Make your brownfield app accessible without starting over

Stop rewriting, start recovering: Make your brownfield app accessible without starting over

Accessibility is one of those things many teams put off. Especially when the app in question is already under pressure due to tangled legacy code, inconsistent UI or performance issues that feel more urgent. But if you’re sitting on an app that’s missing the mark for accessibility, it’s not just a user experience issue. It’s a business liability.

We hear the same concern again and again: “We know accessibility is important, but surely it’ll mean a total rebuild.”

That belief is doing more harm than good. The truth is, there are meaningful ways to improve accessibility without tearing everything down.

It’s a serious issue that requires attention

Neglecting accessibility can’t be boiled down to oversight, the way it may have been in the past. It has real and measurable consequences for your users, your team and your business.

Regulatory risk: In the UK, public sector apps must comply with the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations. Even private-sector organisations are legally required to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.
User loss: Poor colour contrast, missing labels and broken keyboard navigation exclude users with disabilities and frustrate people in low-light, noisy or fast-paced environments. The result? A dwindling user base, full of dissatisfied customers who will leave when your app just isn’t working for them.
Mounting tech debt: Ignoring accessibility now means more expensive refactors later. The longer these issues go unaddressed, the deeper they embed themselves into your codebase. Untangling these problems later down the line might sound like a nice mental break. Really, you’re looking at more delayed stress and increased costs.

Your real blockers are your false assumptions

You’re not alone if you’ve heard these around your team:

“Accessibility is just a design problem.”
“Only a small percentage of users need it.”
“We’ll deal with it later, when we rebuild.”

We’ve heard it many times before, so we’re not calling you out! But, it does need addressing. Accessibility touches every part of your app: design, development, QA and content. By delaying, you’re not saving time, you’re just stacking up risk, QA overhead and poor usability for every user.

Fixing what’s there, not starting again

Rebuilding isn’t the only path. Here’s what a practical, recovery-first approach looks like.

Start with high impact wins

Use tools like Google Lighthouse, Axe or WAVE to surface the basics: alt text, colour contrast, focus indicators and aria labels.
Prioritise the areas with the most user traffic or highest friction. Start with core journeys like logins, signups and forms.

These fixes can often be scoped and actioned without overhauling your codebase.

Layer in manual testing where it counts

Automated audits only go so far. For critical flows, pair your scan results with:
Real-device testing (not just emulators)
Keyboard-only journeys
Input from users with accessibility needs, where possible

Bake it into your workflow

Add basic accessibility checks to every PR
Include accessibility items in QA test plans
Audit monthly or quarterly to avoid regressions

We’re not talking about hitting standards just for the sake of it. Fundamentally, this is about improving usability across the board to keep your users loyal and happy by meeting their needs.

Use component libraries to enforce consistency If your UI is inconsistent, create or adapt a component library that meets WCAG 2.2 AA standards. That way, every new screen and future refactor inherits good practice by default.

Measure progress, not perfection

This shouldn’t be a total operations overhaul. Start small and track real improvement:

Baseline: Where are your most serious WCAG failures today?
Goal: Can you reduce them by 80% in 3 months?
Monitor: Use feedback, user metrics and repeat audits to gauge progress.

This is the pathway to making your app better for everyone, while ensuring your business remains thriving and profitable.

You don’t need a rebuild, but you do need a plan

If your app is behind on accessibility, the worst thing you can do is wait for a rebuild that may never come. Fix what you’ve got. Layer improvements over time. Embed accessibility into how your team works today, not someday.

Not sure where to begin?

We’ll run an audit on your existing app and show you where your accessibility gaps are, and how to close them without starting over. Let’s take a look at what’s holding your app back.