Website Accessibility Checker

There are 14.1 million people with disabilities in the UK, according to Scope, the disability equality charity. And that is not even counting those who experience a temporary disability, such as a broken arm or recovery from surgery. With increasing legislation and demand for accessible web experiences, now is the time to start building or accelerating your website’s digital accessibility. Regularly checking your website for accessibility issues is a vital part of this process. To save you time, use a website accessibility checker to help you get a quick overview of how accessible our website is. 

What is a Website Accessibility Checker?

A website accessibility checker is an automated accessibility testing tool that can help you detect basic accessibility issues. A reliable checker is a quick way to audit your site, so you get an overall impression of how accessible your site is and if there are any problem areas that need to be addressed. This knowledge is essential for the early phases of planning, as it gives you a better idea of what you are up against. For example, if an accessibility checker does indeed find several critical errors on your website, you can ensure you have enough time and budget set aside to resolve the errors. 

What does the Siteimprove Website Accessibility Checker do? 

The Siteimprove website accessibility checker runs automated checks based on selected success criteria from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), an international standard for accessibility. These checks cover common issues that affect a website’s accessibility compliance, including:

• Image with no alt attributes
• Image link is missing alternative text
• Input field has no description
• Text area has no description
• Select box has no description
• Webpage has multiple title elements or no title element
• Webpage title is missing text
• Heading is missing text
• Alternative text for the image is a file name
• Element ID is not unique
• Form control label is missing text
• Use of automatic redirect after a time delay
• Language of page has not been set
• WAI-ARIA image is missing alternative text

Run the website accessibility checker on any page on your website and you can:

1. Get your page checked against the 14 most common accessibility issues
2. Immediately see your accessibility score
3. Receive your accessibility checker report straight to your inbox
4. Actionable explanation of each issue enables you to understand and correct the errors

How to check for website accessibility

To get the best results from the website accessibility checker, you should first choose which URL you would like to test. This could be your home page, your most visited page, or your contact page, depending on which page has greater priority to your organization or higher web traffic. Then follow these steps to get your accessibility score.

1. Enter the URL and your email, so we can send your results.
2. Check your inbox for your page’s accessibility results. This also makes it easier for you to share the results with colleagues.
3. Once you have your results, assess how the score matches up to your accessibility goals.
4. Start making a game plan to resolve the issues and assign tasks to responsible team members.

How to read your website accessibility checker report

Your accessibility score is a measure of how well your page performs against 14 automated Siteimprove accessibility checks. These checks are based on the Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) rules, which are a set of testing rules created by accessibility experts to make it easier for organizations to understand and meet the success criteria established by WCAG.

The WCAG standard categorizes success criteria by three levels: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. Level A represents the most critical accessibility issues. Level AA is the recommended level of accessibility compliance to aim for, as this is the level of accessibility most legislation refers to. Level AAA is the highest level of accessibility but is not recommended as a compliance goal across your entire website, as for some content, it is not possible to fulfil all Level AAA success criteria. It is also worth noting that each level builds on the level before it. For example, Level AA includes all of Level A success criteria, plus additional criteria. Likewise, Level AAA includes all of Level A and AA success criteria.

Why you should use a website accessibility checker

Your visitors rely on the usability of your website to engage with your brand. In the EU, one in four people live with a disability, and in the US, that figure is 56 million. Poorly designed, inaccessible pages make it difficult for these groups to use your website. Simply put, if your website is not accessible, you are excluding a significant percentage of the global population, which not only threatens disabled people’s rights, but can also have severe consequences for your organization.

Fortunately, accessibility tools, like Siteimprove, allow you to tackle the WCAG 2.0 A, AA, AAA barriers that hurt your site experience and brand reputation. Manually auditing hundreds – or even thousands – of pages across your website for accessibility issues takes time, resources, and expertise. Thankfully, automated website accessibility checkers take care of the heavily lifting, allowing you to check your website’s accessibility status instantly and prioritize pages that need attention with confidence.

What kind of organisations need to be accessible in the UK?

All organisations, whether within the public or private sector, should strive to be inclusive to create a more equal society. How accessibility laws affect public institutions and private companies, however, can vary slightly. Many accessibility laws focus primarily on public institutions, as websites for the public are intended to provide essential information to a wide and diverse audience.

The Equality Act 2010 was introduced in the UK to prevent discrimination in the workplace and society. This act includes a requirement for all UK providers of goods and services to offer accessible alternatives for people with disabilities. A following provision in 2011, the public sector Equality Duty, further requires public organizations to ensure they consider the needs of all people and establish equality of opportunity and services to eliminate discrimination. On September 23, 2018, the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations came into effect with additional accessibility requirements for public sector mobile apps and websites, including intranet and extranet websites.

While the Equality Act, Equality Duty, and Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations mainly apply to public bodies, including the NHS, the police, schools and universities, the armed forces, and central and local government, this does not mean privately-run organizations are off the hook. Certain types of charities and private organizations that carry out public functions, also known as hybrid authorities, are also required to uphold the accessibility requirements. These types of hybrid authorities include companies providing water and gas, private hospitals and care homes that work with the NHS or local authority, some housing associations, and even private companies that have been hired to carry out a public function.

How can you improve and achieve website accessibility compliance

To reach website accessibility compliance in a sustainable and effective way, you must integrate accessibility into your design and development processes. A good practice of this is to test early and often for accessibility issues. There are two overall approaches to accessibility testing, automated or manual.

Automated accessibility testing is done by a software, tool, or checker that scans your webpages Some automated tools and checkers are free and offer basic accessibility checks. Accessibility testing software solutions, such as the Siteimprove Accessibility module, offer a wider range of checks, plus built-in tools to help you review errors, manage tasks, and monitor progress. With automated accessibility testing, you can tackle multiple or complex websites and more easily find recurring issues that wreak havoc on your accessibility compliance.

Even the most thorough automated testing, however, will not catch all accessibility issues, as by nature, some issues can only be checked manually. Manual accessibility testing is therefore an essential part of a balanced accessibility strategy. Manual accessibility testing entails a person manually going through your website and checking for things like compatibility with assistive devices, such as screen readers. Another type of manual test is checking if your site can be used without a mouse or trackpad, as some computer users navigate with a keyboard only. Manual testing does require a certain level of knowledge of accessibility and assistive technology, so you can either choose to build this knowledge in-house by establishing a team of manual testers or enlist the help of external accessibility specialists.