A Comprehensive Guide to Conducting Accessibility Audit
"Is your website fully accessible to all users?"
Currently, 1.6 billion people live with a disability! Yet, according to The State of Web Accessibility in 2024, 88% of websites are not fully compliant with accessibility standards. This non-compliance means businesses are failing to meet the needs of a significant user group and missing out on opportunities for social equality.
From an economic perspective, failing to meet accessibility standards can cost businesses valuable users and potential revenue. People with disabilities have an estimated spending power of over $18 trillion, as reported in The Global Economics of Disability: 2024.
This highlights the need for businesses to adopt accessibility standards to ensure an inclusive and user-friendly experience, in which the initial step is to conduct an accessibility Audit!
But what exactly is an Accessibility Audit? What types are available, and how can you perform one effectively? Let’s dive into these questions in this blog!
What is an Accessibility Audit?
An Accessibility Audit is a comprehensive evaluation of digital products —like websites or mobile apps —to identify barriers that may prevent people with disabilities from using them effectively. Ultimately, the goal of a digital accessibility audit is to ensure digital content is inclusive, bridging the gap between the product and its diverse user base to promote equal access and opportunity for all.
Here’s an overview of the key areas assessed during an Accessibility Audit:
- Accessibility of Text: This evaluates the readability, visibility, and usability of text content, including font size, color contrast, semantic HTML structure, and clarity of language.
- Accessibility of Images, Audio, and Video: This focuses on ensuring non-text content is accessible to all users, including providing descriptive alt text for images, captions or transcripts for audio, and subtitles or audio descriptions for videos.
- Accessibility of Interactive Content and Transactions: This assesses the accessibility of interactive elements such as forms, buttons, and navigation, covering aspects like form labels, error messages, keyboard navigation, and visual feedback for focus indicators.
- Accessibility of Technology: This examines the underlying technology to ensure compatibility with assistive technologies, as well as error prevention mechanisms and recovery options to support all users in completing tasks efficiently.
Types of Accessibility Audit
1. Manual Accessibility Audits
A manual accessibility audit is an in-depth evaluation where evaluators carefully examine the user flows and UI screens of a digital product across various browsers, devices, and assistive technologies. Its primary purpose is to uncover accessibility barriers that may impact users with disabilities. Identified issues are thoroughly documented, along with detailed insights and actionable recommendations for improvement.
Pros of Manual Accessibility Audits:
- Can detect issues that automated tools might miss, such as contextual errors, improper alt text, or misleading labels.
- Can provide detailed recommendations tailored to specific issues.
Cons of Manual Accessibility Audits:
- Require significant time and effort to test all user flows and UI screens.
- Can be costly since it demands highly skilled testers with in-depth knowledge of accessibility standards.
- Difficult to scale for complex digital products compared to automated tools.
2. Automated Accessibility Audits
An Automated Accessibility Audit uses software tools to scan a digital product for accessibility issues based on established guidelines like WCAG. These tools analyze code and UI components across multiple pages or screens to quickly identify potential barriers for users with disabilities and provide suggestions for remediation.
Pros of Automated Accessibility Audits:
- Provide standardized results without human error or bias.
- Save time and cost by quickly scanning complex digital products with minimal human intervention.
- Can be run repeatedly which ensures accessibility compliance is maintained during updates and iterations.
Cons of Automated Accessibility Audits:
- May miss contextual issues like poorly written alt text or inaccessible workflows.
- Results can include errors that don’t impact accessibility or overlook actual barriers.
- Cannot assess real-world usability or how users interact with the product.
3. Hybrid Accessibility Audits
A hybrid accessibility audit combines the strengths of both manual and automated testing to provide a comprehensive evaluation of digital product accessibility. While automated tools identify common technical issues quickly, manual testing addresses more contextual barriers that tools cannot detect. This approach ensures a thorough and efficient audit process, balancing speed, accuracy, and real-world usability.
Pros of Hybrid Accessibility Audits:
- Save time and costs while addressing critical user-centric issues.
- Identify both technical barriers and contextual usability challenges.
Cons of Hybrid Accessibility Audits:
- Still require skilled testers to integrate manual and automated methods effectively.
- Demand extra effort to consolidate overlapping findings from both approaches.
To design a seamless Web/App, you may want to read: Optimize Your Digital Product with Information Architecture Audit
How to Conduct an Accessibility Audit
1. Define clear Scope and Objectives
Establishing a solid foundation is crucial for a successful digital accessibility audit. This involves aligning the team on the key goals and scope:
Set Specific Goals: Clearly outline what the audit should achieve, such as:
- Ensuring compliance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards on core pages.
- Removing barriers in account registration or login flows for screen reader users.
- Enhancing keyboard navigation for form completion and submission.
Determine the Scope: Focus on high-impact areas to audit, like high-traffic pages, critical user flows (e.g., checkout, registration, payment), and compatibility with assistive technologies.
2. Run Automated Accessibility Tests
Once the objectives and scope are established, it’s best to start with automated testing to spot all systemic issues across your digital product. This approach allows evaluators to quickly uncover areas that require deeper manual examination, setting the stage for a seamless and comprehensive audit process.
