A QR code is a shortcut, and a shortcut is only useful to people who can take it. Someone who cannot see the code, cannot reach it, or does not own a smartphone is left with nothing. That is easy to fix, and most of the fixes cost nothing but a line of text. This article explains who is excluded, why, and what to do.
Who a bare QR code excludes
- Blind and low-vision users. A phone can find a code and announce the link, but only once the camera is pointed at it. Finding a 3 cm square on a wall without sight is slow. Small, low-contrast codes make it worse.
- Wheelchair users and people of short stature. A code at the top of a poster, or flat on a high counter, cannot be photographed from a seated position.
- People without a smartphone or data. Older people, children and visitors on foreign SIM cards may have no way to scan.
- People with motor or cognitive disabilities. Holding a camera still on a small target, or understanding an unlabelled square, is a barrier in itself.
- Everyone, when the destination page is inaccessible. The code is only the door. If the page behind it fails a screen reader, the code has excluded people twice.
The US government’s Section 508 programme treats QR codes as information and communication technology in their own right, and published guidance in October 2024 that is the best short checklist available.
Fix one: text beside the code
Print the destination as a short, readable URL next to every code. It helps the person with no phone, the person whose scan fails, and the person using a screen reader on a PDF. It also lets everyone check where the code goes, which is a security benefit as well.
In a document or on a web page, give the code alt text that describes the destination. Section 508’s example is “QR code linking to the product accessibility page”. Alt text that says only “QR code” tells a screen-reader user that something is there and nothing about what it does.
Do this
A code with the text 'Menu: example.com/menu' printed beneath it in 14 pt type.
Not this
A code on its own with the words 'Scan me'.
Fix two: put it where people can reach
Place a code where a seated adult and a standing adult can both photograph it without leaning or stretching. On a poster that means roughly the middle, not the top corner. On a table, use a stand so the code faces the sitter rather than lying flat. On a shop counter, angle it towards the customer’s side.
Give it a clear space around it. Both the phone’s finder search and a person trying to aim a camera need to see the code against a plain background. The quiet zone is a technical requirement; a bit more space than that is an accessibility one.
Fix three: size and contrast
A bigger code is easier to find and easier to scan from further away, which matters to someone who cannot approach it. For anything on a wall, 5 cm is a sensible minimum; the size calculator gives a figure for your scanning distance.
Contrast follows the same rule as text. Dark modules on a light background, with a big difference in brightness between them, scan well and are visible to people with low vision or colour blindness. The Section 508 guidance points to the WCAG minimum text contrast of 4.5:1 as a floor (WCAG 2.1); a QR code is more forgiving than text, but a code that clears that bar is safe. The contrast checker tests a pair of colours.
Excludes
Includes
Fix four: an Accessible QR marker
NaviLens sells an “Accessible QR” that wraps a standard QR code in a high-contrast coloured marker. Its app detects the marker first, then reads the QR code inside. NaviLens says the marker can be read at up to 12 times the distance of a plain code, so a 5 cm code reads from about 5 metres, without focusing or framing and at angles up to 160 degrees. Those are the vendor’s own figures. The idea is sound: a blind user sweeps the phone across a wall and the app announces the code as soon as any part of the marker is in view. It has been used on packaging and on a Japanese city’s municipal magazine, and it costs nothing to a reader with an ordinary phone, since the QR code inside still works normally.
Fix five: the page behind the code
Whatever the code opens has to work for the people who scanned it. That means the destination page meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): text alternatives for images, keyboard operation, sufficient contrast, readable structure. In Europe the technical standard that references WCAG for public-sector and product accessibility is EN 301 549 from ETSI.
Two laws now make this more than good manners:
- European Accessibility Act. Directive 2019/882 applies from 28 June 2025 to products and services including e-commerce, banking, e-books, ticketing and check-in machines and smartphones, listed on the Commission’s page; the application date is set out by Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer. A menu, a ticket or a payment that can only be reached by QR code is part of such a service.
- Section 508 in the United States requires federal ICT, including QR codes and the pages they open, to be accessible (Section 508 guidance).
In practice
The Section 508 guidance also asks that a code opens a page with a clear next step, rather than starting an action on its own such as a download or a text message. A person who cannot see what the code does should not have something happen to their phone before they can decide.
Three examples
- A restaurant menu. Code on a table stand at seated eye level, 4 cm, black on white, with “Menu: example.com/m” beneath and a printed menu available on request. The menu page uses real text, not a photo of the paper menu.
- A museum label. Code at the bottom of the label at about 1 metre from the floor, with the same URL in large type, and an audio description on the destination page.
- A council notice on a lamppost. A 6 cm code at chest height rather than above the sign, with the full address and a phone number underneath for people who cannot scan.
▸Why a screen reader can find a code at all
Both iOS and Android announce a detected QR code through the camera app and through built-in accessibility tools, so a blind user can sweep the phone and listen for the announcement. What limits this is the camera’s field of view and focus distance. A code that fills a large area, has strong contrast and sits at the height the phone is naturally held will be detected in a fraction of the time. That is why the NaviLens approach works: it makes the target much bigger and more distinctive without changing the code inside.
Try it yourself
Enter the two colours you plan to print and see whether the pair clears the contrast a scanner needs and the WCAG figure a low-vision reader needs. Then add the URL as text under the code.