To build an accessible site in Framer, use semantic heading levels, add alt text to every meaningful image, write descriptive link labels, check color contrast against WCAG ratios, make sure everything works with a keyboard, and respect reduced-motion preferences. Framer gives you controls for all of these, so accessibility is mostly a matter of using them deliberately.
Why Accessibility Matters for Your Framer Site
Accessibility means people with disabilities can perceive, understand, and use your website. That includes people who navigate with a keyboard instead of a mouse, people using screen readers, people with low vision who need strong contrast, and people who get motion sickness from heavy animation. Roughly one in five people has a disability of some kind, so an inaccessible site quietly turns away a large share of potential visitors.
There is a legal dimension too. Accessibility lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act have risen sharply, and the standard regulators and courts point to is WCAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Building to WCAG AA is the practical target for most businesses. Beyond compliance, accessible sites tend to be better sites: clearer structure, faster load, cleaner markup, and stronger SEO, since search engines parse the same semantic signals that screen readers rely on.
The Accessibility Checklist for Framer
Here is a working checklist you can run against any Framer project before launch.
- Headings follow a logical order (one H1, then H2s, then H3s) with no skipped levels.
- Every meaningful image has descriptive alt text; decorative images are marked as decorative.
- Links and buttons have clear, descriptive labels rather than “click here.”
- Text and background colors meet WCAG contrast ratios.
- The whole site is operable with a keyboard alone.
- Focus states are visible so keyboard users can see where they are.
- Forms have associated labels, not just placeholder text.
- Animations respect the user’s reduced-motion setting.
- Text can scale without breaking the layout.
Work through each of these and you will clear most of what WCAG AA asks for. Let us go through the ones that need the most attention in Framer.
Semantic Headings and Structure
Screen readers build a map of your page from its headings. If your headings are out of order, or if you used a big bold paragraph instead of a real heading, that map breaks. In Framer, set each text element to the correct semantic tag (H1, H2, H3, and so on) rather than just styling text to look like a heading. Use one H1 per page for the main title, then nest H2s and H3s logically. This also helps SEO, since search engines read the same structure.
Alt Text for Images
Alt text is the written description a screen reader reads aloud for an image. Framer lets you add alt text to any image in its settings. Write what the image conveys, not what it literally is: “Team reviewing a redesign on a laptop” is more useful than “image.” For purely decorative images that add nothing to meaning, mark them as decorative so screen readers skip them instead of announcing clutter. Getting this right across a site takes a little discipline, and the alt text guide covers exactly how to write descriptions that help rather than annoy.
Color Contrast
Low-contrast text is one of the most common accessibility failures, and one of the easiest to fix. WCAG AA requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text and 3 to 1 for large text. That light-gray-on-white look that designers love often fails. Check your text and background combinations with a contrast checker and darken text or lighten backgrounds until they pass. This single fix improves readability for everyone, not just users with low vision. The color contrast guide shows how to hit the ratios without sacrificing your visual style.
Keyboard Navigation and Focus
Many people cannot use a mouse and rely entirely on the keyboard. Every interactive element on your Framer site, including links, buttons, form fields, and menus, must be reachable and operable with the Tab and Enter keys. Just as important, the focus state must be visible, so a keyboard user can see which element is selected as they tab through. Avoid removing focus outlines for aesthetics. If the default outline clashes with your design, style a custom focus state instead of deleting it. Test this yourself: put the mouse away and try to use your whole site with the keyboard alone.
Accessible Forms
Forms are where accessibility often falls apart. Every field needs a real, associated label, not just gray placeholder text that disappears the moment someone starts typing. Placeholders alone fail because they vanish and because screen readers may not announce them reliably. Make sure error messages are clear and announced, and group related fields logically. In Framer, label your form fields explicitly so the connection between label and input is unambiguous.
