When I started setting up my new business, I knew I wanted to make good decisions from the beginning rather than treating accessibility and sustainability as things to “fix later”. I have just left my stable, salaried job and was excited to launch so it was tempting to focus only on products, websites, and launching quickly, but the choices made early on shape how inclusive and responsible this business would become, so I slowed down to make good first decisions.

The good news is that none of the things I have done were complicated, expensive, or only possible for large organisations. They are all things that anyone can do to make their work a little more accessible, a little more sustainable, and a lot more thoughtful.

Here are four of the decisions I have made for building my business in these first few weeks.

1. I started with Accessibility

Before I event started designing a website, products or services. I considered how I could be accessible from the start. So when I started the website build, I started with considering the content structure, the language I might use, and the colour contrasts that would optimise the experience. Before my website went to public beta (it is still being worked on in a live environment), I carried out an accessibility audit.

I started with automated accessibility checkers because they are a quick way to spot obvious issues. These tools can identify things like:

  • Missing alternative text on images

  • Poor colour contrast

  • Heading structure problems

  • Missing form labels

  • Links that were unclear or repetitive

For the Cewri website, even though I had carefully thought about page structure and content on the page - I had missed some heading issues in the footer and the automatic check pointed this out immediately for me to fix.

Automated tools are useful, but they only tell part of the story. They can catch technical problems, but they cannot tell you whether a website is genuinely easy and comfortable to use.

That is why I followed up with a series of manual tests and then called on 20 awesome people to critique the site.

Some of the manual accessibility tests I completed on the website included:

  • Navigating only with a keyboard

  • Increasing the text size to make sure the layout still worked

  • I checked the text legibility and layout integrity at high zoom levels

  • Viewing the site on different devices and screen sizes (I used LambdaTest a bit here too)

  • Testing with a screen reader

  • Testing with voice only tools on my smart phone

Those manual tests revealed potential issues that the automated tools had missed. It was here I stripped back a lot of content - some of the in-page forms didn’t work well and I decided they didn’t add much value, while increasing complexity for people to get in touch - so they went at this point.

I also noticed a few buttons that technically “worked” but were difficult to navigate to when using only a keyboard, so those were moved and replaced too.

Making those changes early meant I could build a better experience from the beginning instead of needing to redesign later.

The biggest lesson here is that accessibility is not a one-off task. It is a mindset. The more you test your work from different perspectives, the more people you make it usable for.

The people that completed some usability checks too helped to improve some of the content on the site - I updated words to be clearer, the footer had a big update, and some content on some of the service pages also had some tweaks. Getting this feedback and understanding how people navigated and used the site was insightful and ensured that what I was trying to share was being understood by real people.

2. I checked the carbon footprint of my website

I also wanted to think about sustainability beyond the obvious things.

Websites may feel invisible, but every page view uses energy. Images, videos, large files, unnecessary scripts, and overly complex designs all add to the carbon footprint of a website.

So before launching, I checked the carbon footprint of my website using an online website carbon calculator. I used Websitecarbon.com to find out the the website only 0.16g of CO2 is produced every time someone visits this web page meaning 10,000 visits to the website over the next year would be the same as:

  • 19.18kg of CO2 equivalent - As much CO2 as boiling water for 2,599 cups of tea

  • 39 kWh of energy - As much C02 as 3,235 full charges of an average smartphone

  • 1 tree - the website emits the amount of carbon that 1 tree absorbs in a year.

  • 39kWh of energy - That’s enough electricity to drive an electric car 248km (or 154 miles).

The results made me review some of my content and design choices. I realised there were several easy ways to make the site more sustainable without compromising how it looked or worked.

I made changes such as:

  • Removing all images that weren’t essential and compressing any remaining images

  • Ensuring that no large files and videos will be uploaded onto the site

  • Simplifying some of the page layouts

  • Rewriting content so it was clearer and more concise

Interestingly, these changes did not only make the website more sustainable, they also made it more accessible.

A lighter website loads faster, works better on slower internet connections, and is easier to use on older devices. Clearer writing helps everyone, especially people using translation tools, screen readers, or who may struggle with long or complicated text.

Accessibility and sustainability often go hand in hand. If something is simpler, lighter, clearer, and easier to use, it is usually better for both people and the planet.

3. I chose colours that were both accessible and sustainable

Choosing brand colours is a tough part of starting a business (in my experience). Colour holds meaning and is usually the space where everyone holds an opinion. I wanted my colour palette to do more than just look good.

I worked with Josh Rousen who I had worked with before to choose colours that offered strong contrast and were accessible for people with different visual needs. We checked that text and background colours worked well together and that information was never communicated by colour alone. I wanted to have black and white in as much of my digital estate as possible - to maximise contrast, but also, I will shamelessly admit, I wanted something that looked good!

This meant choosing colours that:

  • Have strong contrast between text and background

  • Remain clear for people with colour vision differences

  • Still work when viewed in greyscale

  • Feel consistent across digital and printed materials

At the same time, I was thinking ahead to the future. If I decide to print leaflets, packaging, business cards, or other materials, I want those colour choices to be as sustainable as possible too, and Josh did a great job of finding colours that would be available in soy-based inks. Soy inks are generally considered a more sustainable option than traditional petroleum-based inks because they are easier to recycle, often produce less pollution, and make printed materials easier to de-ink during the recycling process.

That meant my brand palette was not only accessible online, but also future-proofed for accessible and sustainable print design.

It reminded me that sustainability does not have to come at the expense of good design. Sometimes the most thoughtful design choices are also the most beautiful.

4. I chose a font that was accessible and multilingual

Fonts say a lot about a business. They create personality, set a tone, and help people recognise your brand.

But I did not want to choose a font based only on how it looked.

I wanted a font that was:

  • Easy to read

  • Clear at different sizes

  • Accessible on screens and in print

  • Able to support a wide range of languages and characters

From day one, I wanted to think beyond English.

Even if my business starts locally, I want to make sure that future content can include multiple languages without needing to completely change the brand identity later.

That meant choosing a typeface with a large character set that supports accented characters, non-Latin alphabets, and multilingual content.

It was important to me that someone reading in another language would still experience the same brand, rather than seeing a different fallback font that feels disconnected from the rest of the design.

An accessible font also improves readability for everyone. Clear letter shapes, good spacing, and strong contrast make text easier to read for people with dyslexia, visual impairments, cognitive differences, or simply tired eyes after a long day.

Josh found Readex Pro, an accessible font that also expands well across languages. It is also widely available and was easy to add to my website.

Typography is often overlooked, but it has a huge impact on whether people can engage with what you create.

Small choices add up

I have probably missed some things and will continue to test and seek ways to consistently improve (if you spot something or have an idea, please drop me a message on LinkedIn!). When you are starting anything new - a business, a product, or a service, it is easy to think that accessibility and sustainability are things to deal with later, to check once everything else is sorted.

But I found that making these decisions from the beginning was much easier than trying to retrofit them afterwards.

None of these choices were dramatic. I did not need a huge budget or specialist team. I simply slowed down and asked a few extra questions:

  • Is this easy for people to use?

  • Is there a more sustainable way to do this?

  • Will this still work well in the future?

  • Who might be excluded if I do not think about this now?

The answers helped me to shape a business that feels thoughtful, inclusive, and more aligned with the values I want it to have.

And the best part is that these are things anyone can do.

Whatever you are working on right now, big or small, each decision can make a big difference.