Check Website Accessibility: Manual Checks and Tools to Use in 2025
s your website leaving thousands of potential customers behind?
Considering that 75% of Americans with disabilities use the internet daily, it’s vital to check website accessibility to accommodate the diverse needs and abilities of your audience, including those with disabilities.
Optimizing your website accessibility improves user experience, expands your reach, and helps you meet evolving legal requirements around inclusive design.
Here’s a rundown on requirements and how to check website accessibility in just a few steps.
What is Website Accessibility?
Website accessibility refers to the development and design of websites that can be used by people of all abilities.
For example, websites should accommodate the needs of users with visual impairments, motor control challenges, hearing loss, and cognitive disabilities.
Checking your website’s accessibility involves evaluating how well it accommodates diverse user needs through features like:
- Sufficient color contrast
- Resizable text
- Compatibility with screen readers
- Keyboard navigation
- Large, usable cursors and controls
It’s the responsibility of every organization to make sure that their websites are easy to navigate and use without excluding any user groups.
It’s not only the right thing to do, but it also makes business sense by expanding your potential customer base.
What Are the Types of Accessibility Testing?
Accessibility testing should be centered around the users you’re serving to ensure it remains human-centric. Consider tailoring your testing for the following groups, among others:
- People with visual impairments
- People with hearing impairments
- People with mobility restrictions
- People with learning or cognitive disabilities
When it comes to checking website accessibility for these groups, you should strive to carry out testing in all of the following ways:
- Manual testing – have team members try website flows themselves and note any barriers.
- Automated testing – apply tools that repeatedly detect, fix, and flag accessibility problems.
- User testing – conduct regular interviews with a diverse group of people to gather information about how accessible they find your website.
Understanding these testing approaches and user needs is important for design and for legal compliance. This brings us to why accessibility isn’t just a nice-to-have feature, but a fundamental requirement for modern organizations.
Why Website Accessibility is a Must-have for All Organizations
It goes without saying that no one wants to find themselves in legal trouble over website design. By prioritizing accessibility you are staying ahead of the curve as laws evolve.
In the US, ADA Standards for Accessible Designs and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) require sites to be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. And WCAG provides specific success criteria to meet these principles.
While it’s not a one time fix, you’ll be delivering a great user experience for all of your clients and visitors by removing frustrating barriers.
Closed captions, for example, accommodate people with visual impairments and help younger people avoid distractions when watching content.
Other accessibility features include color contrast, keyboard navigation, alt text, and text-to-speech.
At the end of the day, an accessible site is just good business. Expand your reach, deliver a stellar UX, and demonstrate your commitment to inclusion. It’s a win-win.
How to Check Website Accessibility in 5 Steps
Manually checking your website’s accessibility is a great starting point to identify potential barriers.
Here are 5 key areas to assess when checking site accessibility: