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Read the articleWebsite accessibility in the UAE means building your site so people with disabilities, whom the UAE calls People of Determination, and older users can perceive, operate and understand it. The recognised benchmark is the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The UAE’s National Policy for Digital Accessibility requires federal government services to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA and asks private sector organisations to take the policy into account. For a Dubai business, targeting WCAG 2.2 Level AA is the practical choice: it covers the 2.1 criteria and adds nine more.
This guide explains what UAE policy says about website accessibility, what Level AA involves for a normal business website in Arabic and English, which checks to run first, and how to publish an honest accessibility statement. It reflects the documents we opened in September 2026.
This is a practical guide to published standards and government policy, not legal advice. If your business is licensed by a sector regulator, such as a health, education or financial authority, ask that regulator or a lawyer whether additional accessibility rules apply to you.
Key points
- The national policy was issued in March 2024 and names TDRA as the competent authority.
- Its technical annex sets WCAG 2.1 Level AA for public service sites; the u.ae platform states it targets WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 AA as a minimum.
- WCAG 2.2 has three levels, and conformance is judged for whole pages, not parts of them.
- Arabic pages need both a language declaration and a right to left direction in the markup.
- Automated tools help, but W3C says human judgement is required to confirm accessibility.
What UAE policy says about digital accessibility, as of September 2026
The National Policy for Digital Accessibility, the UAE’s main website accessibility policy dated March 2024, was prepared under TDRA’s mandate and adopted by the Cabinet, according to TDRA’s announcement. Its stated aim is a barrier free digital environment for People of Determination and Senior Citizenry, defined in the policy as people aged sixty or over.
Who it applies to
- Directly: federal ministries, authorities and institutions, and the consultants, contractors and service providers that develop websites, apps and digital services for them.
- By encouragement: local government entities, semi government entities and private sector entities, which the policy says should take the document into account and make best efforts to comply.
- Through regulators: a federal entity that regulates a sector must liaise with the private companies it licenses to check adherence to the policy.
The objectives also mention private sector providers of public services, naming health, education and ecommerce as examples. If your company sells to government, runs a portal for a federal client or operates in a regulated sector, accessibility may therefore appear in contracts or licensing conditions even though the policy is not written as a general law for every website.
What it asks of websites
Annex 1 of the policy states that public service sites must comply with WCAG 2.1 Level AA and follow W3C best practice for website accessibility in the UAE. It then lists further features expected of government sites, including a text reader, sign language support, adjustable text size, full keyboard navigation, text alternatives for images, accessible forms, clear messages and easy to understand content. The annex is addressed to government entities, but it is a useful picture of what users in the UAE may come to expect.
WCAG 2.2 and website accessibility in plain terms
WCAG is the standard behind website accessibility in the UAE, organised under four principles. Content must be perceivable and operable, it must be understandable, and it must be built well enough to work reliably with browsers and assistive technologies. Under those sit testable success criteria at three levels, A, AA and AAA, where AA includes everything at A. W3C first published WCAG 2.2 as a Recommendation in October 2023, and the current version of the standard is dated 12 December 2024.
According to W3C’s summary of the changes, WCAG 2.2 keeps the 2.1 criteria, removes 4.1.1 Parsing, and adds nine new criteria. Six of the new ones are at A or AA, which is why a site that met 2.1 AA a few years ago may no longer meet 2.2 AA. Our UI UX design page explains how those newer criteria shape app and portal screens.
Conformance is claimed for complete pages. A page is not accessible because its header is.
That rule matters for sites that load third party components. A booking widget, chat bubble or payment frame that fails the criteria can stop the whole page from conforming, so include embedded tools in your testing and in conversations with their suppliers.
The first website accessibility checks to run on a business site
These website accessibility criteria for UAE businesses are all at Level A or AA and can be checked on a typical service or ecommerce site without specialist equipment.
