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Learn Web Accessibility

Build sites that work for keyboard, screen reader and low-vision users too.

Free to start. Built from a single prompt. No credit card.

Web accessibility is the practice of building sites that people with disabilities can perceive, operate and understand, whether they browse with a screen reader, a keyboard alone, voice control, magnification or captions. The reference standard is the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), organized around four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Most of the work is ordinary front-end craft done carefully: real buttons instead of clickable divs, labeled form fields, sufficient color contrast and visible focus. Learnr turns a one-line prompt into a personalized accessibility course and teaches it through short, interactive lessons.

How to learn Web Accessibility, step by step

Experience the web the way assistive tech users do. Unplug your mouse and tab through a few popular sites, then turn on VoiceOver on a Mac or iPhone, or install the free NVDA screen reader on Windows. Hearing an unlabeled icon button announced as just "button" teaches the stakes faster than any guideline.
Get semantic HTML right before anything else. Use button for actions and a for navigation, one h1 with headings that never skip levels, and landmarks like header, nav, main and footer. Give informative images meaningful alt text and decorative ones an empty alt attribute so screen readers skip them.
Learn WCAG through its most common failures. Start at level AA, the usual legal and contractual target. Focus first on contrast of 4.5:1 for normal text, form labels, keyboard access, visible focus indicators and page titles, since these come up on almost every audit.
Handle focus in interactive components. When a modal dialog opens, move focus into it, trap Tab inside, close it on Escape and return focus to the button that opened it. Build a dialog, a disclosure and a tab set by hand to practice managing focus.
Use ARIA sparingly and correctly. Follow the first rule of ARIA: if a native element does the job, use it. Study the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide for patterns like comboboxes and menus, and learn aria-label, aria-expanded and aria-live, because wrong ARIA is worse than none.
Audit real pages with tools and by hand. Run axe DevTools, WAVE or Lighthouse to catch missing labels and contrast errors, then test manually, since automated checkers find only part of the problems. Short daily Learnr lessons help the success criteria stick while you audit.

What you'll learn

Structure pages with semantic HTML, landmarks and a logical heading outline
Make every control reachable and usable with a keyboard alone
Check text and interface color contrast against WCAG thresholds
Apply ARIA roles and states only where native HTML falls short
Audit a page with automated tools and a real screen reader

What's inside your Web Accessibility course

A sample path Learnr builds for Web Accessibility. Your real course adapts to your goal and level.

1. Who relies on accessibility and how assistive technology works
2. WCAG principles, success criteria and conformance levels
3. Semantic HTML, headings, landmarks and alternative text
4. Keyboard navigation, focus order and focus management
5. Forms, errors, color contrast and motion
6. ARIA patterns, testing tools and screen reader audits

How long does it take to learn Web Accessibility?

If you already write HTML and CSS, the fundamentals of semantic markup, keyboard support and contrast take 2 to 4 weeks at a few hours a week. Confidently auditing against WCAG AA and building accessible custom widgets usually takes a few months of applying it to real projects.

What you need before you start

Working knowledge of HTML and CSS, plus a little JavaScript for interactive components. A free screen reader such as NVDA or the built-in VoiceOver is enough for testing.

Common mistakes to avoid

Treating a passing automated scan as proof of accessibility. Tools miss focus order, confusing labels and screen reader flow, so always test with a keyboard and a screen reader.
Adding role and aria attributes to divs instead of using native buttons, links and inputs, which already come with keyboard behavior built in.
Removing focus outlines with outline: none for looks. Replace them with a clearly visible custom focus style rather than deleting them.

How Learnr builds your course

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Learnr instantly builds a full Web Accessibility course tailored to your goal and skill level.

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Move through bite-sized lessons and interactive practice, earning XP and keeping your streak.

Web Accessibility questions, answered

What is WCAG?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are a W3C standard of testable success criteria at levels A, AA and AAA. Many laws and organizations point to WCAG AA as the target, so it is the version most teams learn and test against.

Do I need a disability to test accessibility well?

No, but you should learn the tools disabled people use, such as screen readers and keyboard navigation, and listen to their feedback. Usability testing with assistive technology users catches issues that guidelines alone do not.

Is accessibility only for front-end developers?

Designers choose colors, focus styles and layouts, writers produce alt text and link wording, and testers verify it all. Learnr can tailor the course to your role so you focus on the parts you control.