How to Do a Website Accessibility Audit in 2026: A Step-by-Step Guide

Whether you're preparing for the April 2026 ADA deadline, the European Accessibility Act, or simply want to make your website usable by everyone — the first step is always the same: an accessibility audit.

But where do you start? What do you check? And how do you prioritize what to fix first?

This guide walks you through a complete website accessibility audit, step by step.

What Is a Website Accessibility Audit?

An accessibility audit is a systematic review of your website against established standards — typically WCAG 2.1 Level AA — to identify barriers that prevent people with disabilities from using your site.

A thorough audit combines:

Automated scanning — tools that crawl your pages and flag code-level issues
Manual testing — human review of keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and user experience
Assistive technology testing — verifying your site works with screen readers, voice control, and other tools

No single method catches everything. Automated tools find roughly 30-50% of WCAG issues. The rest requires human judgment.

Step 1: Define Your Scope

Before scanning anything, decide what you're auditing:

Full site or key pages? For large sites, start with your most critical user journeys: homepage, navigation, signup/login, checkout, contact forms, and your top 10 most-visited pages.
Which standard? WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the legal benchmark in most jurisdictions. Level AAA is aspirational but rarely required.
Mobile too? Responsive design issues often create accessibility barriers. Test at multiple breakpoints.

Tip: Document your scope. You'll need it for compliance records and to track progress over time.

Step 2: Run an Automated Scan

Start with automated tools to get a baseline. This catches the "low-hanging fruit" — issues that are clearly detectable in code.

What automated scans catch well:

Missing alt text on images
Poor color contrast ratios
Missing form labels
Incorrect heading hierarchy
Missing document language
ARIA attribute errors
Empty links and buttons

What they miss:

Whether alt text is actually meaningful
Keyboard trap issues in complex widgets
Logical reading order
Context-dependent issues (like whether a link makes sense out of context)
Dynamic content and single-page app interactions

How to scan with AccessiGuard

Go to accessiguard.app and enter your URL
Our scanner crawls your pages and tests against WCAG 2.1 criteria
Review the report — issues are categorized by severity and WCAG success criterion
Export or share the report with your development team

A free scan gives you an immediate snapshot. Paid plans add multi-page scanning, monitoring, and historical tracking.

Step 3: Manual Keyboard Testing

This is where you find the issues automated tools can't. Put your mouse aside and try to use your entire site with only your keyboard.

What to test:

Tab order: Press Tab repeatedly. Does focus move through the page in a logical order? Can you reach every interactive element (links, buttons, form fields, menus)?

Focus visibility: Can you always see where you are on the page? A visible focus indicator (outline, highlight) should be present on every focused element.

Keyboard traps: Can you always Tab out of every component? Modal dialogs, dropdown menus, and embedded content (like maps or videos) are common trap points.

Skip navigation: Does the site have a "Skip to main content" link that appears when you first press Tab? Without it, keyboard users must tab through the entire header on every page.

Interactive elements: Can you open menus, submit forms, activate buttons, and close dialogs using only Enter, Space, Escape, and arrow keys?

Common keyboard failures:

Custom dropdown menus that only respond to mouse clicks
Modal dialogs that don't trap focus (focus escapes behind the overlay)
Carousels with no keyboard controls
"Click here" elements built with <div> instead of <button>

Step 4: Screen Reader Testing

Test with at least one screen reader to understand how assistive technology users experience your site.

Free screen reader options:

NVDA (Windows) — free, widely used
VoiceOver (macOS/iOS) — built into Apple devices, activate with Cmd+F5
TalkBack (Android) — built into Android devices

What to listen for:

Images: Are they described? Do decorative images get skipped? ("Image: DSC_0034.jpg" is not helpful.)
Headings: Does the heading structure make sense when navigated by heading? (H1 → H2 → H3, not random jumps)
Forms: Are labels announced when you focus each field? Are error messages associated with the correct field?
Links: Do link texts make sense without surrounding context? ("Click here" and "Read more" repeated 20 times is unusable.)
Landmarks: Can the screen reader identify page regions (header, nav, main, footer)?
Dynamic content: When content updates (notifications, live regions, loading states), is the screen reader notified?

