As we plan this year’s roadmap for Accessibility Checker, I’ve been looking back through the accessibility audit reports we delivered last year to get ideas for additional automated checks that we can create in Accessibility Checker. Reviewing these reports inspired me to make an infographic summarizing key stats from accessibility audits we performed in 2024.
Below is a graphic sharing stats and top accessibility issues identified via manual accessibility audits of WordPress websites, web applications, and WordPress plugins. Watch out for these common accessibility problems on your website and in your digital software. All information is provided in plain text following the image.
Infographic
Text Alternative + Notes
Audit Process
The stats shared in this infographic come from accessibility audits performed by our team of certified accessibility professionals. This is our process for conducting accessibility audits.
- Automated testing tools
- Keyboard navigation
- Zoom website to 200% and 400%
- Screen reader testing
- Turn on reduced motion in your operating system
Learn more about manual accessibility testing here.
Audit Stats
In 2024 we tested:
- 17 WordPress websites
- 2 large JavaScript Web Applications
- 5 WordPress Plugins
We identified 255 unique accessibility problems during these audits. Of the 255 issues reported, 16% of them could be found with an automated tool (either our Accessibility Checker plugin or a browser extension). 84% of the problems could only be identified or verified via manual testing by a human.
25 Most Frequently Identified Issues
These are the issues that were more frequently reported in audits, ordered from highest to lowest reported count.
- Color contrast insufficient
- Color contrast insufficient – ui component
- Status message not announced
- Focus indicator missing
- Incorrect focus order
- Element is not keyboard-operable – divs instead of buttons
- Incorrect heading order
- Incorrect heading use
- Empty buttons
- Link text ambiguous
- Missing heading tag
- Missing form field label
- Empty links
- Alt text on decorative element
- Visual label relies on placeholder text
- Focus indicator insufficient
- Content crops or disappears when 200% zoom is applied
- Button triggering modal missing aria-haspopup
- Alt text left empty on non-decorative image
- Button given role of link
- Hidden content accessible via keyboard
- Content reading order does not follow meaningful order
- Alt text on linked image doesn’t describe link purpose
- List markup unavailable
- Link indistinguishable from text
Home Page Accessibility Issues
In looking just at website home pages, these were some stats that stood out:
- The best home page we tested had 21 issues.
- The worst home page we tested had 54 issues.
- On average home pages had 35 issues.
Note: We sometimes group like elements into a single issue when doing manual audits. For example, we might create one issue for four images on the home page that are all missing alternative text rather than reporting four different issues. This can skew some counts in a report like this but creates less noise for customers as they remediate their website.
Severity
This is the breakdown of how we classified issues by severity or priority for fixing.
- High severity: 44%
- Medium severity: 42%
- Low severity: 14%
Most Failed WCAG Success Criteria
When we perform an accessibility audit, we measure accessibility against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA. Upon request, we will also report Level AAA failures. Learn more about WCAG levels here.
These are the top 10 WCAG success criteria that were most failed in our audits, starting with highest failure count:
- 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
- 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value
- 2.1.1 Keyboard
- 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
- 1.1.1 Non-text Content
- 2.4.3 Focus Order
- 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast
- 4.1.3 Status Messages
- 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)
- 2.4.7 Focus Visible
Takeaways
Greater Focus on Accessibility by WordPress Plugins
In 2024, we were excited to see a shift in the type of organizations coming to us for accessibility audits. In particular, we’re seeing more WordPress plugins taking accessibility seriously before the European Accessibility Act begins enforcement in June 2025. This is great for website owners and developers who use these plugins to build their WordPress websites because it makes building accessible websites easier. And, of course, it’s terrific for people who rely on accessibility enhancements to engage on the web.
Still a Lot To Do
On the downside, though there is a marked interest in accessibility, much work still needs to be done. An average of 35 issues on website home pages is a lot of problems. Our team still finds many critical issues that are complete blockers for people with disabilities, such as nonfunctional navigation, empty buttons or links, divs or spans in place of semantic keyboard-operable elements, and unlabelled form fields.
I would love to reach a point where our auditors can’t find any problems with automated tools and only report issues requiring manual identification or evaluation. Why would this be good? Because it would mean that developers and content creators are using thinking about accessibility as the work and are using tools to find and fix low-hanging fruit.
What You Can Do
If you want to start making your website, web application, or WordPress plugins accessible, begin by looking for the common issues listed above or testing against the listed WCAG success criteria.
You can make a significant difference just by using an automated testing tool like our Accessibility Checker WordPress plugin or a browser extension like WAVE or axe. Once you have fixed issues identified by automated tools, move on to manual testing with a keyboard and screen reader.
Want to ensure WCAG conformance? Bring in a professional! Equalize Digital offers accessibility audits, user testing with screen reader users, and WordPress accessibility remediation services. Contact us to learn more about how we can help.
