How to Choose the Right Web Accessibility Consultant

I started to get hired as a web designer and developer when I was 16. 16! Granted, this was 2003, so hiring a teenager to help you get online was honestly normal. Looking back, it seems crazy that I was trusted to build a business’s online marketing foundation at such a young age, but websites felt magical and mysterious. 23 years later, websites feel much more commonplace. You don’t need to hire a teenage nerd anymore. Anyone can build one, right? Yes, with the advent of website builders and AI, almost anyone can spin up a website, but you cannot trust just anyone with website accessibility services.

Sure, anyone can build you a website. But not everyone can build you a website that works for all of your customers. Many of the common website builders and AI tools spit out horrible, inaccessible code. This sets you up for failure immediately unless their team knows how to adjust it.

The few companies that understand web accessibility matters will use automated scanners to find issues and “solve” problems. What they don’t realize is that automated tools can’t catch 70% of web accessibility issues.

And when you do go looking for an actual web accessibility expert, they can turn around and tell you that you have a bunch of issues, without telling you how to address them or even what on your page is a problem.

Don’t hire the wrong web accessibility consultant or team to build your website. In this article, we’re breaking down 4 key areas your website agency should be able to answer and understand to keep you compliant.

Before we dig in, let’s talk about when this is important. The best time to work on your website’s accessibility is before you start a rebuild. The next best time is whenever you can tackle the project.

I recognize that not all website agencies build to WCAG standards. To me, that’s a massive red flag because it puts you and your organization at risk. However, you don’t need to completely trash your old website to make it accessible.

Make sure anyone you hire to work on your website has a basic understanding of web accessibility, WCAG, and can keep you compliant. Ask them these same 4 questions. But if you have received a demand letter or know you have a problem, you can fix it by hiring the right web accessibility consultant without a huge expense.

Web accessibility professionals can have many different certifications, but if you’ve ever completed a certification before, you know that it can mean you took a test without having to prove a history of experience. What should you look for in addition to certifications, or even in place of them? Actual experience.

Certifications are a good starting point, but look for someone with 3-5 years of web accessibility testing experience. And keep in mind that a web developer can build accessible websites but may not know how to test an existing one. You need someone with experience testing with actual assistive tools.

Whomever you’re talking to should also understand the importance of testing manually alongside automated scans. Lighthouse, WAVE, and AXE scans don’t tell you the entire story. In fact, automated scanners often find only 30% of a website’s issues.

WCAG standards include nuances scanners just can’t catch. And real accessibility has less to do with success criteria and more with how someone navigates the web. Manual testing helps uncover roadblocks real users will face.

To figure out if your consultant’s web accessibility services include practical testing and experience, ask these questions:

• Which screen readers do you manually test with? (They should respond with industry-standard tools like NVDA, JAWS, or VoiceOver.)
• How do you evaluate keyboard-only navigation?
• What do you use to test color contrast?
• How do you test cognitive usability?

Decent web accessibility specialists will make simple improvements to your websites. Great ones will help you meet the legal requirements.

Currently, most web accessibility laws worldwide require you to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. However, WCAG 3.0 is currently being drafted, so it’s likely that requirements will increase to at least 2.2 Level AA soon.

What does this mean for you? When you’re hiring for web accessibility services, make sure they meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA. This protects you long term and keeps you ahead of the curve legally. Every version of WCAG also improves the overall experience for people, so higher compliance is better altogether.

Basic web accessibility improvements do make a world of difference for your customers, but they cannot offer you the same legal or technical protection. You want clarity on which version they are aiming for.

• Which WCAG version and success criteria level do you evaluate against?

The standard web accessibility audit is called a VPAT, or Voluntary Product Accessibility Template. Once you complete that report, it becomes an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR).

While these technical documents are the gold standard for accessibility services, they can cause more confusion than help if they aren’t clear.

Quite often, the VPAT or ACR is just a table of criteria, conformance levels, and maybe some notes. But I often see no clarity on which specific part of the website is failing the criteria and how to fix it.

You need more than just a VPAT or ACR. You need an audit that walks you through the exact changes that will make your website compliant.

A great web accessibility audit breaks down your WCAG issues page by page, includes screenshots of the problem areas, and tells you what to change to make them compliant.

Anything else is an attempt to get you to hire their firm to remediate your issues, too.

One important thing to look for in your web accessibility report? That a human being reviewed and added notes.

You know that you need manual testing alongside the automated scan results. But when you pay for an audit, you should also get an accessibility expert who can interpret those results and ensure you understand exactly what they mean.

Of course, someone should be running manual tests, too, but their notes are invaluable for you to know what’s going on.

Ask for a sample report when meeting with a firm for website accessibility services. A standard report from them should include:

• Annotated screenshots identifying the exact accessibility violations
• Violations broken down by page so you know where to find them on your website
• Direct notes of the broken success criteria
• Prioritization for fixes (Critical, Major, and Minor)
• Guidance and HTML/CSS snippets to show how to fix issues

Web accessibility is not everyone’s expertise. If you hire someone for an audit, they give you a great report, and your team or normal web developer fixes the items, you shouldn’t be done. You need the option to re-test.

Mistakes happen all the time. A great web developer tries to fix one thing and accidentally breaks another. Or they miss something in the report and forget to fix it. Or, quite possibly, misunderstand the fix itself and introduce another issue.

Recently, one of our clients finished their audit and came to us for a re-test. We found several issues that still hadn’t been resolved, plus a couple introduced since the initial audit. This is not uncommon.

Even if you hire the team that performed your audit to do the web accessibility remediation, they should still double-check their work.

Every audit should include a re-test after fixes are made. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have forever to fix your web accessibility issues. The re-test may need to be done within a certain timeframe, or it could be an entirely new audit.

• Do you include re-testing after accessibility fixes have been addressed?
• How long do we have to perform remediation to qualify for re-testing?
• Do you issue a new report or letter of compliance upon completion?

You cannot just look for the “right” certification and think you’ve found the perfect web accessibility services. Whenever you hire, you need to ask about four key pillars of accessibility services:

1. Years of manual testing experience
2. Clear WCAG standards met
3. Actionable audits anyone can read
4. And re-testing after fixes are complete

But you also need to understand one more thing about web accessibility. It’s not a one-and-done fix.

Websites change frequently, and accessibility errors get introduced all the time. When you hire someone to help you fix your website, they need to be clear that they’re fixing the website as it currently is.

What truly sets a great web accessibility consultant apart? If they offer training, checklists, other resources, or even services after your audit to ensure you’re following basic WCAG standards to keep your website compliant.

Know that you have issues on your website and want to get started with a great web accessibility audit? Schedule a call with our team. We’ll provide you with everything we’ve outlined and more.