| Criterion | Level | How to check it | Failure to look for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1.1 Non-text Content | A | Review images, icons and buttons for text alternatives that serve the same purpose | Product photos with file names as alt text; icon only buttons with no accessible name |
| 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) | A | Play every video with audio | Promotional videos with speech but no captions |
| 1.3.1 Info and Relationships | A | Check headings, lists, tables and form groups are marked up as such | Bold text used instead of real headings; layout tables |
| 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) | AA | Measure text against its background; 4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text | Light grey body text, white text over photos |
| 1.4.10 Reflow | AA | View pages at a width equivalent to 320 CSS pixels | Tables or menus that force sideways scrolling |
| 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast | AA | Check borders of inputs, buttons and focus indicators reach 3:1 | Pale input outlines that disappear on white |
| 2.1.1 Keyboard | A | Use only the Tab, Shift, Enter, Space and arrow keys through the whole page | Menus, sliders or pop ups that cannot be reached or closed |
| 2.4.7 Focus Visible | AA | Watch for a visible outline as you tab | Outlines removed in the theme’s stylesheet |
| 3.3.1 and 3.3.2 Errors, Labels | A | Submit forms empty and with mistakes | Placeholder text instead of labels; errors shown only by red borders |
| 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value | A | Inspect custom controls with a screen reader or browser accessibility panel | Custom dropdowns and toggles announced as plain text |
Start with the templates that carry the most traffic and the most value: the home page, a service or product page, the contact or checkout flow, and a blog post. Fixing a template fixes every page built from it.
Arabic and bilingual pages
Bilingual sites introduce website accessibility issues for UAE businesses that English only checklists miss. Two WCAG criteria at Level A deal with language directly. Criterion 3.1.1 requires the default language of each page to be programmatically determinable, which for an Arabic page means lang=”ar” on the html element. Criterion 3.1.2 requires the language of passages in a different language to be identified too, such as an English product name inside Arabic text, so screen readers switch pronunciation.
Direction is a separate declaration. W3C’s internationalisation guidance says an Arabic document should carry dir=”rtl” on the html element, and warns that a language declaration does not set direction, nor the other way round. Setting direction in the markup instead of only in CSS keeps reading order correct for assistive technology.
- Each Arabic page declares lang=”ar” and dir=”rtl”; each English page declares lang=”en”.
- English phrases, email addresses and model numbers inside Arabic text are marked with their language.
- Alternative text for images is written in the language of the page, not copied from the English version.
- The language switcher has an accessible name in both languages, not just a flag or “ع”.
- Arabic fonts remain legible when text is enlarged, and line height does not clip diacritics.
- Captions and transcripts exist for both language versions of a video, where both are published.
For bilingual copy that reads clearly to every user, including people with cognitive disabilities, our UX writing service focuses on labels, instructions and error messages. The Arabic search side of bilingual sites is covered in our Arabic SEO guide.
How to test website accessibility without fooling yourself
For website accessibility in the UAE, W3C’s guidance on evaluation tools is direct: tools cannot check all accessibility aspects automatically, and human judgement is required. An automated scanner will find missing alt attributes and low contrast. It cannot tell whether the alt text makes sense, whether the tab order is logical, or whether an error message helps anyone fix the problem.
- Automated scan of key templates to clear the obvious, repeatable errors.
- Keyboard pass through each template and every form, with the mouse unplugged.
- Zoom and reflow at 200 percent and at a narrow width, in Arabic and English.
- Screen reader sample on a phone and a laptop, listening to headings, links, forms and the checkout.
- Content review of alt text, link wording, captions and plain language.
- Testing with users where possible. The national policy’s own principle is that decisions about accessibility for People of Determination should not be made without their involvement.
Record each issue with the criterion it fails, the page or template, and a screenshot. That list becomes the brief for developers and the evidence behind your accessibility statement.
Publishing an accessibility statement
Article 12 of the UAE’s national policy requires federal entities to publish a website accessibility statement describing their accessibility level and any inaccessible content. A private business is not required to follow that format, but it is a sensible template. The u.ae platform’s own statement, for example, names the WCAG versions and level it targets and gives an email address and phone number for reporting problems.
- Your commitment and the standard you work towards, such as WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
- The parts of the site known not to meet it yet, and what you are doing about them.
- Any third party tools on the site that you cannot fully control.
- How to contact you if someone cannot use a page, with a named channel that is actually monitored.
- The date the statement was last reviewed.
Do not claim full conformance unless every page has been tested. An honest statement with a working contact route is more useful to a user than a badge.
How Digital Marketing Dubai can help
We audit existing sites for website accessibility in the UAE against WCAG 2.2 Level AA with the manual checks described above, then fix templates through our website development team or design accessible layouts from the start through web design. Every site we build is tested on real devices and browsers in Arabic and English, and accessibility checks on new content can continue under website maintenance. We do not issue certificates or promise legal compliance; we give you a clear list of what passes, what fails and what has been fixed. Tell us about your site and you will receive a written fixed price proposal within 45 minutes during business hours.
