What can you expect from an Accessible.org website accessibility audit? When you receive our completed audit email, you can expect an excellent quality report that thoroughly details all of the accessibility issues on your website, for the scope of the project.
Accessible.org audits are:
- Meticulous
- Thorough
- Clear
- Organized
- Easy to Understand
But let’s get even more specific. What information exactly will you receive about your website when you get that email notification that your deliverable is ready?
Let’s go over the key sections and columns in our Excel spreadsheet audits.
For more background on audits, read our ADA website compliance audit guide where we answer common questions surrounding cost, scans, user testing, and more.
Table of Contents
Cover Page: Scope
The cover page of the audit report includes all the URLs that are within the scope of the audit. This page provides a clear and comprehensive list of the web pages assessed. You will also find any items that are outside the scope of the audit.
Along with the scope, we include WCAG version and conformance level along with your homepage URL. This cover page ensures clients have a complete overview of the audit’s scope right from the start.
User Guide
Next we include a separate user guide worksheet. This worksheet explains what every single column header in the audit report means so your team knows exactly what the information for each issue is for.
Audit Columns
The core of the audit report consists of detailed information across several columns. You can download a sample report from our documents page. Here’s what each column includes and why it is beneficial:
Issue Number and Description
Each accessibility issue is numbered and described in detail. This is crucial because it allows clients to easily reference specific issues and understand the nature of the accessibility barriers identified.
Location
The location column specifies where on the webpage the issue occurs, such as the footer or main content area. This helps developers and designers in quickly pinpointing the issues without having to search through the entire webpage.
Page URL
The specific URL where the issue was found is listed here. This is essential so you can easily the specific page where the issue resides.
Environments
We specify the environments (e.g., Windows, Chrome, NVDA) in which the issue was identified. This tells you exactly what environment combination we identified the accessibility issue in which means your team is able to easily replicate the issue.
Issue Details
The issue column contains the most critical information: a detailed description of the accessibility issue. We go into as much detail as necessary to describe fully what the accessibility problem is. We write out the issue in plain language to ensure your team is able to understand what exactly the issue is.
Applicable Code
Where applicable, we also include the specific code where the issue resides. This is extremely beneficial for developers as it allows them to quickly locate and inspect the problematic code.
WCAG Success Criterion
The relevant Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) success criteria are listed for each issue. This provides a clear reference to the standards being violated and reinforces the importance of compliance.
Users Affected
Additionally, we specify the types of disabilities affected by each issue. This provides context on why an accessibility issue exists and can help your team’s mindset shift this from a more arbitrary remediation project to a more practical one.
Recommendations
Another really important column is recommendations. We provide detailed recommendations on how to fix the accessibility issues, often including code examples to help developers. This information helps inform the remediation process so that fixes are correctly implemented.
One sneaky benefit of the recommendations column is it helps developers learn about accessibility as they remediate.
Screenshots
Where applicable, we also include screenshots or links to screen recordings demonstrating the issue. Again, this really helps designers and developers in understanding what the issue is and where it exists on the page.
Notes
The notes column includes any additional relevant information that doesn’t fit into the other categories. This might cover best practices, further descriptions, or any other information that falls outside the delineated columns.
The Benefits of an Accessible.org Audit Report
We go to great lengths to ensure our audit reports are thorough and actionable. In a nutshell, here are five primary benefits to purchasing an audit through Accessible.org:
- Detailed Issues: Each issue is described in detail, making it easy to understand the nature of the problem.
- Clear Remediation Guidance: Recommendations are provided, often with code examples, to guide developers in fixing the issues.
- User Impact Context: Specifying the affected disabilities highlights the impact and importance of fixing the issues.
- Visual References: Screenshots and recordings help in visualizing what the issue is and the location.
- Thorough Coverage: We exhaustively evaluate your website to ensure no issues are missed.
Conclusion
Accessible.org audit reports are meticulously detailed to provide clients with clear, actionable information. The thoroughness of our audits ensures that clients can effectively address accessibility barriers and improve not only accessibility, but usability.
And we offer much more than audits, go to our services page to read more about remediation, user testing, VPATs / ACRs, certification, and more.
