An Accessibility Baseline for BC Marketing: Fix These 8 Website and Video Barriers
For a marketing team, accessibility has a practical test: can someone complete the page’s primary task without seeing clearly, hearing audio, using a mouse, or quickly parsing dense copy? BC businesses can use WCAG 2.2 Level AA as a design and procurement baseline. One distinction matters: the BC government’s commitment for its own digital services does not mean every private organization has identical legal duties in every situation. Obtain legal advice when determining a specific compliance obligation.
Fix eight barriers that block conversion
- Complete the core journey by keyboard: navigation, menus, forms, dialogs, and submission cannot require a mouse.
- Keep focus visible: a person tabbing through the page must see which control is active.
- Meet text contrast: normal text should reach 4.5:1 against its background; pale grey is not a premium brand strategy.
- Give forms persistent labels: a placeholder is not a label, and an error must say what failed and how to fix it.
- Write purposeful alt text: describe relevant information; use an empty alt value for decorative images.
- Provide accurate captions: review automated captions for names, locations, and technical terms, and identify meaningful sound.
- Do not rely on colour alone: errors, success states, plan comparisons, and charts need text or shape cues.
- Let people stop motion: autoplay, flashing elements, tickers, and carousels should not take control away.
These priorities align with the Province of BC’s practical WCAG guidance. They also help people using a phone in bright light, watching without sound, or working on an unreliable connection.
An overlay score is not an accessibility test
Automated tools are useful for missing alt attributes, low contrast, and some semantic errors. They cannot decide whether a heading is meaningful, a caption is accurate, or a keyboard journey gets stuck. A small campaign should include three layers:
| Layer | Method | Finds |
|---|---|---|
| Automated | Scan the home, service, and form templates | Baseline contrast, name, and markup errors |
| Manual | Use keyboard only, zoom to 200%, and mute audio | Flow, focus, overflow, and caption gaps |
| User | Ask people who use assistive technology to complete a task | Barriers the team and tools did not predict |
Put accessibility in the production brief
A website brief should name the WCAG version, target level, test templates, and owner for remediation. A video scope should include a caption file, open-caption export, transcript, and audio description where needed. Social graphics should have an equivalent text version rather than trapping the message inside an image. Performance belongs in the same review because a slow page is another access barrier; pair the audit with our Core Web Vitals checklist.
Frequently asked questions
Is an accessibility overlay enough?
No. A toolbar may offer font or contrast controls, but it cannot repair incorrect HTML structure, keyboard traps, unlabeled forms, or inaccurate captions.
Does every video need audio description?
Provide an equivalent audio or text description when the visuals communicate important information that narration does not. If dialogue already communicates everything essential, repetition may not be needed.
Which pages should be fixed first?
Start with the highest-traffic and highest-value tasks: the home page, core service pages, contact or checkout forms, and any landing page receiving paid traffic.
Sources and scope
The implementation baseline uses the Province of British Columbia’s Accessible Web Products guidance and its explanation of WCAG 2.2. This is design and content guidance, not a determination of any organization’s legal liability.