Accessibility

Accessibility is the design philosophy of ensuring all people can use information and services regardless of disability, age, or environment. For web content, WCAG is published as a W3C Recommendation. QR codes are inherently visual.

One challenge is supporting visually impaired users. QR codes cannot be read by screen readers, so web-displayed QR images use alt attributes describing the content (destination URL or text). WCAG success criterion 1.1.1 asks for text alternatives for non-text content such as images. In print, displaying the URL as text alongside the QR code allows access even without scanning capability.

Physical placement also matters: wheelchair-accessible height, adequate lighting, and non-reflective materials. For color vision diversity, avoid red-green combinations in colored QR codes and ensure contrast through brightness differences. For elderly users, one option is larger QR codes with scanning instructions.