Motion and Animation
Framer is built for rich animation, which is part of what makes Framer sites feel alive. But heavy motion can cause nausea, dizziness, or distraction for people with vestibular conditions. The accessible approach is to respect the user’s reduced-motion preference, a setting people enable in their operating system. When that preference is on, scale back or disable non-essential animation. Use motion to support understanding, like a subtle transition that shows where a panel came from, rather than for spectacle alone. You can have a beautiful animated Framer site that still behaves responsibly for people who need calm.
Descriptive Links and Buttons
Screen reader users often navigate by pulling up a list of all the links on a page. When every link reads “click here” or “read more,” that list is useless, because none of the labels describe where the link goes. Write link text that makes sense out of context. “Read more” becomes “Read the full pricing breakdown.” “Click here” becomes “Download the accessibility checklist.” The visible text should describe the destination so the link works whether someone reads it inline or hears it in isolation. The same applies to buttons: a button labeled “Submit” is less clear than “Send my message,” and the more specific label helps every visitor, sighted or not.
Watch out for the same link text pointing to different destinations, and for different link text pointing to the same destination. Both confuse assistive technology. Keep your link labels unique and descriptive and you solve a surprising share of real-world accessibility complaints.
Text Sizing and Zoom
People with low vision frequently zoom the page or increase their browser’s default text size. Your Framer layout needs to handle that gracefully. Test your site at 200 percent zoom and confirm that text reflows without overlapping, getting cut off, or forcing horizontal scrolling. Using relative units and flexible stacks rather than fixed pixel boxes for text containers helps content adapt. A layout that only looks right at one exact size fails the people who need it most. Building responsively from the start, the same discipline you apply for mobile, is what makes zoom work, since both are really about content adapting to the space it is given.
Accessibility Helps SEO and Conversions
It is worth stating plainly that accessibility doubles as a site upgrade. The same semantic structure that screen readers depend on is the structure search engines parse to understand your content, so clean headings and descriptive links lift your SEO at the same time. Strong color contrast improves readability for everyone, which keeps people on the page longer. Keyboard-operable forms convert better because they frustrate fewer users. Descriptive alt text gives search engines more context about your images. Building accessibly produces a faster, clearer, better-structured site, and those qualities drive the metrics every business cares about. The overlap is large enough that treating accessibility and quality as the same project is the honest way to think about it.
Going Beyond the Basics
The checklist above gets you to a solid AA baseline. For complex interactive components like custom dropdowns, tabs, and modals, you may need ARIA attributes to communicate state and role to assistive technology. That is a deeper topic, and the ARIA labels guide explains when ARIA helps and when native semantic elements are the better choice. The general rule: use a real semantic element first, and reach for ARIA only when no native element does the job.
Test Before You Launch
Do not assume your site is accessible because you followed the checklist. Verify it. Run an automated checker to catch contrast and missing-label issues, then do a manual pass: navigate with the keyboard, turn on a screen reader, and zoom the page to 200 percent to confirm nothing breaks. Automated tools catch maybe a third of issues, so the manual test matters most.
At Framer Websites, accessibility is built into how we design rather than bolted on at the end, because an accessible site reaches more people and holds up legally. If you want a Framer site built to WCAG standards from the start, reach out through our contact page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Framer sites be made WCAG accessible?
Yes. Framer provides controls for semantic headings, alt text, color, keyboard focus, and reduced motion, so you can build to WCAG AA. Accessibility comes from using those controls deliberately and testing the result with a keyboard and screen reader.
Does Framer add alt text to images automatically?
No. You add alt text yourself in each image’s settings. Write a description of what the image conveys for meaningful images, and mark purely decorative images as decorative so screen readers skip them.
What color contrast ratio do I need on my Framer site?
WCAG AA requires at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text and 3 to 1 for large text against its background. Check your color combinations with a contrast tool and adjust until they pass, which improves readability for everyone.
How do I keep Framer animations from causing accessibility problems?
Respect the user’s reduced-motion preference. When that operating-system setting is enabled, scale back or disable non-essential animation, and use motion to support understanding rather than for spectacle, so the site stays comfortable for people with vestibular conditions.