To meet B Lab’s digital accessibility options, you need:
- a (manual) audit by an accessibility specialist
- WCAG AA conformance
- documented feedback from people with disabilities
B Lab’s new standards include two such options under the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) impact topic, and the documentation you submit matters. Let’s cover these and how our services match perfectly with what is required.
| Requirement | What It Means for You |
|---|---|
| WCAG AA or AAA Conformance | Your digital asset must meet all applicable WCAG success criteria. Target WCAG 2.1 AA. Confirmation requires an audit, fixes, and validation. |
| Expert Review | The assessment must include expert review, meaning an internal or external accessibility specialist. An audit report from an accessibility company documents this automatically. |
| Manual Testing | Automated scans do not satisfy this component. The assessment must include manual evaluation such as screen reader testing and keyboard testing. |
| Feedback from People with Disabilities | User testing by a tester with a disability, documented in a report, satisfies this component. An expert audit alone does not. |
What Do B Lab’s Digital Accessibility Options Say?
Under B Lab’s new standards, companies select from JEDI action options. Two involve digital accessibility:
- Public website (JEDI2.m): Assess the accessibility of the company’s public website to confirm it meets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Level AA or AAA criteria. The assessment must use manual testing, expert review, and feedback from people with disabilities.
- Internal digital communication tools (JEDI2.l): Verify that internal digital communication tools meet WCAG AA or AAA criteria, confirmed through manual testing and feedback from people with disabilities.
So this is not only about websites. The process for demonstrating conformance is the same for any digital asset: website, web app, mobile app, or internal tool.
Using B Lab’s own terms, the requirements break into four components:
- Confirmation that the digital asset meets WCAG Level AA or AAA criteria
- Manual testing
- Expert review
- Feedback from people with disabilities
Should You Target WCAG AA or AAA?
Target WCAG 2.1 AA. While B Lab accepts AA or AAA, the W3C does not recommend requiring Level AAA conformance for entire websites. Some AAA success criteria cannot be satisfied for certain content, so full AAA conformance is not a realistic target for most digital assets.
WCAG 2.1 AA is also the conformance level referenced by law. It is the reference standard for ADA website compliance in the United States and for the European Accessibility Act (EAA) in the EU. Conforming with WCAG 2.1 AA satisfies B Lab’s requirement and aligns your documentation with the standard regulators use. You can still adopt individual AAA success criteria where they make sense for your users.
How Do You Confirm WCAG Conformance?
This is the component companies most often misunderstand. A screenshot or an automated scan result does not confirm WCAG conformance. Conformance means your digital asset meets all applicable success criteria. The only credible way to confirm that is a (manual) audit followed by remediation and validation.
If an audit finds accessibility issues, and audits almost always do, your digital asset does not yet conform. That is the starting point, not a reason to be discouraged. The path to conformance follows a clear sequence:
- Audit your digital asset against WCAG 2.1 AA
- Fix the issues identified in the audit report
- Validate that every fix works
Once validation confirms all issues are fixed, you have genuine documentation of WCAG 2.1 AA conformance. This applies whether your platform is Shopify, WordPress, or a custom build.
What Counts as Expert Review?
Expert review means the assessment involves an accessibility specialist, whether internal or external. Most companies lack accessibility expertise in house, so an external specialist is the practical route. The key is that your documentation makes the expert’s involvement clear. An audit report issued by an accessibility company does this automatically.
Why Does B Lab Require Manual Testing?
Automated scans can only flag or partially flag roughly a quarter of WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria. Most success criteria require human judgment. Does the alternative text actually describe the image? Does the focus order make sense? No scan can answer these questions. This is why B Lab specifies manual testing rather than accepting scan results.
An audit satisfies this component because all audits are manual by definition. Accessible.org audits are always 100% manually conducted, with a technical accessibility expert evaluating your digital asset through:
- Screen reader testing (for example, NVDA)
- Keyboard testing
- Visual inspection
- Code inspection
The resulting audit report documents the methodology, which is exactly the evidence this component calls for.
What Counts as Feedback from People with Disabilities?
