Funeral home website accessibility: obituaries, livestreams, service details and price lists

People visit a funeral home website at one of the hardest moments of their lives, often on a phone, often in a hurry, and many of them are older relatives with low vision, hearing loss or shaky hands. They come to do a few things: find an obituary, check the service time and address, watch a livestream, leave a condolence message, send flowers or call someone. Here's what to check on each of those pages.

1. The phone number and "call us now" in text

Families often need to reach you at night. Put the 24-hour phone number in real text near the top of every page, as a tap-to-call link with a name, not only inside a logo or banner image. (WCAG 1.1.1, WCAG 2.4.4)

<a href="tel:+19185550100">Call us any time: 918-555-0100</a>
<!-- example number -->

2. Obituaries and tribute walls

Obituary photos can get short alt text with the person's name, such as "Margaret Ellis smiling in her garden" (example). The obituary itself should be real text, not a scanned newspaper clipping or an image. Search boxes and "Load more obituaries" controls need names and must work with the keyboard. (WCAG 1.1.1, WCAG 1.4.5, WCAG 2.1.1) See alt text examples.

3. Condolence and guestbook forms

Condolence forms are often run by an obituary platform. Each field (your name, your message, relationship) needs a visible label, errors should say what to fix, and a puzzle CAPTCHA shouldn't be the only way to post. (WCAG 3.3.2, WCAG 3.3.1, WCAG 3.3.8) See accessible contact forms and CAPTCHA and login accessibility.

<label for="condolence">Your message to the family</label>
<textarea id="condolence" name="condolence" rows="5"
  aria-describedby="condolence-hint"></textarea>
<p id="condolence-hint">Messages appear on the tribute page after the family approves them.</p>

4. Service times, places and directions

Service details are often posted as a designed card or flyer image. Put the date, time, place, street address and parking or step-free entry notes in plain text, and name links by where they go, such as "Directions to Grace Chapel" or "Add the service to your calendar", not "Click here". Describe access factually (for example "step-free entrance on the east side"), and don't call a building "fully accessible" unless you've checked every space. (WCAG 1.4.5, WCAG 2.4.4) See the map embed guide.

5. Livestreams and tribute videos

Many families watch services online. Give the livestream link a clear name ("Watch the livestream of Margaret's service, Saturday 11 AM" (example)), make sure the player can be started and paused with the keyboard, and give the embedded player a title. Recorded tribute videos and slideshows with speech need captions; slideshows set to music shouldn't autoplay sound. (WCAG 2.1.1, WCAG 1.2.2, WCAG 1.4.2) See video captions and transcripts.

6. Pre-planning and arrangement forms

Pre-planning forms ask many questions at once. Group related choices (burial or cremation, type of service) in a fieldset with a legend, keep labels visible, and warn people before a session times out so they don't lose a half-finished form. (WCAG 1.3.1, WCAG 2.2.1) See form error messages.

<fieldset>
  <legend>Which type of service are you considering?</legend>
  <input type="radio" id="svc-burial" name="service" value="burial">
  <label for="svc-burial">Burial</label>
  <input type="radio" id="svc-cremation" name="service" value="cremation">
  <label for="svc-cremation">Cremation</label>
</fieldset>

7. Price lists and packages

If you publish prices online, a scanned price list is an image to a screen reader. Put services and prices on a web page in a simple table, or offer a tagged PDF next to the text. (WCAG 1.3.1) This guide covers the website side only; it doesn't tell you what price information the law requires you to give. See accessible tables and accessible PDFs.

<table>
  <caption>Service prices (example values)</caption>
  <tr><th scope="col">Service</th><th scope="col">Price</th></tr>
  <tr><th scope="row">Direct cremation</th><td>$1,895</td></tr>
</table>

8. Flowers, donations and readable design

Sympathy flower shops and memorial donation buttons often open third-party pages. Name the link by what it does ("Send flowers through our florist partner" or "Donate in Margaret's memory to the county food bank" (examples)) and test the checkout with the keyboard. Soft grey text on cream backgrounds is common on memorial sites; keep text at 4.5:1 contrast and check pages still work at 200% zoom on a phone. (WCAG 1.4.3, WCAG 1.4.4, WCAG 1.4.10) See the contrast guide and readability guide.

Common mistakes

• Service time and address appear only in a flyer image.
• The livestream link says "Click here" and the player can't be paused with the keyboard.
• The condolence form uses placeholder text instead of labels and a puzzle CAPTCHA.
• A chat or cookie pop-up covers the phone number on mobile. See pop-ups and chat widgets.

A 15-minute check you can do today

1. Open your most recent obituary and find the service time, address and livestream link without a mouse, using Tab and Enter. Our keyboard test explains what to look for.
2. Submit the condolence form with the message empty and read the error.
3. Zoom to 200% on a phone-sized window and check the phone number and service details are still readable.
4. Play a tribute video with captions on and check names are spelled correctly.
5. Run a free homepage snapshot to catch missing alt text, unnamed buttons, missing labels and low-contrast text.

Platform steps: WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, GoDaddy. Many funeral home sites run on an industry website platform; ask your provider for their accessibility documentation and report problems to them. Our scan is automated, so it finds only part of the barriers on this page and doesn't test livestream players, third-party obituary or flower platforms, or your building. Related: nonprofit and church websites, video captions, accessibility statement template.

This is general technical guidance, not legal advice, and it doesn't certify compliance with the ADA or any law.

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This is general technical guidance, not legal advice, and it does not certify compliance with the ADA or any law.

Related guides

• WCAG 2.2 explained for small-business websites
• Squarespace accessibility fixes: alt text, contrast, forms and more
• Wix accessibility fixes: a practical checklist
• WordPress accessibility fixes (block editor and themes)

All guides

This guide is general technical information, not legal advice. Following it does not certify ADA or any legal compliance. Automated checks find only part of accessibility barriers.