You Added Alt Text to Three Pictures. Friend, We Are Not Finished.

Accessibility is bigger than one task, one disability, and one website widget. It is the ongoing work of making sure people can understand your message, use your tools, and take the next step.

Hey Navigators,

I’m gonna say this with all the love I can muster: adding alt text to three Instagram graphics doesn't make your entire digital presence accessible, but it’s a good step. Alt text gives people who use screen readers information about an image they may not otherwise receive. It can also help when an image does not load. But accessibility does not begin and end in the caption box.

• Can someone navigate your website without using a mouse?

• Can they tell where each link goes?

• Does your contact form explain what went wrong, or does one mysterious box turn red and make people guess?

• Are your videos captioned accurately?

• Can somebody enlarge the text without the page collapsing?

Accessibility is not a gold star you earn from one checklist. It is an ongoing practice of noticing where people get shut out, fixing what you can, and involving disabled people in the work.

Kara is still doing this work too

For clarity, I am not writing this from the top of a perfectly accessible website. I am still working to make Kara’s own website and digital materials more accessible. That means continuing to review the site, fix barriers as I find them, improve how I create content, and recognize when the work requires expertise beyond my own.

Kara has made progress, and there is more to do. I would rather name that honestly than act like accessibility is a box I checked once and never need to revisit. Sharing what I am learning does not exempt me from the work; it makes me accountable to keep doing it.

Welcome is not the same as access

Businesses, churches, nonprofits, and community organizations love to say that everyone is welcome. I believe many of them mean it. But a welcome statement cannot remove the barriers between a person and participation. If somebody cannot complete the registration form, understand the event instructions, operate the menu, read the text, or follow the video without sound, the experience is telling a different story than the welcome statement. That doesn't automatically mean someone intended to exclude them. It means intent is not the only thing people experience. They experience the doorway we built.

Accessibility is bigger than blindness

Digital accessibility is often reduced to blindness and alt text. Visual access matters, and so do many other ways people interact with technology.

A person may navigate with a keyboard because using a mouse is difficult or impossible. Someone may need captions because they are Deaf, hard of hearing, processing spoken language, watching in a loud space, or sitting beside a sleeping child. A person with low vision may enlarge the page. Someone with ADHD, a cognitive disability, anxiety, a brain injury, or limited familiarity with technology may benefit from plain instructions, consistent navigation, and fewer distractions.

People may also be dealing with a temporary injury, fatigue, aging, unreliable internet, a small screen, or a language-processing difference. Good access practices often improve the experience for far more people than we first imagine. Here are some tests to try:

1. The no mouse test

Open your website. Put the mouse down. Now use the Tab key to move forward, Shift plus Tab to move backward, Enter to activate a link or button, and the arrow keys where appropriate.

Can you see where you are on the page? That visible outline is called a focus indicator. Does the order make sense? Can you open and close the menu? Can you reach the main call to action? Can you complete the form? Or does the keyboard wander into the digital wilderness and never come back?

Test the pathway people use most: book, buy, donate, register, contact, learn, or attend. Your homepage does not need to pass a beauty contest while the booking form is holding people hostage.

2. Turn off the sound

Play your latest video, Reel, podcast clip, or event recording with the sound off. Do the captions communicate the actual meaning? Are names and specialized words correct? Do the captions disappear too quickly, cover important text, or vanish whenever music starts?

Automated captions can be a useful starting point. They are not an excuse to publish avoidable nonsense under someone’s face. Review them, correct the language, and add a transcript when the format and audience need one.

3. Check your forms

Forms are where many digital welcomes fall apart. A label should tell people what belongs in each field. Instructions should appear before someone makes an error. Required fields should be clear. Error messages should explain the problem in words and tell the person how to fix it.

Color alone is not enough. If the only clue is that a border changes from gray to red, some people will not see the difference and many others will still have no idea what went wrong.

After submission, confirm that the form worked. Tell people what happens next and when they should expect a response. “Submission received” may be technically accurate, but it is not much of a welcome.

The outsourced doorway is still your doorway

Your website may be only the beginning. People may move into a scheduling tool, donation platform, event registration system, payment page, podcast player, embedded PDF, or livestream platform. If that tool creates a barrier, your customer or community member does not care which vendor wrote the code. They only know they could not finish.

Test third-party tools before a campaign goes live. Ask vendors about accessibility. Report problems. Offer a clear alternative way to complete an essential action when possible. Do not send people into a broken process and then point across the internet when they ask for help.

About widgets

Automated scanners can catch certain problems. Accessibility widgets and overlays may change parts of the experience. Neither can make every page, document, form, caption, workflow, and third-party tool accessible by magic. The work still requires decisions: meaningful headings, descriptive links, readable contrast, accurate captions, clear form labels, useful error messages, keyboard access, plain language, testing, maintenance, and accountability.

And when you need deeper expertise, hire it. Pay disabled professionals for their knowledge. Do not quietly appoint one disabled friend, employee, congregant, or customer as the unpaid quality-assurance department for the whole organization.

Start with one doorway

You do not need to fix the whole internet by Friday. Start with the highest-traffic pathway in your own digital space. Choose one action you need people to take. Test it without a mouse. Enlarge the page. Turn off the sound. Read the instructions slowly. Submit the form incorrectly on purpose. Follow the journey into the third-party tool. Write down the first three barriers. Assign an owner and a date.

Progress matters. So does refusing to declare victory after the easiest task.

Clarity and access belong in the same conversation

Accessibility belongs in decisions about content, navigation, forms, video, events, and what happens after somebody clicks. Kara Solutions’ Digital Clarity Check can help identify where a digital pathway feels confusing or disconnected. When a website needs deeper attention, our Website Refresh Intensive, or a custom website engagement, can examine the message and customer journey alongside foundational accessibility practices. That is not a promise of instant legal compliance. It is a commitment to stop treating access like somebody else’s problem.

A practical place to begin

Use our Ten Minute Digital Doorway Check to review the path visitors use most. It is a beginner-friendly operational check, not an accessibility certification, comprehensive audit, or legal opinion. Download now and test one essential pathway this week. Don’t just say welcome. Build access.

~ Sue