How to commission a website or app accessibility audit
Commission accessibility testing that follows complete tasks and gives the team reproducible findings and a way to verify improvements.
Photo unavailableTest how a user finds and corrects a form error while preserving what they already entered.
Identify the journeys the audit should cover
An inaccessible form, unclear control or unusable navigation can prevent someone from completing an otherwise useful service. An accessibility audit should show the barriers, explain their effect and give the team a practical route to address them.
Before commissioning a website accessibility audit, agree the journeys, environments and evaluation standard involved. Ask how the evaluator will combine scans, manual checks and complete user tasks.
Read the source: W3C WAI: Evaluating web accessibility.
Scope the service people actually use
Identify the important pages, account states, forms, documents and connected tools. Include the steps before and after the main action, along with the devices and assistive technologies relevant to the audience.
Choose representative journeys and record what is outside the review. Include signed-in tasks when users need an account to use the service.
Combine appropriate evaluation methods
W3C's evaluation guidance says that tools can assist but no tool alone establishes whether a site meets accessibility standards. Knowledgeable human evaluation is required.
Accessibility testing services should explain the manual and automated work proposed, the evaluators' relevant experience and how findings will be checked. Confirm the standard, version and level the review uses.
Follow complete tasks
For an illustrative acceptance exercise, find an offer, complete a form, encounter a validation error and correct it. Check whether the user can understand the error, reach the relevant control and preserve information already entered.
Include keyboard use, meaningful control names, content structure and the presentation of changing status where appropriate. Review documents, media and third-party steps that can otherwise interrupt an accessible journey.
Ask for findings the team can reproduce
A useful report identifies the affected location and state, the observed barrier, its user consequence and enough detail to investigate. Keep confirmed findings separate from areas requiring more evidence.
Prioritize work by the effect on users and the service, while retaining the full agreed reporting scope. Ask which barrier to address first and how it affects a person completing the task.
Include changes and verification
Decide who will implement improvements and whether the engagement includes checking them afterward. Test the corrected journey and relevant neighboring behavior so one change does not introduce another barrier.
Keep a record of what was evaluated, what changed and what remains open. A report becomes outdated when the product changes without a process for reviewing the affected experience.
Make accessibility continuing work
Include accessibility in design, content and release decisions. Give the team reusable acceptance examples and a route for users to report a barrier and obtain help.
An audit can support informed technical and business decisions. Any legal or contractual conclusion about a particular service and jurisdiction needs the appropriate review beyond an unexplained certification claim.
AI App Studio can help review and improve access to a complete website or app journey. Book a call with the service and user tasks you want evaluated.
Sources and further reading.
Our perspective is based on these sources. Product details and availability can change after publication.
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