Charity websites reach a wider range of visitors than most commercial sites – older donors, people with visual or motor impairments, and users on assistive technology are a meaningful share of charity web traffic. An inaccessible donation page doesn’t just risk falling short of the Equality Act’s expectations around reasonable adjustments – it directly loses donations from people who simply can’t complete the form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here’s a practical checklist based on WCAG 2.2 AA, the standard most commonly referenced for UK charity and public-facing websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This trips up charity sites more than most, since brand colours (often deep, saturated tones) are sometimes used for body text or button labels without checking contrast against their background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<label><\/code> elements, not just placeholder text (placeholder text disappears once a user starts typing and isn’t reliably read by all screen readers)<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Error messages should be announced, not just shown visually – use
aria-live<\/code> regions so a screen reader user knows their donation didn’t go through and why<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Icon-only buttons (a lot of donation forms use icon buttons for amount increments or gift toggles) need an
aria-label<\/code> describing their function<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n4. Form Structure and Error Handling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n- Group related fields (like the Gift Aid declaration block) using
<fieldset><\/code> and <legend><\/code> so their relationship is clear to assistive technology<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Validation errors should be specific (“Enter a valid postcode,” not just “Error”) and appear near the field they relate to<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Never rely solely on a red asterisk to indicate a required field – pair it with the word “required” in the label<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
5. Text and Readability<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n- Avoid justified text alignment (it creates uneven spacing that’s harder to read for people with dyslexia)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Keep line length reasonable – very wide text blocks are harder to track visually<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Ensure text can be resized up to 200% without breaking the layout or cutting off content<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
6. Time Limits and Motion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n- If your donation session has a timeout (common with payment gateways), give users a way to extend it before it expires<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Avoid auto-playing video or animation on donation pages, or provide a clear way to pause it – motion can be genuinely disorienting for some users, not just a preference<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Why This Matters Beyond Compliance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Charities are increasingly expected to meet accessibility standards under the Equality Act 2010’s “reasonable adjustments” duty, and public-sector-adjacent charities may fall under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations directly. But beyond the legal context, the practical case is simpler: every accessibility fix on a donation form tends to improve completion rates for all<\/em> users, not just those relying on assistive technology. Clear labels, visible focus states, and specific error messages reduce confusion and abandonment across the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\nQuick Self-Check<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you want a fast read on where your current donation page stands, run it through the free WAVE accessibility checker<\/a> or Chrome’s built-in Lighthouse accessibility audit. Neither replaces a full manual and screen-reader test, but both will surface the most common issues quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charity websites reach a wider range of visitors than most commercial sites – older donors, people with visual or motor impairments, and users on assistive technology are a meaningful share of charity web traffic. An inaccessible donation page doesn’t just risk falling short of the Equality Act’s expectations around reasonable adjustments – it directly loses … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nasirzia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nasirzia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nasirzia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nasirzia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nasirzia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nasirzia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27,"href":"https:\/\/nasirzia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/27"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nasirzia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nasirzia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nasirzia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nasirzia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}