For an Indian business website, the practical accessibility standard is WCAG 2.1 Level AA, the international guideline that India’s own government website rules are built on. Government and public-sector sites are expected to follow it through GIGW; for a private business, the legal position in 2026 is less settled than some vendors claim. Either way, most fixes are cheap when done at build time, and they make the site easier for every visitor, not only people with disabilities.
What “accessible” actually means
A website is accessible when people can use it regardless of how they see, hear, move or read: a blind customer using TalkBack, the screen reader built into Android; a parent who zooms text to 200%; a colour-blind buyer (roughly 1 in 12 men); someone who cannot use a mouse; a deaf viewer watching your product video. It also helps a customer reading your site in bright sunlight on a cheap phone.
The 2011 Census counted about 2.68 crore Indians with disabilities, a figure widely considered an undercount, and the population over 60 grows every year. These are paying customers.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are published by the W3C at three levels: A (the minimum), AA (the practical target) and AAA (specialist). WCAG 2.1 Level AA means meeting 50 success criteria. WCAG 2.2, published in 2023, adds six more at Levels A and AA, such as a minimum tap-target size. Build to 2.1 AA, because GIGW, the Indian standard IS 17802 and the European EN 301 549 all build on it, and add the 2.2 extras, which cost almost nothing on a new site.
What Indian law requires, and what it does not
Government and government-facing websites
Ministries, departments, PSUs and other public bodies are expected to follow the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW). The current version, GIGW 3.0 (2023), is aligned with WCAG 2.1 Level AA and covers mobile apps too. Vendors building for government should expect GIGW compliance, and often formal testing, in the tender.
Private business websites
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, in Section 46, says service providers, whether government or private, must follow the accessibility rules framed by the Central Government. The 2017 rules under the Act pointed websites to GIGW. In 2024, in Rajive Raturi v. Union of India, the Supreme Court held that those rules set guidelines rather than mandatory standards, and directed the Centre to frame compulsory ones. In 2025, in a case about digital KYC for blind users and acid-attack survivors, the Court held that access to digital services is part of the right to life under Article 21.
The direction is clear. What we cannot point to, as of 2026, is routine enforcement against a small private business website. So do not buy a “compliance certificate” out of fear, but do not treat accessibility as optional either. If you are in banking, insurance, broking, healthcare or education, or bid for government work, ask a lawyer whether new rules have been notified; some regulators have started issuing their own directions.
| Type of website | What applies (as of 2026) | Sensible step |
|---|---|---|
| Government department, PSU, public body | GIGW 3.0, aligned with WCAG 2.1 AA | Build and test to GIGW |
| Vendor building for a government client | Whatever the tender specifies, usually GIGW | Price the testing into your quote |
| Bank, NBFC, insurer, broker, fintech | RPwD Act, regulator directions, the 2025 KYC ruling | Ask compliance; plan a formal audit |
| Private business: shop, clinic, manufacturer, D2C brand | RPwD Act in principle; no settled website standard we see enforced | Build to WCAG 2.1 AA as good practice |
| Selling to EU or US consumers | European Accessibility Act since June 2025, with a micro-enterprise exemption for services; ADA lawsuits in the US | Treat WCAG 2.1 AA as a requirement |
The practical wins that fix most problems
These fixes cover most of what goes wrong on Indian business sites.
1. Colour contrast
Body text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background; large text (about 24px, or 19px bold), buttons, icons and form borders need 3:1. The usual failures are light grey text on white, white text on saffron or yellow buttons, and offer text over a busy photo. Check your brand colours with a free contrast checker before the design is signed off.
2. Alt text on images
Every meaningful image needs a short description of what it shows: “Stainless steel pressure cooker, 5 litre”, not “image1” or a string of keywords. Decorative images get empty alt text so screen readers skip them. The bigger problem on Indian sites is text inside images: offer banners, price lists and festive posters saved as one JPEG, which neither a screen reader nor Google can read. Use real text instead. Our product page checklist covers store images in more detail.
3. Keyboard navigation
Put the mouse away and press Tab. You should reach every link, menu, button and form field in a sensible order, always see where you are, and close pop-ups without getting stuck. Failures usually come from menus, sliders and pop-ups built from plain boxes instead of real buttons, and from designers removing the focus outline. Add a “Skip to content” link at the top.
4. Form labels and error messages
Every field needs a visible label; placeholder text that vanishes when you start typing is not a label. Errors should be words next to the field, such as “Enter a 10-digit mobile number”, not just a red border. For OTP login, allow paste and autofill, give a generous time limit with a clear resend option, and if you use six separate boxes, label them and make a pasted code fill all six. Any CAPTCHA needs a non-visual alternative.
5. Captions and transcripts
Pre-recorded videos need captions. YouTube’s automatic captions struggle with Indian accents, Hinglish and product names, so correct them before publishing. A short transcript helps deaf users, people watching on mute, and search engines.
6. Readable fonts and zoom
Use body text of at least 16px with line height around 1.5, and avoid thin font weights on small screens. Do not disable pinch-to-zoom, as many templates do. Pages should work at 200% zoom and at 320px width without sideways scrolling. Devanagari and other Indian scripts need slightly more size and line height, and passages in another language should carry their language code so screen readers switch voice.
7. Never rely on colour alone
Required fields marked only in red, “in stock” shown only in green, links distinguished only by colour: colour-blind users miss all three. Add a word, an icon or an underline.
8. Three quick ones that catch Indian sites
- Icon-only buttons, especially floating WhatsApp and call buttons, need a text label such as “Chat on WhatsApp”.
- Scanned PDF brochures and menus are invisible to screen readers; publish the content as a web page or at least a text-based PDF.
- Auto-rotating sliders and timed pop-ups need a pause or close control that works from the keyboard.
The checklist
Run this on your own site in about an hour, on a laptop and a phone, and put it in the brief when you write a website RFP so it is priced in from day one.
- Every page has a descriptive title and one clear main heading.
- Headings follow a logical order, not chosen for size.
- Body text passes 4.5:1 contrast; buttons, icons and form borders pass 3:1.
- Meaningful images have useful alt text; decorative ones have empty alt text.
- No important text (offers, prices, phone numbers) exists only inside an image.
- Everything works with the Tab, Enter and Escape keys, and focus is always visible.
- Every form field has a visible label, and errors are explained in words.
- OTP and password fields allow paste and autofill.
- Videos have corrected captions.
- Body text is at least 16px, and pages work at 200% zoom, at 320px width and with pinch-to-zoom.
- Colour is never the only way information is shown.
- Link text makes sense on its own; no bare “click here”.
- Icon-only buttons have text labels.
- The page language is set, and Hindi or regional-language passages are marked.
- Using TalkBack on Android or VoiceOver on iPhone, you can complete an enquiry.
Free tools such as the Lighthouse panel in Chrome, the WAVE extension and axe DevTools flag many issues, but only part of them, and a Lighthouse accessibility score of 100 does not mean a site is accessible. The keyboard and screen-reader tests catch what they miss. Our Core Web Vitals guide explains the rest of the Lighthouse report.
What it costs, honestly
Built in from the start, accessibility mostly means doing the work properly: passing colours, alt text written with the content, real buttons and labels. It adds little to the budget. Retrofitting an existing site costs more, because every template has to be checked and some components rebuilt.
| Fix | Effort at build time | Effort as a retrofit |
|---|---|---|
| Colour contrast | Very low: pick passing colours in design | Low to medium: may need brand colour changes |
| Alt text | Low: written with the content | Grows with image count |
| Keyboard access and focus | Low, with real HTML controls | Medium to high if menus and sliders need rebuilding |
| Form labels and errors | Very low | Low, form by form |
| Captions | Low per video | Grows with your video library |
| Fonts, zoom and reflow | Very low: set once in the stylesheet | Low to medium, depending on the theme |
Three honest points. First, a small brochure site does not need a paid formal audit; the checklist above and a careful developer are enough. Audits with manual screen-reader testing make sense for government vendors, regulated businesses and exporters. Second, you rarely need a rebuild just for accessibility; most fixes can be made on the current site. Third, skip overlay widgets that promise instant compliance: they add a toolbar but do not fix the underlying code, and many screen-reader users find they get in the way.
If you are commissioning a new site, ask every developer, including us, to confirm in writing which checklist items the quote includes. For reference, our pricing is ₹24,999 + 18% GST for a Business Website and ₹49,999 + GST for Business Pro + SEO; see our website development page or the website cost calculator.
The short version
- Build to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, plus the cheap WCAG 2.2 extras on any new site.
- Government sites must follow GIGW; private-business law is moving towards mandatory standards, so check with a lawyer if you are regulated or sell to government.
- Contrast, alt text, keyboard access, form labels, captions, readable text and not relying on colour fix most problems.
- Done at build time it costs little; retrofits cost more, and overlay widgets cost money without fixing the code.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is website accessibility legally mandatory for private businesses in India?
Government and public-sector websites are expected to follow GIGW, which is based on WCAG 2.1 Level AA. For private businesses, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 covers service providers in principle, and the Supreme Court has pushed the Centre towards mandatory standards, but as of 2026 we do not see routine enforcement against small private websites. Banks, insurers, other regulated businesses and government vendors should confirm the current rules with a lawyer.
Should I target WCAG 2.1 AA or WCAG 2.2?
WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the practical target, because GIGW in India and the European EN 301 549 standard are built on it. WCAG 2.2, published in 2023, keeps almost everything in 2.1 and adds a few sensible requirements, such as larger tap targets, not hiding the focused element under sticky headers, and allowing paste in login fields. On a new build these cost almost nothing, so include them.
Will an accessibility overlay plugin make my website compliant?
No. Overlay widgets add a toolbar for text size or contrast, but they do not fix missing form labels, broken keyboard navigation or unlabelled buttons in the underlying code, which is what screen readers actually read. Many screen-reader users find these widgets get in the way of the tools they already use. Put the money into fixing the site itself, starting with the checklist in this guide.
How much does it cost to make an existing website accessible?
It depends on the size of the site and how it was built. A small brochure site on a clean theme usually needs contrast tweaks, alt text, form labels and visible focus styles, which is a modest job. A large store, or a site built with heavy page builders and custom sliders, may need components rebuilt and thousands of images described. Ask for a quote against the checklist in this guide, item by item.
Does making my website accessible help with SEO?
Indirectly, yes, although Google does not rank pages on an accessibility score. Alt text helps your images appear in Google Images, a clear heading structure helps search engines understand the page, real text instead of text inside images can be indexed, and captions and transcripts give search engines words to work with. Accessible sites also tend to be easier to use on mobile, which usually means more enquiries.
