Common Accessibility Gaps in Content Workflows (And How to Fix Them)

We audit dozens of websites every month for accessibility compliance. And while we see plenty of developer-side issues like keyboard navigation problems, ARIA misuse, and focus management, the most persistent barriers come from the content side.

These aren’t malicious oversights. They’re the result of rushed workflows, insufficient training, and tools that don’t make accessibility obvious. Content creators control many of the elements that have the biggest impact on whether someone using a screen reader, keyboard navigation, or assistive technology can actually use your site.

Let’s talk about what we see over and over, and what you can do about it.

Why This Matters

One in four adults in the US lives with a disability. That’s your customers, your colleagues, your community. Beyond the moral imperative, there are legal requirements (ADA, Section 508) and business benefits. Accessible content is more findable, more usable for everyone, and performs better in search. Additionally, web accessibility lawsuits have surged in recent years, with thousands of cases filed annually.

The Repeat Offenders

1. Missing or Meaningless Alt Text

What we see:

• Images with no alt text at all
• Wasted words: “photo of…” or “image of…” or “picture of…”
• Generic descriptions: “image123.jpg” or filename text
• Decorative images with descriptive alt text (or vice versa)

Why it matters: Screen reader users have no idea what’s in your images. If the image conveys information, they miss it. If it’s decorative and has alt text, they waste time listening to irrelevant descriptions.

The fix: Ask yourself: if I couldn’t see this image, what information would I be missing? That’s your alt text. The screen reader already announces that it’s an image, so don’t waste precious words saying “photo of” or “image of.” Just describe what’s relevant to the content. “Bar chart showing 40% increase in sales from Q1 to Q2” is better than “photo of a bar chart.”

2. Vague Link Text

What we see:

• “Click here”
• “Read more”
• “Learn more”
• Bare URLs as link text

Why it matters: Screen reader users often navigate by links alone. They pull up a list of all links on the page. If every link says “click here,” the page becomes unusable. There’s no context, no way to know where any link leads.

The fix: Link text should make sense out of context. Instead of “To learn about our refund policy, click here,” use “Read our refund policy.” Instead of “For more information, click here,” try “Learn more about our accessibility services.” The link text itself should tell users where they’re going.

3. Duplicate Link Text in the Same Section

What we see: Five “Learn More” links in a row, each going to different pages. Multiple “Download PDF” links with no indication of which PDF.

Why it matters: That list of links becomes a series of identical, meaningless entries without surrounding context.

The fix: Make each link unique and descriptive: “Learn more about dental coverage,” “Learn more about vision benefits,” “Download the 2024 annual report,” “Download the Q3 financial summary.” Your sighted users will appreciate the clarity too.

4. PDFs That Are Accessibility Nightmares

What we see:

• No document title (shows filename instead)
• Images without alt text
• No tags or reading order defined
• Forms without proper labels
• Scanned documents with no OCR

Why it matters: An untagged PDF is essentially a picture to a screen reader. Completely unusable. Even PDFs created from Word documents often lose accessibility features in the conversion process.

The fix: Use Adobe Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker (under Tools > Accessibility) before publishing ANY PDF to the web. Fix the issues it identifies. Add a document title in the document properties. Tag headings, lists, and tables properly. Provide alt text for images. If you’re working from a scanned document, run OCR to make the text selectable and readable.

Better yet, ask yourself whether the content needs to be a PDF at all. HTML is almost always more accessible, more mobile-friendly, and easier to maintain.

5. Broken Heading Structure

What we see:

• Skipping from H1 to H4 with no H2 or H3
• Multiple H1s on a page
• Using headings because they “look big” rather than to structure content
• Body text styled to look like headings instead of using proper heading tags

Why it matters: Screen reader users navigate by headings. They build a mental outline of your page based on heading hierarchy. When you skip levels or use headings decoratively, you break that outline and make the page confusing and difficult to navigate.

The fix: Think of headings as an outline. You have one H1 (your main page title), then H2s for major sections, H3s for subsections under those H2s, and so on. Never skip a level. If you want text to look bigger, use CSS to style it, don’t slap an H3 tag on it just for appearance.

6. Missing Captions and Transcripts

What we see:

• Videos without captions
• Auto-generated captions that are never reviewed or corrected
• Podcasts and audio content with no transcript
• Captions that are burned into video at a size that’s too small to read

Why it matters: Deaf and hard-of-hearing users can’t access audio content. But transcripts also help people in sound-sensitive environments, people whose first language isn’t English, and people who prefer to read rather than watch.

The fix: Provide accurate captions for all video content. Yes, you can start with auto-generated captions, but someone needs to review and correct them. Provide transcripts for podcasts and audio-only content. Bonus: transcripts are searchable and indexable, which helps your SEO.

7. Broken Structure from Copy/Paste

What we see:

• Empty heading tags (<h2></h2>) with no text
• Inline styles and formatting that override accessible styles
• Nested spans and divs that create meaningless structure
• Hidden content or zero-width spaces
• Font tags and other deprecated HTML from Word

Why it matters: When you copy and paste from Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or other tools, you often bring along a mess of hidden formatting and broken HTML. Empty heading tags confuse screen reader navigation. Inline styles can override your site’s accessible color schemes. Hidden characters and spans create phantom content that screen readers announce but sighted users can’t see.

The fix: Use your CMS’s “Paste as Plain Text” option whenever possible, then reapply formatting using your CMS’s tools. If you must paste formatted content, clean it up afterward. Check for empty tags, remove inline styles, and use your CMS’s “Clear Formatting” feature. Better yet, type directly into your CMS or use its built-in formatting tools from the start. When you’re done, do a quick review in the HTML view to catch any stray tags or formatting issues.

Making Accessibility Part of Your Workflow

The good news is that most of these issues are preventable. The key is building accessibility into your content creation workflow rather than trying to retrofit it later.

Create a checklist. Before publishing any content, run through the basics: alt text added, links descriptive, headings in order, PDFs checked, color contrast verified.

Provide training. Most content editors want to do the right thing. They just need to know what the right thing is. Invest in accessibility training for your content team.

Use the right tools. Browser extensions like WAVE or axe DevTools can catch many common issues. The Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Checker is essential for PDFs. Build these checks into your publishing workflow.

Test with real users. If possible, watch someone using a screen reader navigate your content. It’s eye-opening and will make these principles stick in ways that abstract guidelines never will.

The Bottom Line

Accessibility isn’t a nice-to-have or a checklist item to complete before launch and forget about. It’s an ongoing commitment to making sure everyone can access your content. And while developers play a crucial role, content teams are on the front lines. The decisions you make every day about how to write a link, describe an image, or structure a document directly impact whether your site works for everyone or just some people.

The mistakes we see in audit after audit aren’t inevitable. They’re fixable, preventable, and often easy to correct once you know what to look for. Start with one issue. Maybe it’s alt text. Get that right consistently, then move to the next. Progress matters more than perfection.

Your users will notice. And they’ll thank you for it.