Search “website accessibility” and you’ll find two kinds of results: legal threats and 87-point technical audits written for developers. Neither helps a nonprofit communications director with a WordPress site, no budget, and a genuine desire to do right by their community.
This nonprofit website accessibility checklist is the third kind. Twelve checks, in plain language, ordered by impact. Most take minutes. None require code. Together they cover the failures that actually lock people out — because one in four U.S. adults has a disability, and your website is your front door.
Before you start: two free tools
You’ll want the WAVE browser extension (wave.webaim.org), it overlays your page with flags and explanations, and your own keyboard. That’s the toolkit. Run WAVE on your five most-visited pages, not your whole site; fix where people actually go.
The nonprofit website accessibility checklist
1. Every image has alt text
The most common failure and the easiest fix. Meaningful images get a one-sentence description; decorative ones get marked decorative. WAVE flags every miss. (Full how-to: our alt text guide.)
2. Your site works with only a keyboard
Using Tab, Shift+Tab, and Enter, can you reach every menu item, link, and button? Can you see where you are (a visible outline as you tab)? If focus disappears or a menu can’t open, keyboard and switch-device users are stuck — one of the most common serious failures on nonprofit sites.
3. Text has real contrast
Dark-enough text on light-enough backgrounds (the standard is a 4.5:1 ratio; WAVE checks it). The usual offenders: light gray body text, white text over hero photos, and brand colors chosen for print.
4. Headings are real and in order
Page structure should use actual heading levels (H1, then H2s, then H3s), not big bold text. Screen reader users navigate by heading; skipped or fake levels turn your page into an unlabeled filing cabinet.
5. Links say where they go
“Read our 2026 impact report,” not “click here.” Screen reader users often pull up a list of all links on a page; a list of eleven “learn more”s is useless.
6. Forms have labels
Every field on your contact, signup, and donation forms needs a visible label, not just gray placeholder text that vanishes when you click. Bonus check: submit the form empty. Is the error message clear about what to fix?
7. Your donation flow works with a keyboard and a screen reader
Worth singling out because the stakes are money for your mission. Many nonprofits use third-party donation platforms, then test yours. If it fails, that’s a support ticket to the vendor today, and a selection criterion forever.
8. Videos have captions; audio has transcripts
Embedded videos need accurate captions (auto-captions reviewed and corrected). Podcasts and audio need transcripts on the page.
9. Nothing moves without permission
No autoplaying video with sound, no carousels that rotate too fast to read, nothing that flashes. Motion should start on click.
10. Your PDFs are readable or have web alternatives
Select-all test on your most-downloaded PDFs: if the text can’t be selected, screen readers can’t read it. Fix the big ones; publish new documents as web pages or tagged PDFs. (Our annual report guide covers this in depth.)
11. The writing is plain
Short sentences, everyday words, jargon translated. Cognitive accessibility is accessibility, and it’s the check no automated tool can run for you.
12. There’s a way to tell you about problems
An accessibility statement with a contact method does two things: it helps the person who’s stuck, and it routes feedback to you instead of to frustration. It also signals to your community and to anyone considering a legal complaint that you’re engaged in good faith.
What to fix first
If the list feels long, sequence it by harm: keyboard traps and broken donation flows first (they block people completely), then contrast and alt text (they degrade everything), then structure, captions, and documents. Numbers 1–3 alone, run on your top five pages, will put you ahead of most of the sector in an afternoon.
What about the overlay widgets?
You’ve seen the pitch: one line of code, instant compliance. The disability community’s verdict on accessibility overlay widgets is loud and consistent; they don’t fix the underlying problems, they sometimes make screen reader experiences worse, and they don’t prevent legal complaints. There is no one-line-of-code shortcut. There’s just the checklist, which is honestly not that long.
The website is one door of five
Your website is the biggest section of the Digital Ramps Scorecard, but only one of five. The free 10-minute self-audit covers social, email, documents, and multimedia too, and gives you a score with next steps.
Gillan Ritchie is the autistic and ADHD founder of Wired Mind Media, a strategic communications agency serving nonprofits, government agencies, and higher education. With 14+ years in strategic communications, her lived neurodivergent experience shapes how the agency builds digital ramps into communications — so your message reaches everyone.