Website accessibility features are crucial in making your website accessible to users with disabilities. Website owners are legally responsible for making their content accessible, as people with visual impairments have the right to access information online. For this purpose, they audit their website and check accessibility factors regularly to make it perfect.

Several auditing tools with free and premium versions are available online to scan websites for accessibility checks. These tools evaluate the parameters and give a score with the scope of improvement to implement on the website for a high degree of accessibility. There are legal compliances and standards to follow, and digital agencies provide website auditing services for accessibility audits.

If you are developing a website, app, or any digital product, it is obligatory to make it accessible to people with disabilities. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have clauses that mandate audit services, identify accessibility gaps, and help proactively address them. There are two methods for a comprehensive audit:

Manual Audit
Automated Audit via Online Tools

These techniques improve user experience (UX) and comply with accessibility laws to minimize the legal consequences.

Reasons Why Accessibility Audits Are Mandatory For Website Owners

Online content is visible to people through five active senses but in disability cases, special people cannot access any online information. To make it accessible for everyone, the content should follow WCAG guidelines that make it mandatory to apply accessibility features. Here are 5 specific reasons to why this special audit is important:

Verify the Present Status of The Website:

You develop a website with every digital feature to optimize it for search engines. But what if it's not accessible to blind people? They have the right to access every online information. So implementing accessibility features are legally mandatory. When you start auditing the factors you’ll come to know about the current status and improvement needed for accessibility to the disabled community.

Improve User Experience and Usability: Accessibility breaching affects user experience of the app, website or documents online. Through regular audits you can:

Implement user-centred design principles
Check onsite accessibility factors
Introduce new UX strategies
Improvement in convenience for screen readers

Once you fix the issues, it results in a website ready to access by the special category.

Search Engine Ranking Gets Better:

Every website needs updating in technical factors. These are onsite and offsite SEO ranking factors that work behind the scenes. When accessibility features are introduced in websites, it suffices as one of the Google ranking factors. When search engines sense that the website has accessibility features in its backend coding system, it prefers ranking for your target keywords.

Follow Legal Regulations:

Websites with accessibility factors has to follow the WCAG guidelines. It has legal compliances that keeps you safe from any breach of lawful consequences. Government, through accessibility standards, can make sure that everyone can use it with the screen reader's comfort.

How Should You Choose A Web Accessibility Audit Tool?

An in-depth website accessibility audit is a mixture of manual and automated tools. Irrespective of the method you choose , it is important to scan your website regularly at certain intervals to track unexpected changes. However, if you choose automated tools, here are a few factors to consider before selecting.

Scope and Reach: The tool should track all the webpages and not only the homepage url. Most free tools only track the home page and give limited results. Check the premium section and features it provides.
Pricing Features:

Keep a list of audit tools ready before you purchase a subscription. Compare the pricing and features they provide and choose one.

WCAG Conformance:

Most tools will track the WCAG requirements but only few resolve them. Contact the provider and confirm the features or read the package description in detail. Connect with an agency providing website auditing services to audit your website for WCAG guidelines.

What Is The Difference Between Accessibility Audit And Accessibility Testing?

The testing procedure involves evaluation of the website or app through manual or automated technique. You might not need an expert and conduct basic tests for:

Accessibility Testing Factors:

Check these below-mentioned testing factors:

Use of navigation structure without keyboard and mouse
Is the colour contrast comfortable for the screen reading software?
Does the font size comply with the rules?
Is the website easy to understand and perceive?

Accessibility Audit Factors:

It is the application of accessibility test factors to conform to WCAG guidelines. It means creating a detailed report on audit factors, and implementing the solutions to design a website and app for accessibility to visually impaired people. You need an audit expert to pass your website or app for accessibility.

Final Part:

It is the fundamental right of the people with disabilities to access online content. It is mandatory for the digital content creators to comply with the WACG regulations and develop a website that suits their method of accessing web content. Select a web accessibility auditor and make your website free to access by everyone.

Why Should You Perform Website Accessibility Audits?