By far our most popular service is auditing. Whether clients want to make their website ADA compliant or they need to meet EAA requirements by the June 28, 2025 deadline, they need an audit to know what issues need to be fixed.
And clients usually have a notion of what an accessibility is, but a lot of time they don’t realize how much goes into Accessible.org audits. Give us 2.1 minutes and we’ll upload expert knowledge onto your hard drive.
Table of Contents
Accessibility Audit Definition
An accessibility audit is a thorough evaluation of a digital asset’s conformance with a given accessibility standard, typically WCAG 2.1 AA. Through systematic manual testing and assessment, an audit identifies instances of nonconformance with a given standard. Importantly, these instances could potentially prevent people with disabilities from effectively using a digital asset (e.g., website, mobile app).
Unlike automated scans that can only detect about 25% of potential issues, a proper audit involves diverse and comprehensive manual evaluation by technical accessibility experts.
Purpose Of An Audit
The primary purpose of an accessibility audit is to identify all instances where a digital asset does not meet accessibility requirements under a given technical standard.
Once we have an audit report, we know:
- where certain content or functionality may not be accessible
- what we need to do for conformance with a technical standard
- what we need to do for material compliance with a digital accessibility law
Audit Information
Our audits tell clients all of the practical information they need to know to take action including:
- What issue exists
- Relevant success criterion (WCAG requirement)
- Location of issue
- Recommendation for fixing issue
- Screenshot or Screen recording
Website Accessibility Audits
About half of our audit requests are for websites (and most are hosted on Shopify). Website are usually easier to audit because they are less dynamic than web apps, native mobile apps, software, etc.
Similar to other digital assets, we’ll come up with a scope that involves the primary page templates, user flows, important pages, and unique content. Once approved by the client, we meticulously evaluate all of it.
Other Digital Assets
Most people think of websites when it comes to accessibility audits, but we’ve had clients request audits for all sorts of digital assets including:
- Mobile applications
- Desktop software
- Digital kiosks
- Social media content
- Learning management systems
Documents come up often too, but, with documents, the best approach is to go straight to remediation because it doesn’t make practical sense to separate audit and remediation phases with documents.
Although the abovedigital assets may have different interfaces and functionality compared to websites, WCAG principles and success criteria still provide the foundation for evaluation. While not every success criterion may apply directly, the core principles of perceivable, operable, understandable and robust remain relevant across all digital formats.
Benefits Of Audits
An accessibility audit delivers several key benefits beyond just identifying issues:
Documentation for Risk Management
A thorough audit report provides evidence of your commitment to accessibility and can help defend against complaints by demonstrating due diligence and a clear plan for improvement. This documentation shows a proactive approach to accessibility and can be valuable in multiple contexts:
- Legal defense documentation
- Insurance requirements
- Contract compliance
- Internal policy enforcement
- Stakeholder reporting
Procurement Requirements
Audit results form the basis for completing Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACRs) required for government procurement and enterprise sales opportunities. A well-documented audit provides the detail needed to:
- Complete VPATs accurately
- Respond to RFP requirements
- Document conformance claims
- Support procurement processes
- Demonstrate technical compliance
Development Guidance
Detailed audit recommendations help development teams understand exactly how to fix identified issues and prevent similar problems in future work. There’s even an often overlooked educational component for digital teams that work through audits. This creates long-term value by:
- Providing specific technical solutions
- Identifying patterns in accessibility issues
- Informing developer training needs
- Supporting accessibility testing processes
- Establishing coding best practices
Measuring Progress
Interval audits also provide a way to measure improvement in accessibility over time. This helps organizations:
- Track remediation progress
- Identify recurring issues
- Work on process implementation
- Adjust accessibility strategies
- Report on accessibility metrics
We recommend either bi-annual or annual audits. In our experience, it takes digital teams several weeks, if not months, to work through an audit so it doesn’t usually make sense for quarterly audits.
Audit Services
Do you need help with an audit?
We’d love to help. We boast excellent turnaround times (usually 1-2 weeks) along with high quality audit reports.
We invite you to send us a message and we’ll take it from there.
