What is an accessibility audit?
An accessibility audit is a set of tests carried out by an experienced accessibility expert. Usually auditors will test your website against the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the current standard is version 2.2.
Depending on the size of your website or service, an auditor will test the full set of webpages, or for large websites, or websites that have repeated pages built on similar templates, a set of webpages will be selected and tested.
A good accessibility audit should consist of a range of testing methods. At Accessibility Solutions, this consists of automated testing, manual testing, code level tests, and testing with assistive technology.
Automated testing is a great way to get a basic understanding of the potential issues that may be identified during testing. There are many different providers of automated testing tools, at Accessibility Solutions we often start by testing a service with ARC Toolkit and Axe Devtools. This helps us to scope a service and understand and provides a limited set of results of accessibility failures. This is a good way to start an audit, but automated testing tools only tend to discover 40% or less of the overall WCAG criteria.
The next step should be manual testing. This is where the expertise of an auditor come into play. Having a deep understanding of the WCAG 2.2 criteria is essential for carrying out an audit. An auditor should be able to identify content, components, and patterns on a page to understand which criteria are relevant to each page. An auditor would then carry out a code level check, manual tests, testing on different devices and viewport sizes, and test with assistive technology. This helps to provide detailed issues, in-depth remediation techniques based on code, and also by testing with assistive technology, auditors can provide clients with an understanding of how these issues may present themselves as barriers to people with disabilities.
Testing with a range of assistive technology tools such as screen readers, magnification tools, and speech recognition software, ensures that an auditor has approached the service from a technical standpoint, but also the point of view of a user. Your users are the most important person to consider during an audit.
Why should you have an audit?
According to a Nielsen Norman Group study, users decide whether to stay or leave a webpage in less than 10 seconds. This is the same for users who have a disability. Many users will start to navigate, use their assistive technology, or review an accessibility statement as soon as they visit a website. This gives them an instant idea of how accessible a service is. This is the point where they may make a decision on whether to use your website, or go to a competitor. Good accessibility is often good usability, and good usability keeps people using your website. People can’t buy your products or use your services if they are not accessible.
As well as having business benefits, accessibility is the right thing to do. We have a moral responsibility to ensure that services, websites, and products we provide are usable and accessible to everyone. Indirect discrimination is the most common form of discrimination. Often website owners do not intend to prevent access for certain groups of people, but due to a lack of understanding or consideration for accessibility, this is often the case.
Lastly, it’s the law. Depending on the country your company is based in, or the countries that you operate in, there will be one, or multiple laws or legislations that apply to you. The Equality Act 2010 for example protects people from direct or indirect discrimination. The European Accessibility Act 2025 is a new directive that aims to ensure accessible products and services for all member states, or anyone who operates in these countries. The ADA (Americans with disabilities act) prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in America. Whichever country your business operates in, there is likely to be accessibility legislation that applies. Many large and small organisations have been found to be in breach of these laws. All of which have suffered financial and reputational damage.
How to get an accessibility audit
That’s the easy part. Fill our our contact form and someone from Accessibility Solutions will be in touch to discuss your requirements and find out how we can help. We offer a range of services to ensure that any organisation can start their journey to become accessible and fully inclusive for their users.
We go beyond WCAG compliance. We call our audits ‘Accessibility and inclusive design audits’. This means that as well as providing detailed issues on failures to meet WCAG, we also provide issues relating to usability, inclusive design, and good practice. This means that your website will not only be compliant, it will also be a positive, inclusive experience for all of your users.
We also provide follow up consultancy after your report has been provided. We can help with remediating issues, provide clarity on the best potential solutions, re-test the service once issues have been resolved, and meet with your design or development teams.
How and when to get an accessibility audit
The easiest way to resolve accessibility issues is during the design phase. It’s cheaper, requires less resource, and helps teams build knowledge and expertise during the design and development phase of a website. If you are starting to design or update your website, this is a great time to get in touch.
We appreciate that this cannot always be the case. Often accessibility was an unknown until the website or service was already built. New legislation may have made you more aware of accessibility and your responsibilities. This is still a great time to get an audit. Getting an audit and providing an accessibility statement shows your commitment to accessibility. The team at accessibility solutions can support you in your journey from getting an audit, all the way through to becoming fully compliant.
If you have any questions on when you should be getting an audit or how it can help your business. You can reach out to us at admin@accessibilitysolutions.co.uk and we can provide tailored advice, our service standard, as well as our extremely competitive pricing guide.