Step 5: Check Color and Visual Design

Visual accessibility goes beyond color contrast.

Color contrast

Text must meet minimum contrast ratios against its background:

Normal text: 4.5:1 ratio (WCAG AA)
Large text (18px+ bold or 24px+ regular): 3:1 ratio
UI components and graphics: 3:1 ratio against adjacent colors

Use tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker or check contrast results in your AccessiGuard scan report.

Beyond contrast:

Don't rely on color alone to convey information (red/green for error/success). Add icons, text, or patterns.
Text resizing: Does your layout hold up at 200% zoom? Users with low vision depend on this.
Motion: Can animations and auto-playing content be paused? Some users experience vestibular disorders.

Step 6: Test Forms and Error Handling

Forms are where accessibility failures have the most direct impact — they block users from signing up, purchasing, or contacting you.

Checklist:

Every input has a visible, programmatically associated <label>
Required fields are indicated (not just with color)
Error messages are specific ("Email format is invalid" not just "Error")
Errors are associated with the correct field (via aria-describedby or aria-errormessage)
Focus moves to the first error when a form submission fails
Success confirmation is announced to screen readers
Autocomplete attributes are used where appropriate (autocomplete="email", etc.)

Step 7: Review Media Content

Images

Informative images have descriptive alt text
Decorative images have empty alt="" (so screen readers skip them)
Complex images (charts, infographics) have extended descriptions

Video

Captions are provided for all pre-recorded video
Audio descriptions are available for video content where the visual information isn't conveyed through audio alone
Auto-playing video can be paused

Audio

Transcripts are provided for audio-only content (podcasts, audio clips)

Step 8: Prioritize and Fix

You'll likely find dozens (or hundreds) of issues. Don't panic. Prioritize by impact:

Fix first (Critical):

Keyboard traps — users literally can't proceed
Missing form labels — forms are unusable
No focus indicators — keyboard users are lost
Auto-playing audio/video that can't be stopped

Fix next (High):

Missing alt text on informative images
Poor color contrast on body text
Heading hierarchy issues
Missing skip navigation

Fix later (Medium):

Decorative images with non-empty alt text
Minor contrast issues on non-essential elements
Missing autocomplete attributes
Inconsistent focus styles

Track over time (Low):

ARIA best practices (using role where native HTML would suffice)
Minor heading level skips in secondary content

Step 9: Document and Monitor

An audit isn't a one-time event. Accessibility is ongoing.

Save your baseline report — you need to show progress
Set up monitoring — new code deployments can introduce regressions
Create an accessibility statement — publish your commitment and contact info for feedback (see ours)
Schedule regular audits — quarterly automated scans plus semi-annual manual reviews is a reasonable cadence

AccessiGuard's monitoring feature automatically rescans your sites on a schedule and alerts you to new issues — so you catch regressions before your users do.

How Long Does an Audit Take?

Site Size	Automated Scan	Manual Review	Total
Small (5-10 pages)	5 minutes	2-4 hours	Half a day
Medium (50-100 pages)	15 minutes	1-2 days	2-3 days
Large (500+ pages)	30-60 minutes	1-2 weeks	2-3 weeks

Automated scanning is fast. The manual review is where the real time goes — and where the most impactful issues are found.

Start Your Audit Now

The best time to audit your website was before you launched. The second best time is now.

Run a free AccessiGuard scan to get your baseline
Follow this guide for manual testing
Prioritize fixes by impact
Set up monitoring to catch regressions

With the ADA deadline approaching and accessibility lawsuits surging, proactive auditing isn't just good practice — it's risk management.

Need help interpreting your scan results? Contact us — we're happy to help.