We do accessibility audits differently.
A quick Google search will show you a list of companies or automated tools that can provide you with a 50 page PDF report and 20+ CSV files with hundreds of thousands of rows listing every accessibility error on your website. This is the “result” most companies offer when they sell you an accessibility audit: a giant report of all the errors on your website that costs you thousands of dollars and gets you no closer to having an accessible website.
At Equalize Digital, we do website accessibility audits differently. Our goal is not to sell you a giant report. Our goal is to help you determine, as quickly as possible, which accessibility issues exist on your website, to collaborate with you on a remediation plan that makes sense for your organizational goals, timeline, and budget, and to start making fixes right away. Our goal is to help you have a fully accessible website, one that conforms with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which will help you meet requirements under ADA, Section 508, AODA, and other laws, in the shortest amount of time.
Quick Benefits
- Gain a rapid understanding of your website’s current accessibility status.
- Receive easily digestible information in manageable reports.
- Create a remediation plan that fits your timeline and budget.
- Start making fixes right away.
Our Audit and Remediation Process
Our website accessibility audits are more than an automated scan – because when it comes to accessibility, AI can only get you so far. Our process includes both automated testing and manual review by trained accessibility professionals and visually impaired testers – real-world users of assistive technology – with the goal of rapidly remediating errors and certifying your website as accessible.
- Full-site scan with Accessibility Checker Pro.
- Manual review of header and footer.
- Discuss rapid audit findings and establish remediation priorities.
- Add accessibility statement to your website.
- Auditing and fixing simultaneously each month.
- Real users verify the accessibility of specific journeys.
- Statement of conformance is issued.
- Ongoing monitoring and fixes as need for the life of your website.
Why Accessibility Matters
Having an accessible website and supporting digital equality is not just good karma, it’s good for business, too. Even changes made incrementally over time can make a big difference in your website’s usability and have a positive impact on your brand reputation.
Reach Everyone In Your Audience
More than 1 billion people in the world and 1 in 4 U.S. adults have a disability. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, disabled Americans spend more than $200 billion every year on discretionary purchases.
Mitigate the Risk of Lawsuits and Fines
Across America, lawsuits resulting from inaccessible websites are on the rise. Depending upon your audience, industry, and sources of funds, your website may need to meet the requirements of one or multiple laws.
Improve Your Search Engine Ranking
Many accessibility fixes can also improve your website’s search engine performance – from better optimizing the site with appropriate keywords, to improving the HTML structure, to reducing bounce rate because users of all abilities will be able to better navigate the site and engage with content.
Be an Upstanding Internet Citizen
Many types of disabilities and conditions, including age or situational challenges, make it hard for individuals to interact with websites in a traditional manner. Not having an accessible website makes it challenging for these individuals to do things that many of us take for granted. Having an accessible website is the right thing to do.
Rethink Your Approach
Ditch the endless audit-fix, audit-fix cycle.
Start making real accessibility fixes while accessibility testing is still underway.
Purchase a remediation plan and start making your website more accessible in as little as 48 hours.
Website Accessibility Audits FAQs
In our experience, unless you are already extensively focusing on website accessibility, there are likely accessibility issues present on your current website that need to be fixed. Nearly all websites and applications have accessibility problems because, unfortunately, we have not yet reached a point where all designers and developers make accessibility a priority.
If you’re not sure that our services are right for you, we recommend getting one of our free risk assessments. These assessments tell you:
- If there are any errors present on your website.
- If there are website accessibility laws that may apply to your organization.
You can request a risk assessment at no charge, above.
Depending upon your organization’s audience, industry, and fund sources, your website may be required to be compliant with a number of laws or accessibility guidelines. Some of the most common standards include:
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- Section 508
Our accessibility experts can help you identify which laws apply to your organization and put together a plan to mitigate legal risk. It is important to also discuss findings and recommendations related to accessibility laws with your legal counsel.
It is our goal to make achieving an accessible website easy for you and your organization. In our experience, large PDF reports and huge Excel files or spreadsheets with row after row of accessibility errors are not actionable documents. They’re overwhelming to read and don’t easily allow for tracking issues as they’re corrected.
Manually reviewing just the header and footer initially (in addition to running an automated scan of the whole website), means that the initial list of findings we deliver will allow for significant improvements that impact every single page of the website. Making big, impactful changes as early in the process as possible is the best way to make something accessible.
Once the initial findings are delivered, we follow that up with thoroughly testing a representative sample of pages on the site to find the remaining manual issues that may exist.
Yes, we are able to fix problems. Our approach to website accessibility audits is unique because our audits are intended to be the beginning of a larger partnership. We offer monthly recurring audit and remediation plans that allow you to start getting fixes right away, while spreading your accessibility cost out over several months.
To learn more about our approach to website accessibility remediation, visit our remediation page.
Fortunately, this is not a choice you have to make alone. Our team can help you prioritize which pages need manual testing, and which pages do not. We do this based on a set of overlapping parameters including legal implications, functionality, traffic, and whether or not a page has “critical” to an organization’s mission.
If you request a risk assessment, you’ll be able to schedule a meeting to go over your assessment at a time that makes sense for you. Typically we have your risk assessment complete and are available to meet to discuss it within a few business days.
Our audit and remediation process can take as little as three months or stretch up to a year or more, depending upon how many issues exist on your website and how much you want to invest in fixing them quickly.
Yes. Our team has developed accessible websites and web applications and has provided accessibility consulting for large universities, government agencies, and enterprise-level clients. We are an approved federal contractor in the United States.
Yes. We’re happy to provide accessibility audits and consulting to other marketing agencies and WordPress theme or plugin developers. We strongly believe in making the internet a more accessible place and love having the opportunity to review and provide recommendations to free and commercial themes and plugins.
