Enter WCAG — the set of guidelines that determines whether your site is accessible to everyone. Not just legally. Not just technically. But for the 1 in 8 people who might struggle to read low-contrast text, navigate without a mouse, or process densely written content.

The good news? Understanding WCAG doesn’t require a developer. It just requires knowing what to look for — starting with your brand colours.

What is WCAG?

WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines — a set of internationally recognised standards developed by the W3C (the organisation that essentially governs how the internet works). They exist to make sure websites are usable by people with disabilities, including visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive differences.

The guidelines are built around three levels of compliance:

• Level A — the bare minimum
• Level AA — the standard most websites should meet (and what most legal requirements reference)
• Level AAA — enhanced accessibility, above and beyond

For most creative entrepreneurs and wellness coaches building a brand site, Level AA is your target. It’s achievable without being a developer, and it’s where the most impactful design decisions live.

Quick context: Accessibility standards are enforced globally — so wherever your clients are, this matters.

Australia: The Disability Discrimination Act references WCAG 2.1 AA as the benchmark for digital accessibility. Even small businesses can be held accountable.

USA: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to websites as places of public accommodation. WCAG 2.1 AA is the accepted standard, and lawsuits for non-compliance have been rising steadily — particularly in eCommerce.

UK: The Equality Act 2010 requires businesses to make reasonable adjustments for disabled users. For public sector sites, WCAG 2.1 AA compliance is legally mandatory under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations.

Europe: The European Accessibility Act (EAA) comes into full effect in June 2025, requiring many private sector digital products and services to meet accessibility standards (based on EN 301 549, which references WCAG 2.1 AA).

Building accessibly from the start protects you — and more importantly, it keeps your doors open to more clients, wherever they are.

Why it actually matters for your brand

Here’s the thing about accessibility: it’s not a charity exercise. It’s good design.

When you design with accessibility in mind, you’re designing for everyone — including people reading your site in bright sunlight on a phone, people with a temporary injury who can’t use a mouse, people whose first language isn’t English, and yes, people with permanent disabilities.

The numbers are hard to ignore:

• Around 15% of the global population lives with some form of disability (World Health Organisation)
• 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women experience some form of colour blindness (Colour Blind Awareness)
• People with disabilities represent a combined spending power of over $8 trillion USD globally (Accenture)

For a wellness brand whose whole ethos is about inclusion, care, and showing up for people — inaccessible design is a contradiction. And it costs you clients.

The four core principles: POUR

WCAG is organised around four principles, often remembered as POUR.

1. Perceivable

All content must be detectable by the senses your users have available. This means:

• Images need alt text so screen readers can describe them
• Videos need captions
• Text must have sufficient colour contrast against its background
• Text should be resizable without breaking the layout

2. Operable

Users must be able to navigate and interact with your site regardless of how they’re using it. This means:

• Your site should be fully navigable by keyboard alone (no mouse required)
• No elements should trap a keyboard user in a loop
• Navigation should be consistent and predictable across pages
• Links should use descriptive text (“Read the full brand guide” not just “Click here”)

3. Understandable

Your content and interface should be clear and predictable. This means:

• Writing in plain, clear language — great for SEO and accessibility
• Using a logical visual hierarchy with headings, subheadings, and white space
• Forms should have clear labels and helpful error messages
• The site should behave consistently across pages

4. Robust

Your content needs to work across different browsers, devices, and assistive technologies — now and as those technologies evolve. This means:

• Responsive design that scales across mobile, tablet, and desktop
• Clean, semantic HTML that screen readers can parse
• Compatibility with tools like screen readers, magnifiers, and keyboard navigation

Colour contrast: the biggest mistake creative entrepreneurs make

If there’s one WCAG requirement that affects creative entrepreneurs most — it’s colour contrast.

You pick a beautiful muted sage for your website background. Then you overlay your brand’s soft cream text on top. It looks stunning in your Canva mockup. But on a phone screen in natural light? It’s nearly unreadable. And for someone with low vision or colour blindness? It might be completely invisible.

WCAG Level AA requires:

• 4.5:1 contrast ratio for normal text
• 3:1 contrast ratio for large text (24px or larger, or 19px bold)
• 3:1 for UI components like buttons, icons, and input borders

That ratio is calculated between your text colour and its background colour. The higher the ratio, the more readable the contrast.

Check your brand colours right now → Color Contrast Checker

This free tool lets you plug in any two hex codes and instantly see whether they pass WCAG AA or AAA standards. It’s the first tool you should open when finalising your brand palette.

Common contrast fails in wellness branding

These colour combinations fail WCAG — even though they look beautiful in a mood board:

• Sage green text on a white background — often fails at smaller sizes
• Warm white or cream text on blush pink — very low contrast
• Light grey text on white — a classic fail that’s everywhere
• Gold or yellow text on white — almost always fails

The fix isn’t always to go dark and boring. Often a small shift in tone — slightly deeper green, slightly richer cream — is all it takes to pass. And the result looks just as refined, just as intentional.

Beyond colour: other accessibility wins for your site

Font size

The old web defaulted to 12–14px body text. Current best practice is 16px or above for body copy. Larger text is easier to read for everyone and makes your site feel more spacious and premium.

Alt text on images

Every image on your site should have a short description written in the alt text field. This is read aloud by screen readers and also picked up by search engines — good for accessibility and SEO.

Accessible forms

If you have a contact form or email opt-in (and you should), every input field needs a visible label. Placeholder text alone doesn’t count — it disappears when someone starts typing.

Keyboard navigation

Tab through your own website. Can you reach every link, button, and form field using just the keyboard? If something’s unreachable, that’s a WCAG fail — and a lost enquiry.

Captions on video

If you’re adding video to your site — testimonials, explainers, brand stories — caption it. It’s not optional for accessibility, and it increases watch rates for everyone.

How to check your brand colours right now

Before you finalise your brand palette — or if you’re doing a website audit — run every text/background combination through a contrast checker.

Here’s your quick process:

1. Open Color Contrast Checker
2. Enter your foreground colour (your text hex code)
3. Enter your background colour (your background hex code)
4. Check the result — you’re aiming for a pass at AA level
5. If it fails, adjust the lightness/darkness of one colour until it passes

Do this for every text colour combination on your site:

• Body text on your main background
• Headings on your main background
• Button text on your button colour
• Any text overlaid on images or coloured sections

Bookmark this: Color Contrast Checker — free, instant, and the industry standard tool for checking WCAG colour contrast compliance

The bottom line

Accessibility isn’t a checkbox you tick after the fact. It’s a design decision you make from the very beginning — starting with your brand palette.

For a wellness brand, it’s also deeply aligned with what you stand for. You’re building something to help people. Making sure everyone can actually access it isn’t a legal formality — it’s just good values made visible in your design.

The best part? Most accessibility improvements are simple. Slightly deeper text colours. Descriptive link text. Alt tags on images. A 16px font size. None of these compromise your aesthetic. They just make your brand work harder for more people.

Run your brand colours through the contrast checker today. You might be surprised what you find.