"Can you make our website accessible?" is one of the questions I hear most since the European Accessibility Act started applying in June 2025. The honest first answer is always the same: before anyone fixes anything, someone has to look properly. That look is an accessibility audit. If you're about to pay for one — or wondering whether you need one at all — here is what a real audit includes, how it works, what you get at the end, and how to tell a useful audit from a PDF full of noise.
Why audits suddenly matter to small businesses
Two things changed. First, the law. The European Accessibility Act (Directive 2019/882) applies from 28 June 2025 to a list of products and services that includes e-commerce. In Bulgaria it was transposed by the Law on Accessibility Requirements for Products and Services (State Gazette No. 31 of 11 April 2025), and for online shops the supervising authority is the Commission for Consumer Protection. Service providers must also publish information explaining how their service meets the accessibility requirements.
Second, the web itself isn't getting better. The 2026 WebAIM Million — an automated scan of the home pages of the top one million websites — found detectable WCAG failures on almost every page:
In other words: if nobody has ever checked your site, the odds are very good it has problems — and they're usually the boring, fixable kind.
What an accessibility audit actually is
An audit is a structured check of your website against a recognised standard — in practice WCAG (the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) at level AA, which is what the European standard EN 301 549 builds on. The output is not "accessible / not accessible". It's a list of specific barriers, where they are, who they affect, how serious they are, and how to fix each one.
The key word is structured. A good audit picks a representative sample of pages and journeys, tests them in a repeatable way, and documents everything so a developer can act on it without guessing.
The five parts of a proper audit
Scope
Which pages and user journeys get tested: home, a category page, a product page, cart, checkout, contact form, cookie banner, login. For a shop, the buying journey matters most.
Automated scan
Tools catch the measurable issues fast: contrast, missing alt text, empty buttons, missing labels, missing page language. Useful — but only part of the picture.
Manual testing
Keyboard-only navigation, visible focus, zoom to 200% and 400%, reflow on a phone, sensible headings, error messages that explain what went wrong.
Assistive tech check
Key journeys run with a screen reader to hear what a blind customer hears: are buttons named, are images described, does the checkout make sense?
Report & priorities
Every issue with location, WCAG criterion, impact and a concrete fix — sorted so you fix what blocks customers first.
Automated tools vs a human audit
Free scanners are great, and I use them every day. But they can only test what can be measured by code. A scanner can tell you an image has no alt text; it can't tell you that the alt text "image123" is useless. It can see a button; it can't tell you that the "Pay" button is unreachable with a keyboard because a popup traps focus.
A long list of flags with no context, some false alarms, nothing about keyboard traps, focus order, confusing error messages or what a screen reader actually announces. Easy to "pass" a score while real customers still can't check out.
The scan finds the volume issues quickly; a person tests the real journeys, removes false positives and explains each barrier in plain language with a fix. You get a plan, not just a score.
And a word on "accessibility overlays" — the one-line widgets that promise instant compliance. They don't change your underlying code, and they don't replace fixing the actual barriers. If someone sells you a widget instead of an audit, keep your wallet closed.
What you should get at the end
- A clear scope: exactly which pages and journeys were tested, on which devices and browsers.
- Each issue with a screenshot or location, the WCAG success criterion, who it affects and a severity level.
- A concrete recommended fix for each issue — written for whoever will do the work.
- A prioritised order: blockers in the buying or contact journey first, cosmetic issues last.
- Notes on what's already good, so nobody "fixes" what works.
- Input for your accessibility statement — the public information about how your service meets the requirements.
- An option to re-test after fixes, so you know the changes actually worked.
How the process works with me
- Quick look. You send me the address. I check the site and tell you roughly how big the job is — a handful of templates or a large shop with many journeys.
- Quote. Accessibility audits aren't one-size-fits-all, so I quote after that first look rather than from a price list. The scope decides the effort.
- Testing. Automated scan, then manual and keyboard testing of the agreed pages and journeys, plus screen-reader checks of the critical flows.
- Report. You get a prioritised, plain-language report. I walk you through it so you know what matters and what can wait.
- Fixes. Your developer can fix the issues, or I can. Many fixes are small: contrast tweaks, labels, alt text, focus styles, heading order.
- Re-test. We check the fixed pages again and update your accessibility statement.
An audit is only worth paying for if someone can act on it on Monday morning.— the test I apply to every report I write
Five checks you can do yourself today
Before you pay anyone, spend fifteen minutes on these. They won't replace an audit, but they'll show you whether you need one urgently.
- Unplug the mouse. Press Tab from the top of your home page through to the contact form or checkout. Can you always see where you are? Can you reach and press every button?
- Zoom to 200%. Does text overlap or get cut off? Does anything force you to scroll sideways?
- Read in sunlight. Open the site on your phone outdoors. Light grey text on white is the classic contrast failure — and the most common one.
- Submit a form wrong on purpose. Does the error message say what's wrong and where, or does the form just turn red?
- Check your images. Do product photos and important graphics have meaningful descriptions, not file names?
Where to start
If you'd like a quick, objective first look, run the free website check — it flags speed, SEO and basic accessibility issues in a couple of minutes and gives you a sense of how much work there is. If you sell online, or you simply want customers with any ability to be able to buy from you, have a look at my website accessibility service: I'll take a look at your site first and then send you a clear, fixed quote for the audit and, if you want them, the fixes.
And if the audit shows the site is more patch than structure, it may be cheaper to rebuild properly — my websites start from €890, go live in 2–5 weeks and include 3 months of free care, with accessibility built in from the first sketch instead of bolted on later.