Mobile onboarding: the screens that decide your retention
4 min read
Key takeaways
- The obligation no longer applies only to the public sector: it extends to many private services.
- Ten fixes deliver most of the result, and most take just a few days.
- Accessibility built in from the design stage costs 3 to 5% of the budget; added afterwards, 15 to 25%.
- The most revealing test is free: go through your site using the keyboard only.
- An accessible site ranks better, is faster and is more usable for everyone.
For fifteen years, digital accessibility was treated as a concern of the public sector. That is no longer the case: European regulation extends it to a large share of private consumer-facing services, and the obligations are becoming enforceable.
The good news is that most of the result comes from about ten fixes, most of which take a few hours.
First of all: the exact scope of the obligations depends on your activity, your size and the type of service you offer, and the texts evolve. This article gives the technical benchmarks; the legal qualification of your situation is a matter for your usual legal adviser.
What accessibility means in practice
Four principles, all of which translate into precise technical decisions.
Perceivable. Content must be available through more than a single channel: a text alternative for images that carry meaning, captions for videos, enough contrast for text that is readable in full sunlight as well as by a visually impaired person.
Operable. Everything must be reachable by keyboard alone, with no trap where focus gets stuck, with clickable areas large enough and no arbitrary time limit.
Understandable. A declared language, consistent navigation, error messages that say what to correct rather than “invalid form”.
Robust. Correct markup, so that assistive technologies know how to interpret the page.
The ten fixes that deliver most of the result
In the order we handle them on an existing site.
1. Keyboard navigation. Go through your site using only the Tab key. If you cannot open the menu, close a modal window or submit the contact form, you have found the most serious problem.
2. Visible focus. The active element must be clearly outlined. Removing this outline for aesthetic reasons is the most widespread mistake and the easiest to fix.
3. Contrast. A minimum ratio of 4.5 to 1 on body text. Light grey on a white background, very common in contemporary brand guidelines, almost always fails the test.
4. Text alternatives. A useful description for every image that carries information; an empty attribute for purely decorative images. “image1.jpg” is not an alternative.
5. Heading hierarchy. A single top-level heading, then a descent with no skipped levels. It is the table of contents that assistive technologies use to navigate — and it is also what search engines read.
6. Form labels. Every field tied to a real label, not just example text that disappears on input. The error must be announced, linked to the field concerned and written in plain language.
7. Explicit links. “Learn more” repeated fifteen times says nothing out of context. “See our pricing” says everything.
8. Interactive components. Dropdown menus, tabs, modal windows, accordions. These are the slowest to make accessible, which is why starting from a proven base is almost always more profitable than writing them yourself — an argument developed in our article on design systems.
9. Motion. Any animation that starts on its own must be possible to stop, and system reduced-motion preferences must be respected.
10. Zoom. The site must remain usable at 200% magnification, with no horizontal scrolling or truncated content.
3–5%Of the budget if accessibility is handled from the design stage
15–25%Of the budget if it is added to an existing site
4.5:1Minimum contrast ratio on body text
The test that costs nothing
Put your mouse away in a drawer. Open your site. Try to complete your main journey — find a product, fill in the contact form, book — with the keyboard alone.
In ten minutes, you will have identified most of the blocking problems. No automated audit replaces this test: tools detect about 30% of defects, and never the most serious ones, which come down to real use.
What it brings beyond the obligation
Search ranking. A clean heading structure, text alternatives, explicit links, correct markup: these are exactly the criteria search engines use. An accessible site is mechanically better understood.
Conversion. Clear forms, explicit errors, generous clickable areas: these fixes benefit all visitors, not just those with a disability.
The real audience. A significant share of the population lives with a lasting limitation, and many more with a temporary or situational one — an arm in plaster, a screen in full sunlight, an unstable connection, an occupied hand. Accessibility is ergonomics applied to difficult cases.
Tenders. Accessibility increasingly appears among public award criteria. Being unable to respond costs contracts.
Accessibility is not a degraded mode for a minority. It is the version of the site that works when conditions are not ideal — which is most of the time, for most people.
Where to start
- Do the keyboard test on your three main journeys. One hour.
- Check the contrast of your brand guidelines with a measurement tool. Two hours, and the result often concerns the guidelines themselves.
- Fix visible focus and form labels. One day, and it is the most immediate gain for the users concerned.
- Carry out a full audit if you are subject to the obligation: it is the only serious basis for an accessibility statement.
We carry out this audit in a few days, with a costed correction plan prioritised by user impact. It is an exercise that then benefits the whole site.
Sources
- Référentiel général d’amélioration de l’accessibilité (in French) — DINUM (French government digital directorate)
- Directive (UE) 2019/882 relative aux exigences d’accessibilité (in French) — EUR-Lex (European Union)
- Règles pour l’accessibilité des contenus Web (WCAG) 2 (in French) — W3C WAI
- Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum) — W3C WAI
