Website Accessibility in UAE: WCAG 2.1 & Legal Requirements

Web accessibility — designing websites that people with disabilities can use — is both a legal requirement and a significant business opportunity in the UAE.

**UAE accessibility legal framework:**

Federal Law No. 29/2006 on the Rights of People with Disabilities mandates equal access to government services, including digital services. TDRA (Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority) has published specific digital accessibility standards aligned with WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

While these standards are legally mandatory for government websites, they are increasingly being adopted as contractual requirements by semi-government and large corporate clients — and are expected to become mandatory for commercial websites in upcoming legislation.

**WCAG 2.1 Level AA for UAE websites — key requirements:**

**Perceivable:**

• All images must have descriptive alt text (in both Arabic and English for bilingual sites)
• Video content must have Arabic and English captions
• Colour contrast ratio must be at least 4.5:1 for normal text

**Operable:**

• All functionality must be keyboard accessible (important for users who cannot use a mouse)
• No content should flash more than 3 times per second (seizure safety)

**Understandable:**

• The page language must be declared in the HTML (lang="ar" or lang="en")
• Forms must have clear error messages in the user's language

**Robust:**

• HTML must be valid and follow semantic structure
• ARIA labels must be used correctly for interactive components

**Business case for accessibility:** Accessible websites rank better on Google (accessibility improvements directly improve Core Web Vitals and structured data). They also reach an additional 15–20% of the population who have some form of disability.

Smart Screen Technology builds WCAG 2.1 AA compliant websites for UAE clients, including bilingual accessibility annotations.