The Pros and Cons of Accessibility Audits: Making Them Work for Your Company

Accessibility audits are essential for making products usable for everyone, promoting digital inclusion, but they are frequently neglected in the development process. This oversight can lead to products that are not inclusive and fail to meet the needs of all potential users. Ideally, accessibility would be embedded into your products from the discovery, design, and development stages, and integrated into your component libraries and design systems. However, in our experience, accessibility is frequently perceived as a final checkbox exercise just before the product is ready to launch.

During the rush to meet the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) before launch, accessibility may be neglected, and products launched with known accessibility issues. 

As accessibility consultants, our role is to help clients identify, fix, and embed accessibility best practices into their processes and practices. Accessibility audits are crucial for identifying barriers that prevent people with disabilities from accessing your digital content. However, the effectiveness of these audits can vary greatly depending on how they are conducted and implemented.

In this article, we explore the pros and cons of accessibility audits and how to make them work for your organisation.

Pros of Accessibility Audits

1. Barrier identification: Accessibility audits are vital for uncovering barriers that might not be immediately obvious. These audits ensure your website is usable by people with various disabilities, enhancing the user experience and broadening your audience.
2. Legal compliance and risk mitigation: Conducting accessibility audits helps meet legal requirements, reducing the risk of lawsuits. Many countries have laws mandating digital accessibility(this will open in a new window), such as The Equality Act 2010 (EQA)(this will open in a new window) , the (this will open in a new window)Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations in the UK and the European Accessibility Act(this will open in a new window).  Non-compliance with such legislation can result in substantial fines and legal actions.
3. Brand enhancement: Performing accessibility audits demonstrates a proactive approach toward identifying and resolving accessibility issues.  This commitment to accessibility enhances your brand image and builds trust with your audience. Your clear commitment can be further enhanced by an independent accreditation of your site’s accessibility. It shows you care about inclusivity and are taking steps to ensure everyone can access your content.
4. Universal usability: Accessibility improvements often enhance usability for all users, not just those with disabilities. Better design, clearer navigation, and more intuitive interfaces benefit everyone.
5. Standards alignment: Accessibility audits typically assess whether a digital product meets established best practices. The primary reference point is usually the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)(this will open in a new window) from the W3C, currently in version 2.2. These web accessibility guidelines provide a clear framework to perform a thorough accessibility audit which addresses specific success criteria outlined in WCAG 2.2, providing clear recommendations to fix the issues identified. Such an audit report provides a prioritised roadmap of actions needed to meet the WCAG guidelines, significantly reducing the risk of poor experiences for users with disabilities.

Cons of Accessibility Audits

1. Resource intensive: Accessibility audits can be costly and time-consuming, especially for larger sites with many pages and complex functionalities. This can be a significant challenge for smaller companies with limited budgets.
2. Implementation hurdles: Identifying issues is only half the battle; fixing them can be complex as they may need approvals and be coordinated with other technical updates. Companies need the management backing to make accessibility-related changes and the technical expertise to implement the changes, which might require additional training or hiring external help.
3. Potential coverage gaps: Audits might not cover every single page or feature of a website. While focusing on key templates and pages allows individual instances of issues to be collectively addressed in the findings and recommendations, some specific issues might be overlooked, leading to incomplete accessibility.
4. Limited user feedback: While most accessibility audits follow WCAG 2.2 guidelines, compliance alone doesn't guarantee that users with disabilities won't face issue. Ensuring assistive technology compatibility is crucial for true accessibility. The most valuable insights come from real users with disabilities using their chosen assistive technologies to uncover problematic issues. This can be best addressed through complementary methods, especially usability testing with people with disabilities.
5. Automated tool limitations: It is tempting to assume that accessibility audits can be fully automated using software that identifies failings and generates reports. There are several automated accessibility evaluation systems; however, it is widely established that typically two-thirds of actual accessibility issues cannot be detected by automated web accessibility checkers(this will open in a new window). For example, automated tools can detect if an image has associated alt-text, but they can’t determine if the alt-text is clear and descriptive. Many other nuances, such as reading order, keyboard accessibility, content clarity, and dynamic interactions, cannot be reliably captured by automated tools. Although automated tools can be part of an accessibility audit, they should not be considered complete in themselves.

