Check Website Accessibility: Manual Checks and Tools to Use in 2025

Is your website leaving thousands of imaginable customers behind?

Considering that 75% of Americans pinch disabilities usage the net daily, it's captious to cheque website accessibility to accommodate the divers needs and abilities of your audience, including those pinch disabilities. 

Optimizing your website accessibility improves personification experience, expands your reach, and helps you meet evolving ineligible requirements astir inclusive design.

Here’s a rundown connected requirements and really to cheque website accessibility successful conscionable a fewer steps.

What is Website Accessibility?

Website accessibility refers to the improvement and creation of websites that tin beryllium utilized by group of each abilities.

For example, websites should accommodate the needs of users pinch ocular impairments, centrifugal power challenges, proceeding loss, and cognitive disabilities. 

Checking your website's accessibility involves evaluating really good it accommodates divers personification needs done features like:

• Sufficient colour contrast
• Resizable text
• Compatibility pinch surface readers
• Keyboard navigation
• Large, usable cursors and controls

It’s the work of each statement to make judge that their websites are easy to navigate and usage without excluding immoderate personification groups.

It’s not only the correct point to do, but it besides makes business consciousness by expanding your imaginable customer base.

What Are the Types of Accessibility Testing?

Accessibility testing should beryllium centered astir the users you're serving to guarantee it remains human-centric. Consider tailoring your testing for the pursuing groups, among others:

• People pinch ocular impairments
• People pinch proceeding impairments 
• People pinch mobility restrictions
• People pinch learning aliases cognitive disabilities

When it comes to checking website accessibility for these groups, you should strive to transportation retired testing successful each of the pursuing ways:

• Manual testing – person squad members effort website flows themselves and statement immoderate barriers.
• Automated testing – use devices that many times detect, fix, and emblem accessibility problems.
• User testing – behaviour regular interviews pinch a divers group of group to stitchery accusation astir really accessible they find your website.

Understanding these testing approaches and personification needs is important for creation and for ineligible compliance. This brings america to why accessibility isn't conscionable a nice-to-have feature, but a basal request for modern organizations.

Why Website Accessibility is simply a Must-have for All Organizations

It goes without saying that nary 1 wants to find themselves successful ineligible problem complete website design. By prioritizing accessibility you are staying up of the curve arsenic laws evolve.

In the US, ADA Standards for Accessible Designs and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) require sites to beryllium perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. And WCAG provides circumstantial occurrence criteria to meet these principles.

While it’s not a 1 clip fix, you’ll beryllium delivering a awesome personification acquisition for each of your clients and visitors by removing frustrating barriers. 

Closed captions, for example, accommodate group pinch ocular impairments and thief younger group debar distractions erstwhile watching content. 

Other accessibility features see colour contrast, keyboard navigation, alt text, and text-to-speech. 

At the extremity of the day, an accessible tract is conscionable bully business. Expand your reach, present a stellar UX, and show your committedness to inclusion. It's a win-win.

How to Check Website Accessibility successful 5 Steps

Manually checking your website's accessibility is simply a awesome starting constituent to place imaginable barriers. 

Here are 5 cardinal areas to measure erstwhile checking tract accessibility:

1. Add Closed Captioning for All Videos and Audio Content

Closed captions - aliases subtitles - (as seen successful the screenshot above) are words displayed either successful sync pinch ocular aliases audio content. 

They assistance group who person proceeding difficulties arsenic good arsenic group who whitethorn beryllium successful a large environment. Transcripts tin besides boost your SEO efforts by making your contented much discoverable and consumable. 

The mostly of video hosting platforms person the action to move connected closed captions erstwhile group position your content. Ensure this action is turned on, and reappraisal the contented yourself to corroborate that it works.

For audio-only content, supply a full-text transcript.

2. Include Alt matter for Images

Alt matter (alternative text) is simply a written explanation for non-text contented for illustration images and videos. It is utilized by assistive technologies, specified arsenic surface readers, to construe the objects connected surface for your users. 

When penning alt text, purpose to beryllium clear, concise, and informative, focusing connected the image's purpose.

In the screenshot above, you tin spot the alt matter “Baby the Corgi Puppy.” This describes the image to a personification who cannot spot it. The alt matter besides appears successful spot of the image successful the arena the it doesn’t show properly.

You tin besides place missing alt matter pinch free accessibility scanner tools. It’s important to statement that while a instrumentality tin show you what contented doesn’t person alt text, it can’t show you if the alt matter you do person is accessible enough.

3. Ensure Color Contrast

Color opposition is the quality successful ray betwixt features successful the foreground and the inheritance of your website. The greater the difference, the easier it is for group to publication and research your website. 

Source: Colorado State University

Strong colour opposition is particularly adjuvant for group pinch ocular impairments and colour blindness, but besides for the mostly of group to not strain their eyes.

WCAG guidelines explicate that optimal colour opposition for matter and images of matter should beryllium 4.5:1. Large matter and images of ample matter should person a opposition ratio of astatine slightest 3:1.

Contrast applies to much than conscionable text. Links, icons, and different interactive elements besides request capable opposition pinch their surroundings. 

