.
You do not need to redesign your entire brand to fix contrast. You just need to adjust your existing color palette.
Open your design files in Figma or use a browser extension to check your contrast ratios. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) require a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text.
If your brand colors fall short, do not panic. You do not have to abandon your primary brand identity. Often, simply darkening your brand's primary blue or green by a few shades for body text and button labels will bring your site into compliance without altering the overall look and feel.
Make your forms usable
Forms are where conversions happen. If a user cannot fill out your contact form, you lose a lead. If they cannot fill out your checkout form, you lose a sale.
Accessible forms directly protect your business's bottom line.
To make your forms usable for everyone, focus on three main areas:
- Explicit labels: Every input field needs a clear, visible label. Do not rely on placeholder text inside the input box. Placeholder text usually has poor contrast, and it disappears the moment a user starts typing. If a user gets distracted and looks away, they lose the context of what they were typing.
- Clear error states: When a user makes a mistake, do not just turn the input border red. Red-green color blindness is incredibly common. If color is the only cue, many users will not know which field has the error. Always use text instructions and icons alongside color to point out mistakes.
- Helper text association: If you have instructions below an input field, make sure screen readers read them. Use the
aria-describedbyattribute to link the input field to the helper text.
Write descriptive alt text for meaningful images
You do not need to write alt text for every single decorative shape, wave, or abstract background graphic on your website. In fact, doing so creates unnecessary noise for screen reader users.
Skip the decorative fluff and write clear, descriptive alt text for images that carry meaning.
When you audit your images, categorize them into two groups:
- Decorative images: These are background patterns, abstract illustrations, or icons that do not add information. Set their alt attribute to empty (
alt=""). This tells screen readers to skip them entirely, saving the user time. - Informative images: These are charts, product screenshots, or photos that explain a concept. For these, write a short, clear sentence describing the actual content.
For example, if you have a screenshot of your product dashboard, do not write alt="Dashboard screenshot". Instead, write alt="The analytics dashboard showing a 20 percent increase in monthly active users."
At Northwind Studio, we approach accessibility audits by separating the noise from the critical user paths. We help teams identify which images actually deliver context so they do not waste hours writing descriptions for decorative background shapes.
How to build accessibility into your design system
The best way to handle an accessibility backlog is to stop creating new issues in your design system.
If your design team is building new pages using components that are already accessible, your backlog will naturally shrink over time. Instead of patching individual pages, fix the root components.
If you fix a contrast issue or a keyboard focus state in your global button component, that fix instantly rolls out across your entire website. If you ensure your form inputs have built-in labels in your component library, every new form your marketing team builds will be accessible by default.
Start small. Take your most frequently used components—buttons, form fields, navigation bars, and cards—and audit them first. Once those are rock-solid, your team can build new features with confidence, knowing they are not adding to the backlog.
Managing a large website accessibility project does not require fixing every single error in one massive push. By focusing on keyboard navigation, clear contrast, functional forms, and meaningful image descriptions, you can eliminate the most critical barriers for your users. If you need help identifying where your site is falling short, our team at Northwind Studio provides practical accessibility audits and remediation guidance to help you prioritize your next steps.
FAQs
Is this guide considered legal advice for ADA compliance?
No. This guide offers practical design and engineering advice based on our experience running audits. For specific legal compliance questions or regulatory requirements, you should always consult with your legal counsel.
What is the quickest way to find keyboard navigation issues?
Put your mouse aside and try to use your website using only the Tab, Shift+Tab, and Enter keys. If you lose track of where your cursor is on the page, your focus states need immediate attention.
Should we write alt text for every single image on our website?
No. Decorative images should have empty alt attributes (alt="") so screen readers skip them entirely. Only write descriptive alt text for images that deliver actual context, data, or critical information.
How often should we run an accessibility audit?
We recommend a comprehensive audit during major redesigns or at least once a year, coupled with continuous testing as new features are released to your design system.