What a Website Accessibility Audit Actually Involves
A website accessibility audit is a systematic evaluation of your website against WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards to identify barriers that prevent people with disabilities from using your site. Barriers can be visual (insufficient colour contrast), structural (missing form labels, incorrect heading hierarchy), interactive (elements that cannot be operated by keyboard), or contextual (content that is technically accessible but confusing to users with cognitive disabilities).
A comprehensive audit combines two approaches: automated scanning and manual testing. Neither alone is sufficient.
Automated vs Manual Accessibility Testing
Automated accessibility tools — including WAVE, axe, and Lighthouse — scan your site’s code and flag issues that can be detected programmatically: missing alt attributes, insufficient colour contrast ratios, absent form labels, and structural errors. They are fast, systematic, and consistent. They also miss approximately 60–70% of real accessibility barriers.
The issues automated tools cannot detect are typically the most consequential for real users: a dropdown menu that receives focus but cannot be operated by keyboard, a modal dialog that traps focus so screen reader users cannot escape it, a form that submits successfully but provides no accessible confirmation, or an interactive map with no text alternative for users who cannot interpret visual content.
A thorough manual audit requires a tester navigating your site using only a keyboard, then using a screen reader (VoiceOver on macOS, NVDA on Windows) to experience the site as an assistive technology user would. This testing reveals barriers that code alone cannot reveal.
What an Audit Report Should Include
A professional accessibility audit report should include: a summary of the overall compliance level, a prioritised list of issues categorised by severity (critical, serious, moderate, minor), specific evidence of each issue (screenshots, page URLs, element identifiers), and actionable remediation guidance that your development team can implement without requiring further research.
Prioritisation matters. Not all accessibility failures carry the same consequence. A missing form label on your donation form is more consequential than a missing alt attribute on a decorative background image. A good audit report reflects this prioritisation so your remediation effort is directed where it has the most impact.
Who Needs an Accessibility Audit
Ontario non-profits with 50 or more employees are required to meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA standards under AODA — an audit is the starting point for any organisation that has not yet verified its compliance status. Healthcare providers in any province face similar requirements. Federal entities and those receiving federal funding are increasingly required to demonstrate WCAG 2.1 AA compliance.
Beyond legal obligations, any organisation whose website serves people with disabilities — which is every public-facing website — has an ethical responsibility to ensure those people can access its content and services.
Pragmatica provides manual website accessibility audits for Canadian non-profits, healthcare providers, and public sector organisations. Learn more about our accessibility audits or get in touch to discuss your organisation’s needs.
