Step-by-Step Guide to Using a Web Accessibility Assessment ToolWeb accessibility ensures people of all abilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with websites. Using a web accessibility assessment tool helps identify barriers, prioritize fixes, and track progress toward compliance with standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This guide walks you through choosing, running, and acting on results from an accessibility assessment tool — with practical steps, examples, and tips to make the process efficient and effective.
Why run an accessibility assessment?
- Reduce legal risk: Many jurisdictions require accessible digital experiences.
- Improve user experience: Accessibility improvements often benefit all users (better keyboard navigation, clearer content).
- Broaden audience: Accessible sites reach more people, including those using assistive technologies.
- Meet standards: WCAG provides measurable success criteria (A, AA, AAA) for accessibility.
Types of accessibility assessment tools
Accessibility tools fall into several categories. Often you’ll use more than one type to get a complete picture.
- Automated site scanners — crawl pages to find common issues (e.g., missing alt text, color contrast problems).
- Browser extensions — evaluate a single page and show issues inline (useful during development).
- Assistive-technology emulators — simulate screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, or low-vision experiences.
- Manual checklists and testing scripts — guide human testers through tasks automated tools can’t reliably assess (e.g., logical reading order, meaning conveyed through visuals).
- Testing platforms with user testing — recruit people with disabilities to test real tasks.
Step 1 — Define scope and goals
Decide what you will test and why.
- Scope: single page, critical user flows (checkout, sign-up), entire site, or a new feature.
- Goals: reach WCAG AA compliance, fix high-impact issues, or improve keyboard navigation.
- Stakeholders: involve developers, designers, product managers, QA, and accessibility experts.
- Timeline: set realistic deadlines and checkpoints.
Example: “Assess the checkout flow (4 pages) to meet WCAG 2.1 AA within 6 weeks.”
Step 2 — Choose the right toolset
No single tool finds everything. Combine automated and manual methods.
Recommended mix:
- One automated crawler (for site-wide scanning)
- One browser extension (for in-page inspection)
- Manual test scripts & a screen reader (NVDA, VoiceOver)
- Color contrast checker and keyboard-only tests
Factors to consider:
- Coverage (site-wide vs single-page)
- Integration (CI pipelines, issue trackers)
- Cost and team familiarity
- Reporting and remediation guidance
Step 3 — Prepare the site and team
- Use a staging environment that mirrors production to avoid false positives from development-only code.
- Ensure pages are reachable (authenticate or provide test accounts if necessary).
- Freeze unrelated changes during scans to get stable results.
- Train team members on basic accessibility concepts and how to interpret tool outputs.
Step 4 — Run automated scans
Automated tools detect many common issues quickly.
- Run a site crawler for a site-wide overview. Configure crawl depth, login steps, and sitemap usage.
- Use a browser extension to inspect complex pages and dynamic content.
- Export results in a machine-readable format (CSV, JSON) so you can filter and prioritize.
What automated tools catch well:
- Missing alt attributes for images
- Form labels and field associations
- ARIA usage and some role mismatches
- Keyboard focus issues detectable via tabindex problems
- Color contrast below thresholds
What they miss:
- Meaning conveyed only visually
- Correct reading order and semantics in complex widgets
- Contextual interpretation (e.g., is alt text meaningful?)
- Real assistive-technology behavior
Step 5 — Triage and prioritize findings
Automated scans often produce many findings. Prioritize to focus effort.
Priority criteria:
- Impact on critical user flows (e.g., checkout)
- Severity: blocks task completion vs. minor annoyance
- Number of pages affected (site-wide issues get higher priority)
- Fix complexity and estimated effort
Create a simple priority matrix:
- P1: Breaks core functionality for assistive tech (e.g., missing form labels)
- P2: Major usability barriers (e.g., low contrast on buttons)
- P3: Cosmetic or rare issues (e.g., non-critical ARIA misuse)
Log each issue with: URL, description, WCAG reference, screenshots, steps to reproduce, suggested fix, and estimated effort.
Step 6 — Perform manual testing
Manual checks catch what automation cannot.
Keyboard-only testing:
- Navigate pages using Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, Space, Arrow keys.
- Ensure focus order follows visual order and all interactive controls are reachable.
- Confirm visible focus indicators are present and distinct.
Screen reader testing:
- Test primary pages with NVDA (Windows) and VoiceOver (macOS/iOS).
- Validate reading order, labels, headings, and ARIA announcements.
- Test forms and dynamic updates (virtually simulate a user completing tasks).
Visual checks:
- Verify color contrast with a contrast tool and by viewing the site in grayscale.
- Check that images and charts have text alternatives or summaries.
- Ensure captions and transcripts exist for multimedia.
Cognitive and content checks:
- Readability and plain language.
- Clear link text (no “click here”).
- Consistent structure and headings.
Step 7 — Fix issues and implement best practices
- Tackle P1 issues first. Provide developers with specific, actionable guidance.
- Use semantic HTML (native elements like
- Avoid relying solely on color to convey meaning — use text or icons with labels.
- Implement visible focus states and ensure focus management for single-page apps (use focus() responsibly).
- Add descriptive alt text to meaningful images; decorative images should have empty alt (“”).
Code example — proper form label:
<label for="email">Email address</label> <input id="email" name="email" type="email" /> For dynamic updates (ARIA live region example):
<div aria-live="polite" id="status"></div> <script> document.getElementById('status').textContent = 'Form saved successfully.'; </script> Step 8 — Re-test and verify fixes
After fixes are implemented:
- Re-run automated scans to confirm issues are resolved globally.
- Re-perform manual keyboard and screen reader tests on updated pages.
- Validate that fixes did not introduce regressions elsewhere.
Use smoke tests on critical user flows and schedule periodic re-scans.
Step 9 — Integrate accessibility into your process
Make accessibility part of development lifecycle:
- Add accessibility checks to CI/CD (automated audits on pull requests).
- Include accessibility acceptance criteria in tickets and design reviews.
- Provide pattern libraries with accessible components and code examples.
- Train designers and developers on accessible design patterns.
Example CI step (pseudocode):
# Run accessibility scanner on new build a11y-scanner --url http://staging.example.com --output report.json if hasCriticalIssues report.json; then exit 1; fi Step 10 — Involve users with disabilities
Automated and internal testing can’t replace real user feedback.
- Recruit people with disabilities for usability testing of critical flows.
- Compensate participants and provide clear tasks.
- Observe, record, and prioritize issues discovered in user sessions.
Reporting and documentation
Create clear reports for stakeholders:
- Executive summary (high-level risks and progress)
- Detailed issue list with status, owner, and remediation steps
- Visual examples (screenshots, recordings) of problems and fixes
- Roadmap for remaining work and measurable success criteria
Common pitfalls to avoid
- Relying solely on automated tools.
- Treating accessibility as a one-time project instead of ongoing practice.
- Fixing cosmetic issues while ignoring major functional barriers.
- Adding ARIA without understanding native semantics.
Checklist (quick reference)
- Scope defined and stakeholders aligned
- Automated scans + manual testing completed
- Priority matrix applied and P1 issues fixed
- Keyboard and screen reader checks performed
- Accessible components added to design system
- CI/CD includes accessibility checks
- Ongoing user testing planned
Accessibility work is iterative: small, continuous improvements compound into a significantly more usable product for everyone. Following this step-by-step approach will help you find the right tools, prioritize effectively, and embed accessibility into how your team builds and maintains digital products.
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