Is Your Trade Website Accessible? Benchmark It Against 30,557 UK Sites

Accessibility can sound like a specialist web subject until you translate it into ordinary customer problems. Can somebody read the text? Can they understand the form? Can they use the site without precise mouse control? Does the page still make sense when images fail or text is enlarged?

The State of UK Trades Websites 2026 measured the Lighthouse Accessibility category on 30,557 mobile trade websites. The median score was 89. Of those measured sites, 49.0% reached Lighthouse's 'good' band of 90 to 100, 50.2% sat in 'needs improvement', and 0.8% were in the lowest band.

Those numbers sound encouraging until you understand what the score means. Lighthouse only checks accessibility issues that can be detected automatically. The researchers explicitly warn that a high score is not a full accessibility audit.

Use the benchmark as a starting point, not a certificate

If your mobile Lighthouse Accessibility score is 90 or above, you are in the same top band as roughly half the measured sites in this sample. If it is below 90, there are automated issues worth inspecting. Neither result tells you whether every customer can successfully use the site.

That is why the best owner-level check combines the automated score with a few simple real-world tests.

The eight point accessibility check

1. Increase the browser text size substantially. Can you still read the page without content disappearing or overlapping?

2. Try using the main navigation with a keyboard. Can you tell where the focus is and reach the important links?

3. Check the colour contrast. Important text should not become unreadable because pale grey text looks fashionable on a white background.

4. Look at forms. Are the labels clear, and does an error explain what needs correcting?

5. Turn off images mentally. Does the text still explain the service, or is all the meaning hidden in pictures?

6. Check link wording. 'Read more' repeated everywhere gives less context than a link that describes what it opens.

7. Test on a phone. Can a customer reach the phone number, service information and contact route without precise tapping?

8. Ask someone else to use it. A person unfamiliar with the site will find problems the owner has learned to ignore.

Accessibility and good design usually point in the same direction

Many accessibility improvements also make a website easier for everybody else. Better contrast improves legibility in sunlight. Clearer form labels reduce mistakes. Larger tap targets help anyone using a phone one-handed. Logical headings make a long page easier to scan.

That is why accessibility should not be treated as decoration added after the design. Good design is supposed to make information easier to use.

Do not optimise for the score alone

A team can chase automated scores while missing obvious human problems. An image can technically have alternative text and still be confusing. A form can pass basic checks and still ask for unnecessary information. A navigation can be technically operable but awkward.

This is the same reason we treat performance scores carefully. Automated tools are useful because they reveal repeatable technical issues. They are not substitutes for judgement.

The benchmark has limits

The 30,557 websites were part of a large but non-random UK trades sample gathered through business directory listings. The audits were one-off laboratory tests. The Accessibility category only covers what Lighthouse can test automatically.

So the correct conclusion is narrow: around half of the measured mobile sites reached Lighthouse's top accessibility band, but that should not be read as half of UK trades websites being fully accessible.

The practical standard

A trades website does not need to become a technical accessibility project before it can improve. Start with the obvious barriers. Make the text readable, the contact route usable, the navigation understandable and the forms clear. Use automated checks to find issues, then verify the result with actual human use.

That creates a better website for disabled customers, older customers, people using small screens and everyone else who simply wants to get the information without fighting the interface.

Sources and method

These sources support the factual claims and benchmarks used above. Where a study is vendor produced, its sample and stated limitations are treated as part of the finding rather than as a national estimate.

The State of UK Trades Websites 2026, Websites for Tradespeople