Run a free automated accessibility scan and fix what it finds. Then go one layer deeper with real assistive technology testing, since scans alone miss most issues. Confirm what compliance actually requires for your business, and build accessibility into your normal process so it does not quietly break again.
That is the short version. Here is the full sequence.
Start with a free scan
Three free tools cover most of what a business needs at this stage. WAVE, from WebAIM, overlays errors and warnings directly on your page in the browser, which makes it easy to see exactly where a problem sits without reading code. Google Lighthouse is already built into Chrome, runs from the browser’s developer tools, and gives a 0 to 100 accessibility score alongside performance and SEO checks. Axe DevTools is the choice most developers reach for, since it links each issue straight to the relevant line of source code.
Pick any one of them and run it now. It takes minutes, and it turns a vague sense that something might be wrong into a concrete list you can act on today.
What your scan results actually mean
Your report will repeat a handful of terms. Here is what each one means, in plain language, before you read any further.
Alt text. The written description behind an image, read aloud by a screen reader instead of the image itself. Missing alt text means a screen reader user hears nothing where a picture should be, or just hears the filename.
Color contrast. How much text stands out from its background, given as a ratio like 3.2 to 1. Low contrast is hard or impossible to read for anyone with low vision or color blindness, and genuinely hard to read for most people in bright light.
Form labels. The text tied to an input field so a screen reader can announce what it is. A search box with no label just announces as an empty edit field, with no clue what to type.
Heading structure. The order of titles and subtitles on a page, H1 down to H6. A screen reader user often jumps from heading to heading to scan a page, the same way a sighted reader skims. Headings used only for big text, out of order, break that entirely.
Keyboard navigation. Moving through a page using Tab, Enter, and arrow keys instead of a mouse. If a menu or button only responds to a click, anyone who cannot use a mouse is stuck.
Focus order. The sequence your cursor moves through when someone presses Tab repeatedly. It should follow the order things appear on the page. When it jumps around, a keyboard or screen reader user loses track of where they are entirely.
Fix these first
Automated tools are reliably good at catching alt text, color contrast, form labels, and heading structure. Fixing what your scan already flagged on these four removes a meaningful share of the barriers on most sites, and it is work most teams can do without outside help. Beyond what the scan caught, two more are worth doing immediately, since they fall outside what automation reliably checks.
Captions for video and audio. The fix businesses most often forget. Essential for anyone who is deaf or hard of hearing, and genuinely useful for anyone watching with the sound off.
Plain, consistent layout. Avoid unexpected pop ups, auto playing content, or navigation that changes from page to page. This protects users with cognitive disabilities and reduces confusion for everyone.
This list is short on purpose. More than one in four adults in the United States report living with some form of disability, according to the CDC, and the most common type is cognitive, not visual. Add hearing loss, limited mobility, and speech disabilities affecting voice input, and the six fixes above already cover most of that range, not just vision. Year after year, the same handful of failure types account for almost all the detectable problems across the web, which means this list is not a starting sample, it is most of the work.
Go one layer deeper than the scan
A scan, even a clean one, only catches part of the picture. Automated tools can only test a fraction of the WCAG criteria, and even by Deque’s own favourable count they find about 57 percent of issues by volume in its sample, so some real barriers will always remain. The rest, the part that actually determines whether someone using assistive technology can complete a purchase or fill out a form, only shows up with a real screen reader and keyboard alone.
A site can pass every automated check for alt text and color contrast, score perfectly on a scanner, and still be unusable. It is common to find pages where every image has alt text, every color passes contrast checks, and the scanner reports a clean bill of health, yet a keyboard only walkthrough reveals the focus order jumping around unpredictably, a dropdown menu trapping keyboard users with no way out, and a confirmation message after a form submission that is never announced to a screen reader at all. None of that shows up in an automated report. All of it makes the site unusable.
Once you have cleared what the scan found, get a real assistive technology pass. If you are hiring outside help for this, ask directly whether testing includes a real screen reader and keyboard only navigation, not only automated scanning. Be cautious of tools that promise instant compliance through a script or widget added to your site. Several of these products have faced regulatory action for overstating what they actually fix, and they do not replace genuine testing or genuine code level remediation.