To make these tech specs easier to adhere to, the free instrumentality from AudioEye tin scan your website and item colour opposition issues connected your website.

4. Test Keyboard Navigation

Many users pinch centrifugal disabilities aliases who usage assistive technologies trust connected keyboards to navigate websites. Therefore, each halfway functionalities and interactive elements connected your tract should beryllium afloat operable pinch a keyboard

Keyboard navigation lets group usage your website without relying connected a mouse. It allows group to scroll, unfastened links, and transportation retired actions utilizing keyboard controls. This is important for individuals pinch constricted mobility. 

Keyboard navigation requires clear ocular indications of wherever a personification is connected a page and what actions they tin take. For example, a drop-down paper whitethorn request to look to fto a personification prime an input for a form. 

Checking your keyboard navigation:

• Try to complete tasks connected your website utilizing only your keyboard. 
• Take statement if location are flows that aren’t clear aliases if location are elements that you can’t reach.
• Encourage squad members to do the same, and study immoderate blocks arsenic accessibility issues to address. 

5. Use Heading Styles Correctly

Heading styles are the H1-H6 structures that specify the level of contented connected your website. These not only make matter look tidier, they besides thief users understand the travel of matter and wide messaging. 

At the aforesaid time, these headings pass surface readers and support visually impaired users reference your website. 

Properly nested headings besides thief sighted users visually scan and comprehend page content. 

When tagging headings, travel a logical level - location should only beryllium 1 H1 (page title), followed by H2s for main sections, H3s for sub-sections, etc. 

You tin cheque your heading structures via your website backend aliases by right-clicking and selecting “inspect” connected immoderate web page. A number of free devices tin show you pages that are missing heading styles.

By taking the clip to manually cheque these cardinal areas, you'll summation a hands-on knowing of really users pinch disabilities acquisition your site. 

How to Check ADA Compliance

ADA standards group the minimum ineligible requirements for building an accessible website to beryllium utilized by the public. Alongside WCAG, it is the astir commonly referred to archive for accessibility. 

Failing to comply pinch the ADA tin beryllium costly – by the extremity of 2023, 4,630 ADA website lawsuits were listed, averaging $25,000 per case.

To guarantee ADA compliance, continuously trial your website pinch a divers group of existent users to guarantee it meets these cardinal ADA principles:

•  Perceivable – each contented and features are clear.
• Operable – each users tin navigate the interface and complete interactions. 
• Robust – each contented tin beryllium interpreted by assistive technologies. 
• Understandable – each accusation tin beryllium easy processed truthful users cognize what to do connected the website.

If you want to streamline your website accessibility checks, accessibility testing devices tin automate overmuch of the dense lifting.

Plenty of devices and resources beryllium to make checking your website accessibility a smoother process. These devices tin automate checks and streamline really you create and behaviour an accessibility strategy. 

However, while incredibly useful, automated devices are not a complete accessibility solution. You must return attraction to usage these devices together pinch manual checks and tons of personification testing – aft all, accessibility should beryllium by humans, for humans.

Below are a fewer examples of ways to cheque website accessibility pinch devices the Semrush App Center developed by UserWay.

Accessibility Scan and Monitor

Accessibility Scan and Monitor is an app from the accessibility compliance level UserWay. The instrumentality uses AI to cheque websites’ WCAG and ADA compliance, including links, images, videos, and shape fields that aren’t accessible. 

To get started, each you person to do is participate your URL and specify your parameters, and the scan will activity its magic.

The scan and show tool conducts up to 30,000 scans crossed 15,000 pages successful nether an hour, and besides scans for issues that look connected circumstantial sized devices and screens.

AI Accessibility Widget

Another awesome instrumentality from UserWay is the AI Accessibility Widget.

This widget automatically detects and fixes galore WCAG and ADA compliance issues successful existent time. 

It besides increases your website’s usability by adding a paper of accessibility options for visitors to access. It offers localized customer support successful 57 languages – meaning much group from much locations tin prosecute pinch your website. 

On apical of this, AI Accessibility Widget has a text-to-speech responsive sound instrumentality that supports much than 50 languages.

To usage the widget, participate your URL and estimated postulation and travel the prompts to group it up. 

Once leveraged, these devices empower companies to pat into caller audiences and person moreover been linked to accrued net per click, accrued click-through rates, reduced bounce rates, and accrued conversion rates. 

Both the AI Accessibility Widget and the Accessibility Scan and Monitor are disposable for free for Semrush subscribers (on immoderate plan, including the free plan). Simply navigate to the Semrush App Center to find them and get started. 

Address Your Web Accessibility Today

Web accessibility is not a one-time extremity but an ongoing committedness to inclusivity. 

By proactively addressing accessibility, you trim ineligible risks, show firm responsibility, and heighten entree to your website for a broader audience. 

Doing truthful intends that you little the consequence of lawsuits, show your societal responsibility, and unfastened much doors for much group to usage (and love) your website.

It’s easier than ever to get started pinch accessibility pinch Accessibility Scan and Monitor and AI Accessibility Widget.