How to Make Accessibility Audits Work

Despite some shortcomings mentioned above, accessibility audits are still a powerful way to monitor your site's accessibility and ensure your organisation delivers accessible products and services. They are especially compelling when performed independently by experts with a deep understanding of the WCAG guidelines and inclusive design best practices.  Drawing on our experience working with many clients to perform audits and improve the accessibility of their services; we provide our top tips on making sure accessibility audits work for you. 

1. Choose qualified auditors: Ensure the individuals or companies conducting your accessibility audit have the necessary expertise. Check their previous work, look for relevant accreditations such as Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) qualification from the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP), and ask for references from previous recipients of their accessibility services. Can they provide a sample report for you to review and decide if similar report content will inform your technical team and provide sufficient detail to implement solutions? Experienced auditors provide thorough, accurate assessments and actionable recommendations
2. Demand specific, actionable reporting: General findings and boilerplate recommendations are not enough. The audit report should have clear, specific recommendations for improvements.  This could include code samples, screenshots where relevant and detailed explanations of issues, their impact on users and solutions. This will help your team understand exactly what needs to be done.
3. Prioritise key areas: While it may not be feasible to audit every page of a large site, focusing on templates and key pages is essential. Work with the auditor to select these critical areas. This targeted approach ensures the most important and frequently visited parts of your site are accessible.
4. Commit to implementation: An audit is only as good as the actions taken afterward. Your company must be willing and able to make the necessary changes. Allocate resources, set deadlines, and integrate accessibility fixes into your technical bug tracking system. Treat accessibility as a key performance indicator (KPI) to be tracked, reported and continuously improved.
5. Provide training and mentorship:  The technical fixes needed to achieve accessibility may be outside your current development team’s skillset. Equip your internal team with the skills needed to fix accessibility issues. While the audit report should be instructive, hands-on training or a mentoring approach can be highly effective. By working alongside external experts, your team can learn how to implement recommendations and build internal expertise for the future.
6. Aim for accreditation: You probably applied considerable time and resources commissioning a comprehensive accessibility audit, so why not allow others to recognise your efforts.  As a minimum your site needs an accessibility statement to inform users about the site's commitment to web accessibility, the level of accessibility it aims to achieve and the efforts you are taking to ensure accessibility.   In addition to an accessibility statement,  a verifiable accreditation from an expert independent body will provide solid evidence of your current high level of accessibility and remaining challenge areas.
7. Supplement audit with user feedback: Incorporating feedback from actual users with disabilities is essential for a comprehensive understanding of accessibility issues. Engaging with a diverse group of users can uncover usability challenges that automated tools cannot detect. Our accessibility research panel provides invaluable insights by testing your products in various contexts with participants who have disabilities, ensuring that your digital content is genuinely accessible and user-friendly for everyone.
8. Revisit results and build it into your accessibility and inclusive design strategy: One-off accessibility audits can identify specific issues for your team to resolve.  Aim for continuous improvement by re-running the audit at appropriate intervals or when major content changes are made to the site.  Aim for continuous improvement by re-running the audit at appropriate intervals or when major content changes are made to the site. Additionally, step back from the technical findings to consider your organization’s wider management and governance strategy. Two valuable references for this self-assessment are the Accessibility Maturity Model from the W3C(this will open in a new window), which provides a comprehensive framework for assessing and improving overall accessibility maturity, and the Digital Accessibility Standard ISO/IEC 30071-1(this will open in a new window), which addresses the incorporation of accessibility into the design and development of digital products and services. Together with technical guidelines such as WCAG 2.2, these resources offer useful guidance for organisations developing accessible digital products and services.

Conclusion

Accessibility audits are powerful tools for making your digital content accessible to everyone. By understanding their pros and cons and taking steps to maximise their effectiveness, you can ensure that your website is not only compliant with legal standards but also incorporates inclusive design practices for all users. Remember, the goal of an accessibility audit is not just to identify issues but to foster a culture of inclusivity and continuous improvement.

Finally, while audits can identify compliance with accessibility standards and highlight potential technical issues, they often miss the nuances of real-world use by people with disabilities. Engaging with a diverse group of users allows for a deeper understanding of how your products function in various contexts, uncovering usability challenges that automated tools cannot detect. This hands-on testing with people with disabilities, ensures that your products are genuinely accessible and user-friendly for everyone, ultimately leading to more inclusive and effective design solutions.

Get in touch with our accessibility experts at User Vision to help you achieve your accessibility goals and ensure your digital content is accessible to all.