An accessibility audit, sometimes called an accessibility review or WCAG audit, is a structured check of a website or app against an accessibility standard, usually WCAG at level AA. It finds the barriers that stop disabled people using a product.
Why it matters: An audit turns accessibility from opinion into a reproducible list of issues with clear actions. That makes problems easier to fix, easier to prioritise and easier to explain to the people who need to fund the work.
In practice: An audit combines automated tools with manual testing. Testers work through the WCAG checkpoints, using screen readers, zoom, colour contrast checks, readability reviews and navigation checks on each key page or journey. Each failure is recorded with the checkpoint it breaks, steps to reproduce and who it affects.
Examples:
- Auditing a mobile site against WCAG 2.0 AA checkpoints, one by one.
- Recording each failure with steps to reproduce so developers can fix it without guessing.
Common pitfalls:
- Relying on automated tools alone, which miss many real barriers.
- Writing findings as vague opinions rather than reproducible, actionable issues.
What level should an accessibility audit test to? Most organisations aim for WCAG level AA, which matches many legal requirements. Level AAA is very hard to meet across a whole product and is rarely a legal requirement.
