We receive a lot of WCAG 2.1 AA audit requests for web applications and websites. Here’s what buyers should know about web app accessibility audits.
Desktop Only Environment?
If your web app is only designed for desktop use, then it usually makes sense to get a desktop only audit (vs. a desktop + mobile). This saves about 30% of the cost on your quote because we don’t have to conduct a mobile audit.
Personas / Roles
One consideration is, if your web app has different experiences for different user roles, then do you want to include one, some, or all personas and roles?
For example, your web app might have three different experiences for:
- students
- teachers
- administrators
In this case, is it only students you’re concerned with or would you like to include teachers and/or administrators.
The same could be said for various potential users of a commercial web app:
- consumers
- wholesalers
- retailers
VPATs / ACRs
If you’re investing in an audit for a product or service, then it makes a lot of since to purchase our VPAT service along with it. It’s not that much additional ($550 for WCAG edition), but this is valuable standardized document you can use to demonstrate your web app’s accessibility to purchasers.
Note: We fill in the VPAT to create an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR), but many people refer to the ACR as a VPAT.
Pages / Screens
The number of pages and/or screens comprising your web app will directly affect your final quote. However, our quote calculation is not as simple as multiplying 10 pages by $250. Some pages or screens are very simple and easy to audit while others contain more interactive elements and/or dynamic content which increases the amount of time we spend on the audit.
So we’ll scope each individual page or screen (that should be included) and determine a quote based on the total. But we always tell clients they can multiply their pages or screens by $275 and likely have a really good conservative estimate of their audit price.
Technical Support
One aspect of our services clients really like is the ability to pause the VPAT process so that they can make fixes after the audit and before we issue the ACR. In effect, they get a cleaner ACR showing less issues.
Whether or not a VPAT is involved, we offer technical support hours for $195/hour and provide as many or as few hours as clients need.
We make our services available à la carte to keep costs low and provide exactly what clients need.
Cost
The cost of a web app accessibility audit is $2,500 – $7,500 for most clients. However, we’ve had quotes fall lower and others go above this range. It really does come down to how much work is involved.
Do you need help with an audit for your web app? We’d love to help – just send us a message and we’ll reply back soon.