Know what compliant actually means
WCAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, is the technical standard most accessibility laws point back to, including the ADA in the United States. Knowing your target level matters, and the legal landscape around it shifts often enough that it deserves its own explanation rather than a few lines here.
Digital accessibility lawsuits in the United States rose sharply in 2025. Website accessibility cases made up 36 percent of all ADA Title III lawsuits filed in federal court that year, up from 28 percent in 2024, according to tracking by law firm Seyfarth Shaw. This is not a risk reserved for large companies. Small and mid sized businesses are named in these cases regularly, often for the same handful of avoidable issues. At the same time, people with disabilities and their households represent a large and consistently underestimated share of consumer spending. The risk and the opportunity point in the same direction: treat accessibility as part of how you build, not a one time fire drill.
One thing worth saying plainly: passing a WCAG checklist is the floor, not the finish line. Plenty of sites technically meet every success criterion and are still frustrating to navigate in practice. Compliance tells you that you have avoided the most common, well documented barriers. It does not guarantee that every real person will find your site easy to use.
For the lawsuit and business numbers behind this, see the real cost of an inaccessible website.
Make it a habit, not a project
This is the step businesses skip most often, and it is arguably the most important.
It is a common pattern: a company passes a thorough audit, fixes everything that was flagged, then ships a new feature eight months later with no accessibility review at all. The new feature breaks keyboard navigation or ships an unlabeled form, and the business is right back where it started, except now it has also spent the audit budget.
Accessibility does not stay fixed by itself. It stays fixed when it becomes one line item in your normal design and development sign off, the same way a security check or a broken link check would be. Before anything new goes live, someone tests it with a keyboard alone and ideally a screen reader. That single habit, built into your existing process rather than treated as a separate yearly event, is what actually keeps a business compliant and usable over time.
Frequently asked questions
Is accessibility only for blind people?
No. Accessibility covers vision, hearing, mobility, cognitive, and speech disabilities, along with situational limitations like a temporary injury or a noisy environment. Blindness is one part of a much wider picture.
How much does it cost to make a website accessible?
It depends heavily on the size and current state of your site. Smaller, simpler websites usually cost far less to remediate than larger or more complex ones. Fixing issues early and building accessibility into your normal process is almost always far cheaper than fixing them after a lawsuit or a major redesign.
Is an automated accessibility scan enough?
No. Even by Deque’s favourable count, automated tools find about 57 percent of issues by volume, and they can test only a fraction of the WCAG criteria. The rest require manual testing with a keyboard and real assistive technology like a screen reader.
Can my business actually get sued for an inaccessible website?
Yes. Digital accessibility lawsuits have been rising in the United States, and businesses of every size, not just large companies, have been named in these cases. Treating accessibility as an ongoing practice rather than a one time fix is the most reliable way to reduce that risk.
Should I hire someone or fix this myself?
Many of the highest impact fixes, like writing better alt text or fixing color contrast, can be handled in house with the right guidance. For a full audit and code level remediation, look for testing that includes real assistive technology, not just an automated scan or a widget promising instant compliance.
Where to go from here
I am Kiran Baug. I have spent over fifteen years building enterprise SEO from the ground up, and I navigate the web through a screen reader every single day. DiscoverSight exists because I kept seeing the same gap: businesses that wanted to do right by accessibility but did not know where the real starting point was. I hope this page closed that gap for you.
If you want help figuring out exactly where your own site stands, let us talk about your accessibility needs.
You might also find these useful: what an inaccessible website really costs a business, what a blind user finds when testing enterprise websites, and how NVDA and JAWS differ.
Sources
Figures in this article were checked against the sources below in October 2026.
- Seyfarth Shaw, ADA Title III blog: federal website accessibility lawsuits in 2025 (about 36 percent of Title III filings, up from about 28 percent in 2024)
- CDC, Disability Impacts All of Us (more than 1 in 4 US adults; cognition the most common type)
- Deque, Automated Accessibility Coverage Report (vendor study; about 57 percent of issues by volume)
- WebAIM, The WebAIM Million
Last reviewed October 2026. This article is general information, not legal advice.
