A genuine accessibility audit is only as good as the process behind it. At Accessible.org, we go well beyond the standard accessibility audit that most enterprise companies sell. We’ve built a rigorous, multi-layered system designed to ensure that every audit report we deliver is accurate, complete, and actionable.
When we read about other company’s services, they throw “manual testing” around like they should win a prize because they conceded that scans are not enough. Some will even boast that they “combine” manual evaluation and an automated scan as if that’s a positive — it’s not.
The act of combining scan results with screen reader testing, etc. is imprecise and wholly insufficient. Scans only reliably detect 13% of WCAG accessibility issues so using a combination as a selling point is actually a red flag that at best signals they don’t know what combine means and at worst means 1) they don’t know what they’re doing and 2) they’re delivering low quality audits.
Why Accessibility Audits Matter So Much
An accessibility audit report is the foundation of everything. It determines WCAG conformance. It drives remediation. It gets uploaded to Accessibility Tracker.
If the audit is wrong, incomplete, or unclear, everything downstream suffers. Clients rely on our reports to understand where their website stands and what needs to be fixed. That responsibility is something we take very seriously, and it’s why we hold ourselves to a standard that goes far beyond simply offering a (manual) accessibility audit.
Fully Manual, Fully Comprehensive
Every accessibility audit we conduct is a comprehensive evaluation based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Our auditors manually evaluate each page and every element and component using a diverse set of evaluation methodologies:
- Screen reader testing
- Keyboard testing
- Visual inspection
- Code inspection (where applicable)
- Audible inspection
- Automated scan as a review layer
The goal is to test, inspect, and evaluate in every way to identify all accessibility issues. We do use automated scanning, but only as a review layer. After the accessibility audit is complete, we run a scan to confirm that any issues correctly flagged by the tool are accounted for in the report. The scan supports the audit. It never replaces it.
Technical Experts Conduct Your Audit
Our auditors are all technical accessibility experts with a combined experience totaling decades. And many are certified DHS Trusted Testers who have passed the exam and earned that certification. These are professionals who know exactly how to find issues and evaluate against WCAG criteria with precision.
And before anyone can even join our audit team, they have to prove their expertise. Every prospective auditor is given an audit test using a complex web page. They don’t know what web page they’ll be evaluating. They have to produce a full accessibility audit report, and we review that report for accuracy before they’re brought on. If it doesn’t meet our standards, they don’t audit for us. It’s that simple.
Multiple Environment and Technology Combinations
Quality screen reader testing means testing across real environments. Our standard audit includes Chrome/NVDA on Windows for desktop and Safari/VoiceOver on iOS for mobile. These are the most widely used combinations and provide strong baseline coverage.
But clients who want even more robust evaluation can add additional combinations. We offer JAWS, TalkBack, and Narrator as screen reader options, along with Firefox and Edge as additional browsers. More combinations mean more coverage, and more coverage means a higher quality audit that leaves less to chance.
A Multi-Layered Review Process
A single auditor finishing a report is not the end of the process. It’s the beginning of our review cycle.
We’ve built a multi-layered QA system to make sure that every report that goes out is pristine. Reports are reviewed for technical accuracy, completeness, and clarity. We want clients to not only trust the findings but understand them. If a report isn’t clear to the person reading it, it’s not done.
We’ve also added a user tester to our audit team. This is someone who is blind or visually impaired, and their role is to QA and spot check audit reports. This isn’t a user testing service. This is an additional filter built directly into our quality assurance process, adding a perspective that strengthens every report.
Manual Is the Starting Point, Not the Finish Line
There are plenty of companies that advertise accessibility audits. But some or all of the audit being manual is not enough. The audit has to be conducted the correct way. The evaluation methodologies have to be sufficient and diverse enough to catch all of the issues. We are effectively grading a website against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and that means the process has to be thorough enough to support that grade.
That’s why we keep raising the bar. More QA. More review layers. More accountability at every stage. We’re constantly refining our process because we believe clients deserve accessibility audit reports they can rely on without question.
At Accessible.org, our accessibility audits aren’t just a service. They are a commitment to accuracy, completeness, and excellence. We insist on it and our clients depend on it.
