Accessible links, buttons and forms: quick fixes that help everyone

About one in six people lives with a disability, and everyone uses a site one-handed or in bright sunlight sometimes. A few small fixes to links, buttons and forms make your site easier for all of them, and help search engines too.

Label every form field

Each input needs a label connected to it (label for="id" matching the input's id), or an aria-label. Then screen readers announce what to type, and tapping the label focuses the field. Form plugins such as Contact Form 7, WPForms and Gravity Forms do this when you fill in the field label.

Give icon buttons a name

A button that only contains an icon (menu, search, close, cart) needs an aria-label like "Open menu"; otherwise it's read as just "button". The same goes for links that only contain an icon.

Write link text that makes sense alone

Screen reader users often jump from link to link. "Click here" and "Read more" say nothing out of context. Write "Read the pricing guide" or "Download the menu (PDF)". It's better for SEO too, because link text tells Google what the target page is about.

The other basics

• Alt text for images.
• A page language.
• Zoom allowed on phones.
• Headings in order.

The SEO audit finds unlabelled fields, empty links and buttons, and generic link text on every page it checks.