Level Access

Author: Level Access

A digital accessibility audit is a professional review of how well a website, app, or other digital asset works for people with disabilities. During an audit, an expert evaluates a digital experience against accessibility standards—typically the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)—which can help benchmark compliance with laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). For the most comprehensive, reliable results, accessibility audits should combine automated scanning with manual evaluation, including functional testing by people with disabilities using assistive technology. 

Key insights

  • During a digital accessibility audit, a professional evaluates your digital assets, including websites and mobile apps, for conformance with accessibility standards like WCAG.
  • The results of an audit can help you understand your compliance with laws like the ADA, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the European Accessibility Act (EAA).
  • While WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance is the baseline for compliance in many countries, meeting WCAG 2.2 Level AA provides access to a broader group of users and is required by some regulations.
  • A thorough accessibility audit combines automated scanning with manual evaluation by accessibility experts and functional testing by people with disabilities.
  • Following an audit, an organization receives an audit report that outlines findings. A strong audit report maps accessibility issues to the standard evaluated against. It should also include information about issue severity and location, which can help guide prioritization.
  • Accessibility audits are an essential step in producing conformance documentation, such as a completed Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT), known as an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR).

Why accessibility audits matter

We depend on websites, apps, and other digital experiences for nearly every part of day-to-day life. When these experiences aren’t accessible, users with disabilities face barriers that make it difficult, or even impossible, to complete tasks that should be simple. For example, if the login form for an online banking portal is missing labels, screen reader users may be unable to check their account balance. And if the tutorial video for a software platform doesn’t have captions, people who are deaf or hard of hearing miss out on the instructions they need to get set up.

Accessibility issues don’t just harm users—they also expose organizations to legal and regulatory risks. In the U.S., web accessibility lawsuits under Title III of the ADA, which applies to private businesses, are on the rise. Meanwhile, a new ADA Title II rule makes WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance an explicit requirement for state and local governments. And U.S. federal agencies have digital accessibility obligations under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Digital accessibility is also required by European and U.K. regulations. In the European Union (EU), the EAA has been enforceable since June 28, 2025 and the EU Web Accessibility Directive has been in effect since September 23, 2020. In the U.K., Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 mandates WCAG 2.2 conformance for public-sector organizations.

Despite these stakes, most websites have easily detectable accessibility issues. In fact, WebAIM’s 2026 Million report found that 95.9% of the top one million home pages had WCAG failures, with an average of 56 errors per page. If you’re unsure whether your site meets the needs of users with disabilities, an accessibility audit helps you get clarity. You’ll get a deeper understanding of your site’s accessibility, and what you can do to improve it.

Which standards do accessibility audits test against?

If you request a professional accessibility audit of a website or app, testers will most likely evaluate it against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the globally accepted standard for web accessibility. Published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), WCAG outlines specific technical requirements, called “success criteria,” that digital experiences should meet to be accessible.

There are multiple versions of WCAG—2.0, 2.1, and 2.2—and three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA. Level AA is the target most organizations aim for, and most laws point to.

The most recent version, WCAG 2.2, arrived in October 2023 and added nine new success criteria. That said, many laws still reference older versions of WCAG. For example, the 2024 ADA Title II rule requires WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance, while Section 508 and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) point to WCAG 2.0 Level AA. Newer versions of WCAG are backwards compatible with and build on previous versions—so by conforming to WCAG 2.2 AA, you also satisfy the criteria in WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 AA.

The presumptive standard for EAA compliance is EN 301 549, the harmonized European standard for information and communication technology (ICT) accessibility. While EN 301 549 incorporates WCAG 2.1 AA, it includes additional requirements that address hardware, software, documentation, and other aspects of ICT beyond the scope of WCAG.

If your organization has legal or regulatory obligations related to digital accessibility, you’ll want to audit against a standard that is the same as, or higher than, the compliance benchmark. For example, organizations bound by Section 508 should audit for WCAG 2.0 Level AA conformance at minimum, while organizations bound by ADA Title II should audit for WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance at minimum.

An experienced digital accessibility solution provider can help you identify the right target based on your goals. We recommend testing for WCAG 2.2 even if you only have to report on WCAG 2.1 or 2.0.

How do you run an accessibility audit?

A digital accessibility audit prioritizes the parts of your digital experience that matter most to users, like login screens or checkout pages. Audits may also cover website elements, such as:

  • Design / structure: Layouts, navigation, interaction patterns
  • Content types: Forms, tables, multimedia, scripts
  • Components: Date pickers, lightboxes, sliders
  • Technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WAI-ARIA, PDF
  • Product areas: Home page, shop, departments, embedded apps
  • Authors / templates: Different teams or coding styles, where known
  • Dynamic behavior: Content that shifts by device, user, or context; dialogs, errors, pop-ups

A solid accessibility testing process usually runs through five steps:

  1. Define the scope.
  2. Explore the website or app.
  3. Sample a set of pages.
  4. Assess them against WCAG or other applicable standards.
  5. Document findings along with their location and severity.

The Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) is an excellent reference for selecting an audit scope.

Types of accessibility testing

The assessment phase of an audit should be completed using a combination of three different testing methods: automated, manual, and functional. Each method has strengths and limitations, so leveraging all three together yields the most comprehensive and reliable results.

Testing type What it involves Strength Limitation
Automated Uses automated tools to scan for common issues like contrast and alt text Fast and scalable Cannot judge meaning or usability
Manual (expert) Specialists test against standards using keyboard navigation and assistive technologies Finds issues automation misses Point-in-time; requires expertise
Functional (user) People with disabilities complete real tasks with and / or without assistive technology Reveals real-world barriers Takes time and coordination


Automated testing

Automated tools quickly flag common accessibility issues like insufficient contrast or missing alt text. However, these tools cannot detect all issues that may create barriers for users with disabilities.

Manual testing

Manual audits are essential to catch the issues that automated scans miss. During this testing, accessibility experts work through pages with keyboard navigation, screen readers, and other assistive technologies to check for conformance with WCAG and other applicable standards. Professionals likely also manually review code for violations.

Beyond closing gaps in coverage, human testing can help validate the accuracy of findings from automated scans that require human review.

Functional testing

Functional testing brings in users with disabilities to complete real tasks with assistive technologies. The focus here is user experience and uncovering barriers, not just ticking off individual criteria in a standard.

The audit report

After evaluation is complete, findings are compiled in a digital accessibility audit report. This report maps each issue to specific criterion in the standard used for evaluation—for example, a WCAG success criterion or clause in EN 301 549. Ideally, it should also assign the issue a contextual severity rating, explain where it’s located, and provide clear guidance for remediation.

Organizations can use this additional context on severity and location to help prioritize fixes, focusing on the most critical issues in important user flows first.

Accessibility audits and VPATs: What B2B tech vendors need to know

If you sell software or other digital products to enterprise or government buyers, you may need to obtain an accessibility audit as part of the procurement process. That’s because organizations in regulated industries are demanding that vendors provide documented proof of product accessibility—typically in the form of a completed Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT), known as an accessibility conformance report (ACR).

This document lays out how well your digital product conforms to a given standard, criterion by criterion. A VPAT is only as credible as the testing behind it, so obtaining a comprehensive audit from a reputable expert is critical to the process. Learn how Level Access provides VPATs that hold up under scrutiny.

Should you audit in-house or hire experts?

Free automated testing tools are tempting when you just want a quick web accessibility check. But leaning on automated accessibility testing tools alone leaves real gaps that can expose you to legal, regulatory, and business risks.

For accessibility audit results you can trust, engage a qualified third-party provider with a team of certified accessibility experts, including native users of assistive technologies like screen readers and keyboard navigation. Ensure your partner’s approach to auditing pairs automated scans with manual and functional testing, providing insight on real-world usability as well as conformance with recognized accessibility standards.

A strong partner will perform design evaluations, provide practical guidance on prioritizing and remediating issues, and validate findings that you can convert into fixes, preventing further issues. And they’ll help you track and report on progress over time, giving you credible proof of improvement to share with other stakeholders.

Get started with an accessibility audit

Audits are a crucial part of any digital accessibility effort, but they’re a starting point, not a finish line. Maintaining compliance is an ongoing process as your digital experiences are updated and regulations evolve.

Level Access can get you started with an audit, and work with you to make accessibility a seamless part of your day-to-day operations. Our solution combines platform automation, AI agents, and human expertise to help teams find issues earlier, fix them faster, and continuously prove progress—so you can confidently meet compliance requirements and deliver experiences that work for everyone.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can support your accessibility goals.

Frequently asked questions

What are the four key principles of accessibility?

WCAG is built on four principles, known by the acronym POUR: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. The success criteria in WCAG, which testers assess against in an accessibility audit, are organized around these four principles.

There’s no fixed price. Cost varies based on the size and complexity of what you’re evaluating. The primary factors are how many pages, templates, and user flows fall in scope across your digital assets, plus what you need at the end, whether that’s a detailed audit report or a completed VPAT. Level Access offers flexible pricing scoped to what you need. 

For thorough and accurate results, an accessibility audit should be performed by a third-party digital accessibility expert, who will bring specialized tools, experience, and an unbiased perspective.

Accessibility audits vary in duration depending on scope. Rather than combing through your entire website, auditors assess a representative sample that includes key user flows  such as login pages, different types of UI components, and error states. 

A WCAG audit is the backbone of any web accessibility review. The process involves defining scope using WCAG-EM, exploring the site, sampling a representative set of pages, assessing them against WCAG success criteria, and documenting findings. Most teams audit against WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 Level AA. 

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