This component is separate from expert review, and it trips companies up. An audit, even a thorough one, does not automatically include feedback from people with disabilities. What satisfies this component is user testing: a tester with a disability navigating your digital asset with assistive technology and relaying their experience.
Strong user testing documentation includes:
- The tester’s name
- The tester’s disability
- The assistive technology used (for example, NVDA)
- The tester’s experience on your digital asset
Screen recordings of sessions with narration make the evidence even stronger.
What Is the Difference Between User Testing and an Audit?
An audit is a formal evaluation of your digital asset against WCAG success criteria. It tells you whether you conform. User testing relays a real user’s practical experience. It tells you how usable your digital asset is for someone with a disability.
B Lab’s requirement effectively asks for both. The best sequence is audit first, remediation second, user testing third. That way your tester spends their time on nuanced usability findings instead of issues an audit would have already caught.
How Do You Track Fixes After the Audit?
Between the audit and validation, your team needs a way to track remediation progress. You can track each issue in a spreadsheet, but status updates, assignments, and email threads add up quickly.
Accessibility Tracker is a practical option here. You upload your audit report, and the platform tracks each issue through statuses like In Progress, Completed, and Validated. Your auditor can mark fixes as validated in the platform, and tracking progress this way keeps everyone on the same page. Because everything is based on your audit report rather than scan data, progress reporting stays accurate.
How Can Accessible.org Help?
Accessible.org provides everything these options call for.
Our (manual) WCAG audits evaluate your digital asset against all Level AA success criteria. The audit report documents the methodology, the issues found, and precise recommendations with code examples so your team can fix them. After remediation, our validation service confirms the issues have been fixed, giving you credible documentation of WCAG 2.1 AA conformance.
Our user testing service provides feedback from testers with disabilities using assistive technology on your live digital asset. The user testing report identifies the tester, their disability, and the assistive technology used, and documents their experience in detail.
Together, these services produce a documentation set that maps cleanly to the requirement: an audit report and validation confirming WCAG conformance, issued by an external specialist, based on manual evaluation, supplemented by a user testing report with feedback from a person with a disability. This same documentation supports ADA and EAA obligations, so the work carries over.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the B Corp accessibility requirement only apply to websites?
No. B Lab’s standards include one option for the public website (JEDI2.m) and another for internal digital communication tools (JEDI2.l). The process is the same for any digital asset.
Does an automated scan satisfy the requirement?
No. B Lab specifies manual testing and expert review. Scans can only flag a fraction of WCAG issues, and scan results are neither.
Should we target WCAG AA or AAA?
Target WCAG 2.1 AA. The W3C does not recommend requiring AAA conformance for entire websites, and AA is the level referenced by the ADA and the European Accessibility Act.
Does an audit count as feedback from people with disabilities?
No. An audit is an expert evaluation against WCAG success criteria. Feedback from people with disabilities requires user testing by a tester with a disability, documented in a report.
What if our audit finds issues?
Audits almost always find issues. Fix them, then validate the fixes. Once validation confirms every issue is fixed, you have documentation that your digital asset conforms.
Actionable Takeaways
- Confirm which option you selected: public website (JEDI2.m) or internal digital communication tools (JEDI2.l).
- Schedule a (manual) audit of the digital asset against WCAG 2.1 AA.
- Fix the issues in the audit report and track each fix through validation.
- Confirm your documentation names the specialist and the manual methodology.
- Add user testing by a tester with a disability, with a documented report.
- Keep the audit report, validation documentation, and user testing report as your B Corp evidence set.
If you’re working toward B Corp certification and need to satisfy a digital accessibility option, we specialize in helping clients with accessibility. We can:
- Conduct an accessibility audit (identify issues)
- Validate fixes from your team (so you can work towards WCAG conformance)
- Provide certification (contingent upon all issues being fixed)
- Provide user testing by professionals who are blind or visually impaired
Our platform, Accessibility Tracker, creates a system of record that shows you follow all best practices and have documentation to back it up.
Contact us at accessible.org/contact to find out how we can help your organization quickly meet B-Corp requirements.
