What is a Digital Accessibility Audit?
A digital accessibility audit is a comprehensive evaluation of how effectively a website or other digital properties meet the needs of people with disabilities, adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) technical standards, and other standards like Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 508, European Accessibility Act (EAA) or the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).
It involves performing a detailed assessment of the current status of accessibility for a website or application.
Experts often scan and test important functionalities and processes to detect accessibility barriers during the audit. It is essential to keep in mind that a professional accessibility audit involves human and functional testing in addition to automated testing. A digital agile accessibility audit’s purpose is to ensure that digital products and services are as accessible to everyone as feasible, including those who have disabilities.
How do I test my website for accessibility compliance?
To test your website for accessibility compliance, you can use SiteLint platform. Our tool instantly checks the compliance level of your website and generates a report of all deficiencies. It also provides a score for each test and elaborate explanations. All tests are working with a real user, network and devices.
How can SiteLint help with the digital accessibility audit?
We help identify accessibility issues and provide recommendations needed to fix and improve your products and services, as well as meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standard (2.0 and above).
If your organization requires Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) based on VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) (this includes Section 508 conformance), contact us so we can help.
Automated testing
SiteLint provides a unique form of automated digital accessibility page audit and testing because it runs entirely client-side. Reflects the real user environment, networks, and devices. You only receive reports from sites that were visited by users.
This type of testing greatly supports agile software teams and helps to reduce time spent writing their own tests.
Automatic tests have consistent rules that are evaluated on the client side every time a user enters your website. For example, we check whether an alternative description for the image is defined or whether the color contrast is at the required level. You also have data about the environment, viewport size, whether the client prefers reduced motion, and many more details. This allows you to reproduce the issue in the same environment as the user.
The advantage of this solution is working with a real user environment and the fact that the rules are dynamically developed and updated, so no additional actions need to be taken in this matter.
Manual testing
Not all tests can be done automatically. The reason for this is technological limitations. For instance, while they can detect missing an alt text for an image, they cannot judge the quality or relevance of the alt text present. Manual audits, on the other hand, are a human-driven process that provides context, insight, and a user-centric perspective that automated technologies cannot.
Manual testing key points
Testing with assistive technologies
Test the website with assistive technologies such as screen readers and screen magnifiers.
Screen reader testing determines if a website or application is completely accessible to screen reader users. A screen reader is an application that reads aloud text on a computer screen or converts it to braille output for blind or visually impaired people.
Screen magnifiers work by zooming in on the device or displaying selections in a bigger font. They may also have features to increase cursor size or change color contrasts. They help people with visual impairments who still have some vision. People with degenerating vision may use both screen readers and screen magnifiers.
Contrast Ratio
Contrast ratio is the difference between the maximum and minimum brightness of a device’s display. It relates to text and important graphics and controls. Some situations cannot be automatically tested. Elements can be positioned absolutely and overlap completely randomly. Or text on an image, where the position of the text is also dynamic. This can only be tested manually.
Keyboard Navigation
Keyboard navigation is a crucial aspect of web accessibility since it allows users who are unable to use a mouse to navigate a website only using their keyboard. To determine whether a website is keyboard navigable and fulfills the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 criteria, use keyboard-only navigation to determine whether all interactive elements are accessible and operable with a keyboard.
Evaluate images and multimedia content
Check that all images and multimedia content, including audio and video, have appropriate alternative text that describes the content. Closed captions or transcripts are required for all videos, and all multimedia material must avoid repetitive flashing.
Reporting and Recommendations
The audit findings are gathered into a detailed report that highlights discovered issues, severity levels, and recommended remediation options.
Assistive technologies
- JAWS (desktop screen reader)
- ZoomText (screen magnifier)
- Dragon Naturally Speaking (speech recognition)
- NVDA (desktop screen reader)
- VoiceOver for MacOS (screen reader)
- TalkBack (mobile screen reader)
- ChromeVox (browser screen reader)
Accessibility and WCAG filter rules summary
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