Accessibility audit — what it covers and what you get
An accessibility audit is more than looking at a Lighthouse score. Here is what a professional audit covers and what you receive as a result.
Why automated testing alone is not enough
Automated tools (axe, Lighthouse, WAVE) are fast and useful — but they find only about 30% of accessibility issues. The rest require human judgement:
- Does alt text *describe* the image or just say "image"?
- Does the error message *explain* what went wrong?
- Is navigation *logical* to a screen reader user?
- Is the focus order *sensible*?
What an accessibility audit covers
1. Automated scan
Automated tests (axe-core, Lighthouse) are run across all main pages. This gives a quick overview and a baseline.
2. Keyboard navigation
The entire site is tested without a mouse. Checked:
- Can every interactive element be reached with Tab?
- Is focus always visible?
- Are there no keyboard traps?
- Is the focus order logical?
3. Screen reader test
Key user journeys are tested with a screen reader (NVDA on Windows, VoiceOver on macOS). Checked:
- Whether page structure is understandable when listened to
- Whether forms are usable
- Whether dynamic content is accessible
- Whether modal dialogs behave correctly
4. Visual assessment
- Colour contrast (at least 4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text)
- Text size and scaling (does 200% zoom break the layout?)
- Moving content (animations, auto-advancing carousels)
5. Content assessment
- Quality of alt texts
- Link text ("read more" vs "read more about Drupal security")
- Form field labels
- Clarity of error messages
6. Technical code review
- Correct use of ARIA attributes
- Use of semantic HTML
- Document language attribute
- Skip navigation link
The result: an audit report
A good audit report contains:
Issues found sorted by priority (critical / significant / minor)
For each issue:
- Description: what is wrong
- Location: which page, which element
- WCAG criterion: which rule is violated
- Recommendation: how to fix it
Conformance assessment: whether the site meets WCAG 2.1 level A, AA, or AAA
Prioritised action plan: what to fix first, what can wait
EAA 2025 and audit requirements
The European Accessibility Act requires most e-services to meet WCAG 2.1 AA from June 2025. An accessibility audit is the first step in assessing compliance.
An audit does not guarantee compliance — it identifies gaps. Compliance is achieved after fixes are made and the site is reviewed again.
Our accessibility audit
We carry out combined audits for Drupal sites: automated scan + manual testing + report. See the audit service or contact us for a quote.
Kaido Toomingas
WebPro Company OÜ
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