A web for everyone: why digital accessibility is not optional (and what changes with my UNI certification)

by Andrea Zandomeneghi — Web Accessibility Expert

Imagine wanting to make a purchase in a beautiful, renowned shop you’ve heard so much about. You arrive at the entrance and discover that the only way in is to climb a rocky wall several metres high, with just a few protruding stones serving as steps. You’d think: this must be a joke!

Now, instead of a trendy shop, picture a pharmacy. And the purchase you need to make isn’t a whim, but a medicine you desperately need. How frustrating and absurd would that experience be?

The example is obviously an exaggeration. A pharmacy like that almost certainly doesn’t exist. And yet, in the physical world, there are still far too many shops with steps at the entrance and no ramp. But while in real life this kind of discrimination is immediately visible, it is exactly what happens every day to millions of users on the web.

A button with no alternative text, a colour contrast that’s too low, a site that can’t be navigated without a mouse, a structure that conveys no logical relationships: these are the digital architectural barriers. And for many people, running into these obstacles means having to give up on a service — often an essential one.

Accessibility concerns all of us (even if we don’t realise it)

Web accessibility is something we often fail to notice unless we have specific needs. We tend to think it concerns “someone else”. In reality, the definition of accessibility covers situations any of us might face on any given day:

• Temporary disabilities: having to make an urgent online booking with your arm in a cast, only to discover that the interface works with a mouse alone.
• Environmental limitations: finding yourself in an excessively bright place and being unable to read a text because the colour is too light against the background.
• Contexts of use: being in a noisy environment and missing an important piece of information because the video has no subtitles.

Having worked for years in frontend development — dealing with both the “skeleton” of web pages and their visual appearance — I’ve come to understand that accessibility cannot be a last-minute add-on. It must be built into every phase: from planning to design, right through to the writing of content.
This awareness led me to an important milestone: obtaining the UNI 11621-3 Web Accessibility Expert certification.

Who is a Web Accessibility Expert, and what do they do?

The Web Accessibility Expert certification is one of the professional profiles defined by the UNI standards. This role involves:

1. Verifying the accessibility of digital products and services.
2. Supporting the team (designers, developers, copywriters) by guiding them towards best practices and international standards.

But it’s not just a badge for LinkedIn. For me, it means taking on a concrete, ethical commitment. Access to information is a right of every human being.

What’s more, accessibility today is a clear legal obligation. While in Italy the public sector is governed by the Stanca Law (4/2004), and at European level by the WAD (Web Accessibility Directive), the European Accessibility Act now extends strict requirements and obligations to private organisations as well. At the heart of it all is the European technical standard EN 301549, which adopts the W3C’s international WCAG standards. This is another role the accessibility expert plays: guiding companies through this complex regulatory landscape.

My journey: from “writing code” to “designing inclusion”

My journey began like that of many developers: building web pages. Initially, precisely in order to meet the first legal obligations, I had to run my first accessibility tests on my own products.

What started as a simple “duty” grew into a passion. I began studying the W3C guidelines, understanding how a screen reader navigates a page, and learning which barriers we developers most commonly overlook.

I came to understand that accessibility isn’t solved by running an automated validation tool at the end of a project. Accessibility is the foundation of well-written code, built on established standards.

What does this mean for our company and our clients?

Having a certified Web Accessibility Expert on the team brings immense value to our projects:

• Compliance and legal certainty: we are ready to guide clients through Italian and European regulations, avoiding penalties and missed deadlines.
• Technical quality and SEO: an accessible site is a better-structured site. And clean, semantic code is loved not only by screen readers but also by Google’s algorithms, improving indexing.
• A wider audience: breaking down barriers means opening the door to a far larger pool of users.
• Social responsibility: we demonstrate in concrete terms that our approach to digital is inclusive and ethical.

What I’ll actually be doing from tomorrow

My commitment within the company will develop along two main lines:

1. Audits and declarations: consolidating analysis and verification activities across our projects, and supporting clients in drafting the Accessibility Statements required by law.
2. Internal training: spreading a culture of inclusion throughout our team. Accessibility is not one person’s responsibility — it’s a team effort involving whoever designs the interface, whoever writes the copy and whoever develops the code.

Digital accessibility is not a final checklist to tick off if there’s budget left over. It is an intrinsic element of software quality and good design. Above all, it is about the ethics of our work: enabling anyone to access a service in complete autonomy, without having to ask anyone for help.