Website audit

About

Our audit uses a combination of automated tools and manual evaluation to check your website against 55 W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) checkpoints and dozens of other accessibility standards.

We follow industry standards by testing a representative sample of web pages, covering the main landing pages and different page templates.

We also check and summarise the compliance of two randomly selected PDFs, including more than 30 PDF checkpoints.

It usually takes around 3 days of testing to produce an interim report.

Our approach is based on the principles set out in the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology.

Website audit

Includes:

• 55 WCAG checkpoints

• 30 PDF checkpoints

• Automated tests using Google Lighthouse, NVDA, Axe, Wave, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Coolers contrast checker

• Manual review using pages without a mouse, different zoom settings and browsers, tables, formulation of links, headings and navigational menus

• Compliance test of 2 randomly selected PDFs

• Interim report with recommendations for improving compliance

• Follow-up test following remedial action

• Final report and recommendations

• Supply of new accessibility statement

Accessibility statement

Public sector websites must publish an up-to-date accessibility statement, explaining how accessible the content is and what action is being taken to fix any non-compliance.

We will draft a compliant statement for you, following the wording in the gov.uk model statement to reflect the findings of our audit.

An accurate accessibility statement is key to avoiding enquiries or action from the Government Digital Service.

Why audit?

Public sector websites must be accessible to everyone - it's the law. Failing to meet this legal duty could represent a breach of the Equality Act.

Websites in general tend to change over time as new content, features and functionality are added.

This churn of content, often by a wide range of people working to different information standards, can impact the accessibility of your website.

So, what was accessible yesterday may not be accessible today.

Because of this, you should regularly monitor your website's performance against accessibility regulations and disclose any issues in your accessibility statement.

To avoid action from the Government Digital Service, your website's accessibility statement must:

• have been updated within the last 12 months

• state your website's level of compliance

• clearly describe any non-compliances

• summarise your plans to fix any non-compliances

• follow the wording in the gov.uk model statement

You can only understand your website's compliance by regularly monitoring and auditing.

Regulators say that public sector bodies should audit their websites every 12 months to identify and address emerging issues.

Some of this can be done in-house - and we can advise you about that or support you with training. But it can be a resource intensive process made inefficient without experience.