Join Natalie and Natalie for the third episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast, where they go over how to make websites accessible through the process of audits, remediation, and upkeep.
Natalie Garza: Are you ready, Natalie?
Natalie MacLees: I’m ready, Natalie. Are you ready?
Natalie Garza: Oh, I’m ready, Natalie. Alright. Welcome to the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. This is our third episode, where we will go over the audit and remediation process for existing websites.
So, to get started, when do sites need to be accessible?
Natalie MacLees: Always. Your site should always be accessible! I don’t have much to elaborate on. Every website should always be accessible.
Natalie Garza: Thank you. On now to the next question. Why do sites need to be accessible?
Natalie MacLees: Yeah. So, I mean, I think the first reason would be to respect people’s civil rights, to have equal access to information. But there’s a lot of other benefits as well.
Sites that are accessible tend to be better thought out and better planned, which results in a better user experience and better SEO. A lot of the things you do to make a site accessible also make it search engine optimized.
They also tend to run a little faster and be more performant. Those are all good things that everybody wants for every website.
It helps with your brand reputation, establishing yourself as a thoughtful and inclusive brand in the marketplace.
There are, of course, legal requirements. Depending on where you live, those exact laws might differ, but many countries, municipalities, states, counties, etc., have laws requiring websites to be accessible. So, in many cases, you do have a legal requirement.
Because you’re including a group of people who might have otherwise been left out, you can increase your market share by as much as 15 to 20%. And I can’t think of any business that doesn’t want 15 to 20% more customers and 15 to 20% more revenue.
And you can also future-proof the website, ensuring it remains useful, robust, and in good working condition for years to come.
Natalie Garza: Thank you, Natalie. Let’s say you’re a website owner wanting to make your website accessible. What does that process even look like?
Natalie MacLees: Yeah. So, the traditional accessibility process looks like this:
- You hire someone to do an audit. They will sit down with different kinds of assistive technology, devices, and browsers and go through every page of your website to find all the accessibility issues.
- They’ll provide a big list of issues to work from.
- Then, someone needs to fix all of those issues. Sometimes it’s the same person who did the audit, sometimes it’s your internal team (like the people who built the website), or it might even be someone new.
After that, there’s ongoing upkeep.
This process can work okay for a small website. But for a big, complicated website, it doesn’t work as well because an audit can take weeks or months to complete.
Presumably, content on a website changes all the time. If your accessibility professional spends three months auditing your site, by the time they’re done, some pages might not even exist anymore.
What works better is to take an agile approach. Work in sprints with someone on a monthly retainer. They can help you identify the highest-priority content for the first sprint, audit a handful of pages quickly, and then remediate those issues immediately.
This way, you don’t have a huge time gap between identifying an issue and fixing it. It keeps everything up to date and avoids wasting time on pages or issues that no longer exist.
Natalie Garza: Would you say that as soon as someone makes an update after a full website audit, it’s null and void?
Natalie MacLees: It’s definitely possible. It’s not guaranteed, but as soon as someone makes even a small change, they could inadvertently introduce a new accessibility issue.
This is why monitoring and staying on top of things is important. Accessibility isn’t a one-and-done process. You can’t just hire someone, make the website accessible, and be good forever—not if you’re making ongoing changes.
Natalie Garza: What does an audit look like in terms of deliverables?
Natalie MacLees: The deliverable is usually a big list of all the issues. For each issue, it’ll say:
- What page it’s on.
- Which WCAG success criterion it violates (e.g., 1.3.2).
- The severity of the issue—whether it’s blocking someone from using the site or just a minor inconvenience.
- A recommended fix.
The format could be a Word document, an Excel spreadsheet, or something else. There’s no standard for how it’s delivered.
Natalie Garza: And in terms of who can fix those issues—if it’s an internal team, would it usually be the developers?
Natalie MacLees: Yeah, usually developers. But sometimes it’s content people. If your website uses a CMS, content issues can arise from someone inserting images without alt text, using inappropriate link text, or choosing colors that don’t have enough contrast.
Those aren’t necessarily developer-related problems, so content people might need to address them.
A lot of issues, though, do require developers to change the website code.
Natalie Garza: So website owners aren’t fully capable of fixing all the issues?
Natalie MacLees: Probably not, unless they’re really tech-savvy, which isn’t unheard of.
Natalie Garza: Just as a quick reminder, we covered WCAG in depth in our previous podcast. If you want to learn more about WCAG and what’s included in an accessibility audit, go watch our last podcast.
Natalie, do you have any last notes on the accessibility remediation and auditing process?
Natalie MacLees: No, I don’t think so.
Natalie Garza: Okay. Would you want to comment on how long it takes for a 10-page site?
Natalie MacLees: It depends on how complicated the pages are.
A simple page with just a header, footer, and a paragraph of text might take 20–30 minutes to audit. A complex page with carousels, forms, and interactive elements could take a couple of hours.
It really depends on the type of site and the pages.
Natalie Garza: Thank you. I know we’re going to cover this in a future podcast, but who’s qualified to even do these audits?
Natalie MacLees: That’s a very good question and a tricky one. There’s no standard certification in the industry.
There are a few certifications available:
- The WAI (who creates WCAG) has a certification course.
- The IAAP (International Association of Accessibility Professionals) offers certifications, though they’re relatively new.
- In the U.S., you can get a Section 508 Trusted Tester certification from the Department of Homeland Security.
However, most accessibility professionals don’t have these certifications. So, it’s a bit of a Wild West. If you’re hiring someone, you have to check their references and past work to make sure they’re qualified.
Natalie Garza: Thank you. We’ll go into more detail in a future podcast.
To wrap up, what can we do to get started with auditing and remediation?
Natalie MacLees: A great place to start is with AAArdvark.
You can get automated scans of your site, and we have tools that make manual accessibility testing easier and faster. For example, you can click an element on a page to record an issue and visually see where it is. Developers won’t have to guess which image lacks alt text—they’ll see exactly what you’re talking about.
Natalie Garza: And AAArdvark is for the full accessibility process—from audits to remediation to upkeep.
Natalie MacLees: That’s true. We also have issue tracking, assignment, and all that.
Natalie Garza: So with that said, go get your homepage scanned and begin the auditing process for free. Thank you for joining us for this week’s episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. Thank you, Natalie. I appreciate you joining me today.
Natalie MacLees: Thanks for having me, Natalie.