To make the most of automated accessibility testing, you should:
- Choose Reliable Tools: Start with Accessibility Audit tools like Axe, WAVE, or Lighthouse to identify programmatic issues such as missing alt text, incorrect ARIA roles, low contrast ratios, and invalid HTML structure. These tools offer a baseline assessment by highlighting technical violations.
- Review and Prioritize Findings: Carefully review the reports generated by the tools. Categorize the findings by severity and map them to WCAG standards. This helps identify the most critical issues that require immediate attention during the manual audit phase.
3. Perform Manual Accessibility Audits
Building on automated findings, manual audits shift the focus to usability and real-world scenarios, ensuring the design is functional and effective for people with disabilities. This step provides a human-centered perspective that automated tools cannot achieve.
To make the most of manual accessibility testing, you should:
- Test Real-World Scenarios: Simulate user tasks using assistive technologies (screen readers, keyboard-only navigation,...) to uncover practical usability challenges.
- Evaluate Contextual Accessibility: Identify issues that require human judgment (unclear focus indicators, confusing interactive elements, ambiguous error messages,...)
- Validate Automated Fixes: Confirm that issues flagged during automated testing have been properly addressed and aligned with accessibility standards.
By focusing on these areas, manual audits provide a deeper understanding of how users with disabilities interact with the design, ensuring it meets both technical requirements and real-world needs.
4. Prioritize Findings and Implement Remediation
Following the completion of automated and manual audits, the next step is to prioritize the identified issues by their impact on user experience, alignment with business goals, and ease of resolution:
- Critical: Issues that block accessibility, such as missing form labels, non-functional keyboard navigation, or videos without captions.
- High: Significant usability problems like clickable elements with unclear purpose (e.g., "Read more") or improper use of ARIA attributes.
- Medium: Moderate issues like skipped heading levels (e.g., H2 followed by H4) or links that open in new tabs without warnings.
- Low: Minor concerns such as slightly low color contrast on secondary elements or redundant alt text for decorative images.
This structured categorization helps prioritize the most pressing issues, allowing for a methodical approach to remediation that delivers meaningful improvements efficiently.
5. Ensure Ongoing Accessibility
Accessibility is not a one-time effort—it requires a continuous commitment to maintaining and improving inclusivity as your digital assets evolve. By focusing on regular monitoring, team education, and embedding accessibility into your workflows, you can sustain long-term compliance and user satisfaction.
To ensure an Ongoing Accessibility:
- Schedule Regular Checks: Regularly review your product to ensure it meets accessibility standards and remains user-friendly. Verify that updates or new features don’t introduce new barriers.
- Train Your Team: Educate product designers, developers, and UX writers on accessibility best practices. Ongoing training helps them identify and fix issues proactively.
By making accessibility a core part of your culture and practices, you can ensure your digital experiences are inclusive and equitable for all users, now and in the future.
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Conclusion
Accessibility is no longer optional for digital products—it's essential. Beyond legal compliance, prioritizing accessibility empowers businesses to connect with a broader audience and provide more inclusive experiences. Conducting an Accessibility Audit would be the critical first step in creating a seamless, user-friendly product for everyone.
If you’re looking for an accessibility consultant to evaluate how accessible your product is for all users, our team of design experts is here to help. At Lollypop, we specialize in delivering comprehensive UX Audit services across various digital platforms. From web accessibility audit to in-depth SaaS platform reviews, we ensure your product aligns with industry best practices.
Contact us today for a FREE consultation! Let us help you address accessibility challenges, refine your accessibility strategy, and transform your product into a truly inclusive experience.
Do you know about: Understanding UX Content Audits: Definition, Process and Tools
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is Accessibility Design?
Accessibility design involves creating products, services, and environments that are usable by everyone. It ensures inclusivity by eliminating barriers and enabling equal access to functionality and information for all users, regardless of their physical, sensory, or cognitive limitations.
2. Why is accessibility audit important?
An accessibility audit creates an inclusive, user-centered design that caters to everyone, including individuals with disabilities. It ensures compliance with standards like WCAG, reducing legal risks while enhancing usability and strengthening brand reputation. By making products accessible, businesses can expand their market reach, align with SEO best practices, and gain valuable insights to improve user experiences. Addressing accessibility problems early also minimizes costs and ensures a proactive, future-ready approach to design and development.
3. When Should You Conduct an Accessibility Audit?
Brands should conduct accessibility audits at key stages of a project or company's lifecycle: 1) During the initial planning phase to embed accessibility considerations early and avoid expensive fixes later; 2) After significant updates to ensure no new barriers have been introduced; and 3) Regularly to maintain inclusivity and compliance with accessibility standards over time.
4. What are Common Accessibility Issues?
Common accessibility issues include Inappropriate Navigation Links, Insufficient Color Contrast, Missing or incorrect image alt text, Disorganized Focus Order, Lack of Keyboard Accessibility, Ambiguous or Missing Link Text, etc.
5. What can you do with the Accessibility Audit Report?
An accessibility audit report helps you systematically improve accessibility and facilitate design for disabilities. Categorizing the identified issues based on severity—critical, high, medium, or low—to address the most urgent problems first. Delegate tasks to the relevant teams—developers for code fixes, content writers for content issues, and designers for visual changes. Once resolved, retest your product to ensure improvements and update the audit as needed.