Accessibility testing that finds what scanners miss
Most “accessibility checks” run a tool, hand you a PDF, and call it done. The problem: automated scanners catch only a fraction of real barriers. Our accessibility testing services combine automated scanning, hands-on manual review, and real assistive-technology testing to measure your site honestly against WCAG 2.1 AA — the standard U.S. courts and the Department of Justice treat as the benchmark for ADA Title III web compliance.
The result isn’t a scary list of error codes. It’s a prioritized set of findings that maps straight to fixes — so you know exactly what’s broken, why it matters to a real user, and what it takes to resolve it.
Why testing is different from a one-time audit
People use these terms loosely, so here’s the distinction we work to:
- An audit is a documented snapshot of your site’s accessibility at a single point in time. It’s the right place to start. See our website accessibility audit.
- Testing is the repeatable practice of checking pages, templates, and new features for barriers — before launch and as your site evolves.
A site that passed an audit in January can fail by June after a theme update, a new checkout flow, or a few hundred blog posts with bad alt text. Testing is how you stay conformant between audits instead of drifting back into risk.
The three layers of real accessibility testing
No single method finds everything. Each catches issues the others can’t, which is why we run all three.
| Testing layer | What it catches | What it can’t catch |
|---|---|---|
| Automated scanning | Missing alt text, low color contrast, empty links/buttons, missing form labels, some ARIA errors | Whether content actually makes sense to a user, logical focus order, meaningful alt text |
| Manual expert review | Keyboard traps, illogical heading structure, unclear error messages, misused ARIA, reading order | High-volume repetitive checks at scale |
| Assistive-technology testing | What a real screen-reader or keyboard user actually experiences | Nothing a human tester misses — this is the ground truth |
1. Automated testing
We run industry scanners across your key templates to surface the issues machines are good at: contrast failures, missing alt attributes, unlabeled form fields, and structural errors. Automated tools are fast and consistent — but WebAIM and W3C/WAI both caution that they can only detect a minority of WCAG success criteria. Used alone, they create a false sense of safety.
2. Manual testing
This is where the real findings come from. A trained tester walks your site by hand, checking heading structure and landmarks, ARIA labels and roles, accessible forms, and keyboard navigation. We evaluate against the POUR principles — Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust — and confirm conformance at WCAG Level A and AA (Level AAA is rarely required for general business sites).
3. Assistive-technology testing
Finally, we test the way disabled visitors actually browse. That means keyboard-only navigation with no mouse, and real screen reader testing across NVDA and JAWS on Windows and VoiceOver on macOS and iOS. A button that “passes” an automated scan can still announce as nothing to a screen reader — assistive-technology testing is the only way to know for sure. Curious how this works? Read how people with disabilities use the web.
What you receive
- A prioritized findings report organized by severity and effort, mapped to specific WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria
- Plain-language explanations of each issue and the real-world user impact — not just error codes
- Recommended fixes with code-level guidance your developer (or ours) can act on immediately
- Optional VPAT / Accessibility Conformance Report for procurement, RFPs, and Section 508 contexts
- A clear path to remediation so the findings actually get fixed
How accessibility testing connects to compliance
Testing tells you where you stand. It does not, by itself, make you compliant — that takes remediation, the hands-on work of fixing code, content, and markup. We test, then we fix, then we re-test to confirm conformance.
This is the opposite of an overlay widget. Overlays promise instant compliance from a line of JavaScript, but they don’t repair the underlying HTML, and they’ve repeatedly failed to stop demand letters and lawsuits — thousands of ADA web accessibility lawsuits are filed in U.S. federal and state courts each year, and many name sites that had an overlay installed. Real testing plus real remediation is the durable path. Here’s why overlays don’t work.
If you’ve already received a demand letter, accessibility testing is also the first practical step toward documenting good-faith remediation. (This isn’t legal advice — for letters and litigation, consult an attorney experienced in ADA Title III matters.)
Built for small businesses
You don’t need an enterprise budget to test your site properly. We scope testing to what matters most — your highest-traffic pages, conversion flows, and reusable templates — so you get meaningful coverage without paying for noise. For background on the standards and regulations involved, see the difference between ADA, Section 508, and WCAG and the federal Section508.gov guidance.
Start with a free scan
A free scan gives you an instant automated snapshot of where your site stands. From there, we layer in manual and assistive-technology testing for the full picture. Run your free accessibility scan and see what’s actually happening on your site.