How to Check Whether Your Website Is Accessible

Have you ever thought about how many people might not be able to use your website? In Italy, more than 3 million people live with disabilities that can affect how they browse online. Checking whether your website is accessible means making sure all your potential customers can reach your content and services without barriers.

Checking accessibility is not just an ethical matter: since 2025, European law has required many private websites to meet minimum accessibility standards as well. But above all, an accessible website is a website that works better for everyone.

What web accessibility really means

Web accessibility is your website’s ability to be used by people with disabilities. We are not just talking about blind or visually impaired people: it also includes people with motor, hearing or cognitive impairments, or temporary ones like a broken arm.

The WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are the international guidelines that define the standards. Version 2.1 level AA is the most widely used reference, and it requires your website to be:

• Perceivable: information must be presented in ways users can perceive
• Operable: interface components must be operable
• Understandable: information and operations must be understandable
• Robust: content must be interpretable by a variety of assistive technologies

In our experience, most websites have basic issues that are easy to fix: insufficient contrast, images without alternative text, broken keyboard navigation.

The first checks you can do right now

Before using complex tools, there are basic checks you can do yourself in a few minutes. These tests will already give you a general idea of where your website stands.

Keyboard navigation test: try navigating your website using only the Tab key. Can you reach every link and form? Are active elements clearly highlighted when they receive focus?

Contrast check: is the text readable even in difficult lighting conditions? Is color the only way important information is conveyed (such as errors when filling in forms)?

Image check: does every image have descriptive alternative text? Are purely decorative images marked correctly so screen readers ignore them?

What we often see is that these basic checks reveal 70-80% of the most common accessibility issues. If your website fails these elementary tests, it definitely needs technical work.

Automated tools for an accessibility audit

Automated tools are the starting point for a full audit. They never replace manual testing (in our digital accessibility service we use both together), but they quickly identify the most obvious issues.

WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) is free and provides a visual analysis right on your page. It highlights errors, alerts and suggestions with colored icons placed over the problematic elements.

Axe DevTools is a Chrome extension that integrates with the developer tools. It provides detailed reports and specific suggestions for every issue it detects. The free version covers most WCAG 2.1 checks.

Lighthouse (PageSpeed Insights) by Google includes a section dedicated to accessibility in its full audit. It is especially useful because it combines accessibility testing with performance and SEO.

A common mistake we see is relying on a single tool. Each tool has different strengths: WAVE excels at instant visualization, Axe at technical thoroughness, and Lighthouse at combining accessibility with other quality factors.

How to interpret the results of automated audits

Automated tools detect roughly 30-40% of all accessibility issues. The rest requires human review, but that 30% often includes the most serious and easiest-to-fix problems.

Focus first on errors flagged as “critical” or “serious”: these are clear WCAG violations that completely block some users. Warnings point to potential issues that need manual review.

Essential manual tests for a complete check

Automated tools are only the beginning. Manual testing is essential because many aspects of accessibility depend on context and on the real user experience.

Screen reader testing: NVDA (free) or VoiceOver on Mac let you “hear” your website the way a blind user experiences it. It is the most revealing test, but it takes practice to interpret correctly.

Simulating visual impairments: use extensions such as “Colorblinding” for Chrome to see your website through different types of color blindness. Many forms become incomprehensible if you only use the color red to indicate errors.

Zoom test: set your browser zoom to 200% and check that everything remains usable. It is a WCAG requirement that is often overlooked but essential for users with low vision.

Take the real case of an e-commerce site that looked accessible according to the automated tools: manual testing revealed that the checkout process was completely unusable with a screen reader. The steps were not announced and the errors were not associated with the right fields: for those users, it simply did not work.

When you need a professional audit

If your website has complex features, handles transactions or serves a broad audience, a professional audit becomes necessary. Basic automated and manual tests give you an initial diagnosis, but they do not replace a full assessment.

A professional audit includes testing with real users with disabilities, a full regulatory compliance review, and prioritization of fixes by budget and timeline. From our experience, we can say that investing in a full audit costs less than fixing problems after a legal dispute.

The right time for a professional audit is when:

• You are about to launch a new version of your website
• You have received reports that people are struggling to use it
• Your business serves public bodies or large, compliance-focused companies
• You want to certify your accessibility level for tenders or partnerships

A serious audit takes 2-4 weeks for complex websites and produces a prioritized action plan. Don’t trust “express audits” that promise results in 24 hours: accessibility takes time to assess properly.

How to fix the most common issues

Once you have identified the problems, many fixes are simpler than they look. Accessibility issues often follow recurring patterns that you can fix systematically.

Insufficient contrast: use tools like Contrast Checker to make sure the ratio is at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Often it is enough to darken the text slightly or lighten the background.

Images without alt text: every informative image needs a descriptive alt attribute. Decorative images should have alt=“” (empty) so screen readers ignore them.

Inaccessible forms: every field must have a clear label associated with it through the “for” attribute. Errors must be announced and linked to the specific fields.

What we often see is that fixing the most common 20% of issues improves the accessibility of 80% of the website. It is the Pareto principle applied to web accessibility.

Prioritizing fixes

You cannot fix everything at once. Start with the issues that completely block access: broken keyboard navigation, critical images without alternative text, unusable forms.

Then move on to high-impact, low-effort improvements: fixing contrast, adding skip links, improving heading structure. Leave the fixes that require major structural changes for last.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to check my website’s accessibility?

Basic tests are free with tools such as WAVE and Axe. A complete professional audit costs between €800 and €3,000 depending on the complexity of the website, but it includes a detailed action plan and prioritized fixes.

How often should I check my website’s accessibility?

Check accessibility every time you add new features or content. A full annual review is enough for static websites, while e-commerce sites and web applications need quarterly or monthly checks.

Are automated tools enough to certify accessibility?

No, automated tools detect only 30-40% of all issues. Full WCAG compliance requires manual testing with screen readers, usability testing and a professional audit.

What happens if my website is not accessible?

Since 2025, many private websites have been legally required to meet basic accessibility standards. Beyond the legal risks, an inaccessible website loses customers and hurts your SEO rankings.

Can I make an existing website accessible, or do I have to rebuild it?

In most cases you can improve accessibility without rebuilding the website. The most common fixes (contrast, alt text, keyboard navigation) require targeted changes, not a complete overhaul.