Google Learn Accessibility: Free Web Accessibility Course

A polished interface can still be difficult to use when its labels, focus states or interactions exclude people. Learn Accessibility, Google’s free web.dev course, helps you examine those barriers while designing, writing and testing websites. It connects inclusive content decisions with practical development techniques, giving you a clearer way to improve the experience beyond its appearance.

The material is useful for developers and for designers who work closely with them. Study the sequence for a broader foundation, or return to a topic when reviewing a form, navigation pattern or content component. Familiarity with HTML and CSS makes the code examples easier to apply.

Course at a glance

What you’ll learn

• Understand digital accessibility: consider how disability and different interaction needs affect the use of a website.
• Create meaningful structure: explore content organisation, semantic HTML and appropriate use of ARIA.
• Improve interface details: examine keyboard focus, images, colour contrast, motion and typography.
• Design usable interactions: consider forms, dynamic content, components and broader user experience.
• Build a testing workflow: combine automated checks, manual inspection and assistive-technology testing.
• Interpret findings carefully: understand why an automated score cannot establish that everyone can use a product successfully.

Skills you’ll gain

• Inclusive interface review
• Semantic structure
• Keyboard testing
• Accessible form design
• Content evaluation
• Screen-reader checks

Connect design choices with real interactions

The course moves between content, visual design and implementation. A clear label helps someone understand an input. A visible focus indicator helps a keyboard user locate the active control. Appropriate image alternatives communicate useful information without turning decoration into unnecessary noise.

These decisions are easier to evaluate together than as isolated rules. When reviewing a component, consider its wording, layout and behaviour as parts of one interaction. A form may look balanced while its input labels remain unclear; a navigation area may work with a mouse while its keyboard sequence feels confusing.

The course welcomes beginners and experienced developers. Intermediate is the practical catalogue level used here because applying its testing examples benefits from HTML and CSS familiarity. If those foundations are new, study them first and return when you can make small changes to a page confidently.

Use three kinds of testing

The testing sequence uses a deliberately inaccessible demonstration page. Automated checks help identify some problems, manual review examines issues such as keyboard navigation and content clarity, and screen-reader testing explores information conveyed through the underlying code. Each method reveals a different part of the experience.

The automated module demonstrates Lighthouse, an open-source tool available in Chrome DevTools. For screen-reader practice, the course lists alternatives for several operating systems. NVDA provides a free Windows option, so purchasing JAWS is not necessary for a learning route.

The testing examples use WCAG 2.1 and explicitly note that the module has not been updated for WCAG 2.2 results. Treat these examples as a foundation for testing techniques rather than a promise of current compliance or a substitute for checking the requirements of a real project.

Turn an observation into a better component

For optional independent practice, review one small form or navigation area you can edit. Use the keyboard, inspect its labels and headings, and record a specific problem before changing the code. Repeat the same interaction afterward to see whether the change addresses that observation.

Keep automated findings separate from your own conclusions. A passed check does not tell you whether wording is understandable or whether a complete task is comfortable for a user. This personal practice idea is not a provider assignment, and it does not claim that a brief review replaces usability research with people with disabilities.

Study and practise without a paid toolkit

The lessons, knowledge checks and demonstration code are publicly available. You can practise with a browser, plain-text editor and local copy of the code, using DevTools for automated checks and a free compatible screen reader. This route does not require paid hosting, a software subscription, a trial or a credit card.

The course page offers a badge through its accessibility quiz, with a free standard Google developer profile used for badge collection. No formal certificate, academic credit or professional accreditation is promised. Follow the quiz’s current instructions if you want that optional profile recognition.

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Frequently asked questions