Accessibility audit
Also called a11y audit, WCAG audit.
A structured review of a website or app against an accessibility standard, usually WCAG, to find what blocks disabled people from using it.
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What it is.
An audit combines automated scans with manual testing: keyboard only, screen readers, zoom, colour contrast and how forms, errors and dynamic content behave. W3C publishes a method for this, WCAG-EM, which sets the scope, samples key screens, tests them and reports the results.
The output is a list of issues mapped to WCAG success criteria, each with where it occurs, how severe it is and how to fix it. It is often the input to a VPAT or an accessibility statement.
Why it matters
Automated tools catch only part of the problems. An audit finds the barriers that stop real people, such as a checkout that cannot be finished with a keyboard. Buyers, public bodies and laws increasingly expect proof of accessibility, and the audit is that proof.
In a product build
We test accessibility during the build, not just at the end: semantic HTML, focus handling and contrast are part of the design system, and automated checks run in CI. A manual audit before launch then confirms the flows that matter most.
Common mistakes.
- 01
Relying on an automated score alone.
- 02
Testing the home page but not the logged-in flows where people do real tasks.
- 03
Auditing once and never again, while new features add new issues.
Read the official text.
Primary sources this definition is based on.
Related terms.
- WCAG 2.2The version of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines published as a Recommendation on 5 October 2023, with nine new success criteria.
- VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template)A free template from the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) for reporting how well a product meets accessibility standards.
- Penetration test (pen test)An authorised, simulated attack on a system by security testers, to find weaknesses that a real attacker could use.
- CI/CD (continuous integration and delivery)An automated pipeline that builds and tests every code change (CI) and then releases it to users in a repeatable way (CD).
- PWA (progressive web app)A web app built with standard web technology that can be installed on a device and work offline, giving an experience close to a native app.
