Why Website Accessibility Breaks Long After Launch
Most organizations launch websites with careful attention to accessibility. Designers and developers check contrast ratios, add alt text, and test keyboard navigation. But according to a report by Entrepreneur, this diligence rarely lasts. The real accessibility failures come quietly — buried inside a content edit, a new banner image, or a marketing asset uploaded months after launch.
How Small Changes Accumulate Into Big Problems
A single missing image description or a poorly labeled button might seem trivial. But over time, these small breaks stack up. What begins as an isolated oversight gradually becomes a systemic pattern — a website that may technically pass a compliance audit but is genuinely frustrating or completely unusable for people relying on screen readers, keyboard navigation, or other assistive technologies. The experience degrades not in one dramatic failure, but through dozens of forgettable moments.
Why Teams Keep Making the Same Mistakes
The core issue is that accessibility is rarely built into ongoing workflows. Content teams update copy without accessibility training. Marketing uploads visuals without checking compatibility. Responsibility is unclear, so accountability disappears. No single person notices the accumulation because no single person is watching for it across every update cycle.
Fixing this requires treating accessibility as an operational discipline, not a launch checklist. That means establishing clear design patterns, setting explicit expectations for every team that touches the website, and assigning ongoing ownership. Compliance earned at launch can be lost by Tuesday afternoon. Sustaining it demands the same rigor applied to content, handoffs, and updates — every single time.