Most associations think about their website as a membership and engagement tool: Is it easy to renew? Is it simple to register for events? Can members quickly find the information they need?
Those are important questions. But there’s another question associations should be asking:
Can every one of your members and prospective members actually use the website?
Accessibility is no longer something that can be treated as an afterthought. For associations, building an accessible website is about creating an inclusive digital experience while also reducing potential compliance and legal risks.
Accessibility Isn’t an Edge Case Anymore
Web accessibility means designing and developing a website so people using screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, voice controls, magnification tools, and other assistive technologies can access and interact with the content.
For years, accessibility was sometimes treated as a nice-to-have that could be addressed after a website redesign was complete. Today, that approach can create unnecessary risk.
Website accessibility complaints, demand letters, and lawsuits have become an important consideration for organizations across industries, including nonprofits and associations. An inaccessible website can create barriers for members, prospective members, event attendees, and other visitors who rely on assistive technology.
The risk can come from seemingly small issues: missing alternative text, unlabeled form fields, insufficient color contrast, inaccessible menus, or interactive elements that cannot be used with a keyboard.
And these issues become particularly important on association websites because so much of the member experience happens online.
Membership renewals, event registration, profile updates, payments, educational resources, forms, and other digital services all need to be accessible—not just the homepage.
What Gets Missed in a Typical Redesign
When associations redesign their websites, the conversation often focuses on the visible improvements:
- A modern, professional design
- Better mobile responsiveness
- Easier navigation
- A more intuitive member experience
- Improved search
- Seamless connections with existing association systems
These are all important. But a website can look modern and still have significant accessibility gaps.
For example, a visually polished website may still have:
- Color combinations that don’t provide sufficient contrast
- Forms without properly associated labels
- Navigation menus that cannot be operated using a keyboard
- Buttons or links that aren’t clearly identified
- Images without meaningful alternative text
- Videos without appropriate captions
- PDFs and other downloadable resources that aren’t accessible
- Error messages that aren’t clearly communicated to assistive technology
Accessibility isn’t automatically achieved simply because a website has a new design.
It needs to be considered throughout the design, development, content, and testing process.
Accessibility Should Be Built Into the Website From the Start
One of the biggest advantages of addressing accessibility during a website redesign is that it can be incorporated into the project from the beginning.
Designers and developers can establish accessible color palettes, navigation patterns, typography, forms, buttons, and interactive components before they become part of dozens or hundreds of pages.
Retrofitting accessibility after launch can be more complicated. It may require revisiting components, templates, content, documents, forms, and other elements that were already considered complete.
Building accessibility into the original project scope makes it part of the website’s foundation rather than a separate project later.
Don’t Just Test the Homepage
One of the most common mistakes associations can make is treating accessibility as a check performed only on a few public-facing pages.
The real member experience often extends much further.
Consider the journeys a member may take:
Renew a membership → Register for an event → Update a profile → Make a payment → Access educational content → Download a resource
Each of these interactions can introduce accessibility considerations.
That’s why accessibility testing should extend beyond the homepage and marketing pages to the actual journeys members use every day.
Automated accessibility tools can be helpful for identifying certain issues, but they shouldn’t be the only method of testing. Keyboard testing, screen-reader testing, and manual review can help identify usability barriers that automated scans may not catch.
What “Doing It Right” Looks Like
An accessible association website isn’t a separate accessibility layer added on top of a finished website. It’s a set of principles applied throughout the digital experience.
That can include:
- Clear heading structures that allow users to navigate content logically
- Proper form labels so fields can be understood by assistive technologies
- Sufficient color contrast for text and important visual elements
- Keyboard accessibility for menus, forms, buttons, and interactive components
- Meaningful alternative text for informative images
- Captions and transcripts for relevant multimedia content
- Accessible documents for resources made available for download
- Clear focus indicators so keyboard users can identify where they are on a page
- Descriptive links and buttons that communicate their purpose
- Accessible error messaging that helps users understand and correct problems
For association websites with membership, event, payment, or other transactional functionality, testing should also include the workflows members actually use—not just the pages visitors see first.
Accessibility Is an Ongoing Commitment
Launching an accessible website doesn’t mean accessibility becomes a “completed” task.
Websites evolve constantly.
A new landing page gets published.
A new form is added.
A PDF is uploaded.
A new event registration workflow is introduced.
A new integration or interactive feature is implemented.
Each change can potentially introduce a new accessibility issue.
That’s why associations should consider incorporating accessibility checks into their ongoing content, design, development, and QA processes.
Regular reviews can help identify issues before they become barriers for members or larger compliance concerns for the organization.
The Bottom Line
A successful association website isn’t just visually appealing or easy to navigate. It should provide an accessible experience for the broadest possible audience.
Accessibility is therefore not something to consider after a redesign is complete. It should be part of the conversation from the beginning—from design and development through testing and ongoing content management.
For associations planning a website refresh, accessibility provides an opportunity to create a better digital experience for members while taking a proactive approach to compliance.
If your association is planning a website redesign—or hasn’t reviewed its website accessibility recently—consider making accessibility assessment and testing part of the project scope from day one.
It’s much easier to build an accessible experience into a website than to discover significant barriers after the website is already live.
