Top 10 Accessibility Issues
Web developers worldwide have found 96 million A11Y issues on 12 million checked web pages.
Here are the most common issues detected by Rocket Validator.
Last update: Tuesday, February 24, 2026
1. Elements must meet minimum color contrast ratio thresholds. 35.34%
Text elements must have sufficient color contrast between the foreground text and the background behind it. WCAG 2.1 (AA) requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal-sized text and 3:1 for large text. To fix violations, adjust your text color, background color, or both until the required contrast ratio is met.
2. All page content should be contained by landmarks. 31.46%
The recommended practice is to keep all content, excluding skip links, in designated areas such the header, nav, main, and footer.
3. Links must have discernible text. 9.20%
When used as links, link text and alternative text for images must be recognizable by screen readers, have no duplicate labels, and be focusable.
4. All touch targets must be 24px large, or leave sufficient space. 9.14%
Touch targets must have a minimum dimension of 24 by 24 CSS pixels. The greatest unobscured area of the touch target is used to calculate size. The target must be at least 24 CSS pixels distant from any other touch target if its size is insufficient.
5. Heading levels should only increase by one. 2.71%
The h1 through h6 element tags must be in a sequential order for headings to be in a correct logical order.
6. Links must be distinguishable without relying on color. 2.69%
Links within blocks of text must be visually distinguishable from surrounding text without relying solely on color. If a link lacks a non-color visual indicator like an underline, border, or distinct font style, it must have at least a 3:1 color contrast ratio against the surrounding text. When only contrast is used, manual testing is also needed to confirm the link receives a distinct visual style on focus and hover.
7. Elements must have their visible text as part of their accessible name. 2.60%
The visible label of interactive items labeled through their content must be included in their accessible name.
8. Elements in the focus order should have an appropriate role. 2.51%
Whether native HTML or a custom widget, user input elements need to play the right roles in order to make their meaning clear to screen reader users when they are focused on and landed on. If a custom widget, the element’s function must be correctly exposed by using appropriate ARIA role values rather than abstract roles.
9. Images must have alternative text. 2.35%
Every <img> element must have alternative text so that screen readers can convey the image’s meaning to users who cannot see it. You can provide alternative text using the alt attribute, aria-label, or aria-labelledby. Decorative images that convey no information should use an empty alt attribute (alt="") to tell assistive technology to skip them.
10. Elements should not have tabindex greater than zero. 2.01%
To avoid an unexpected tab order that would appear to miss some components entirely, a tabindex attribute must never have a value greater than 0.
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