This article explores how accessibility audits identify digital barriers, why automated testing alone is never enough, and how combining approaches creates more inclusive digital experiences.

According to the WebAIM Million 2025 report, 95.9% of the world’s top million websites fail even basic accessibility standards, resulting in exclusion on a staggering scale.

Exclusion that impacts the lives of the estimated 1.3 billion disabled people worldwide.

Yet, at Passion4Social, we know this does not have to be the narrative.

Does the word audit bring to mind spreadsheets, compliance checks and the kind of letter no one ever wants to receive?

The good news is that an accessibility audit is nowhere near as scary.

It can be one of the most practical steps your organisation takes towards creating more inclusive digital services for everyone.

What is an accessibility audit?

Accessibility audits are comprehensive checks on digital products that identify barriers stopping users from completing everyday tasks.

They are also designed to help your organisation understand how well its digital products align with accessibility guidelines and legislation.

That includes the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and relevant legal frameworks such as the Equality Act.

An audit covers a wide range of barriers including:

• Images without effective alternative text
• Poor colour contrast
• Missing or unclear labels on buttons, headers and links
• A lack of heading structures
• Videos without captions or transcripts

Because technology and user needs constantly evolve, accessibility should be viewed as an ongoing commitment rather than a one-off task.

Accessibility audits provide organisations with a clearer picture of where they are on their accessibility journey and what improvements should be made next.

For the best results, we recommend combining automated, manual and simulated testing, supported by the lived experience of disabled people.

Automated testing is never enough

Our accessibility services follow a simple philosophy: automated testing alone is never enough to create accessible digital products and services.

Tools like PowerMapper catch technical issues such as missing labels or colour contrast failures, but cannot replicate the lived experience of navigating a website with access needs.

They cannot:

• Know if content makes sense when read aloud by a screen reader
• Determine whether a button label is clear and gives users enough context
• Understand the frustration when a user cannot complete a task

Lived experience makes all the difference.

Every audit we deliver combines automated scanning and simulation tools with manual testing by trained disabled professionals.

Clients can choose which access needs to prioritise, from visual and hearing impairments to motor challenges and neurodiversity, ensuring testing reflects their audiences.

We are not saying automation has no role to play in auditing.

Far from it: automation is a valuable part of the process. It can quickly identify recurring issues, help organisations understand the scale of a problem and create a strong starting point for deeper testing.

However, digital accessibility is ultimately about people, and consequently people must be at the heart of the testing process.

How we do accessibility audits at Passion4Social

Automated testing:

Automated web testing uses software to scan digital products for accessibility or performance issues.

Tools like Pope Tech and WebYes efficiently highlight barriers like missing links or button labels, absent alt text, or incomplete form field descriptions.

This is the preferred option for many businesses wanting to signal commitment to creating accessible digital products because it is faster than manual testing and picks up many common WCAG issues.

According to the WebAIM Million report on the accessibility of the top 1,000,000 home pages, automated tools detect common issues on a significant proportion of the world’s websites, but this statistic should be viewed with scepticism.

Most experts in the field estimate that automated tools can detect somewhere between 20% and 40% of WCAG violations.

A Government Digital Service (GDS) audit backs this up, finding that even the best automated tools detect just 30 to 40% of known issues.

Automated tools lack context and human judgement.

Without those key attributes, important issues go undetected, leaving users excluded.

This is why we say automation should only ever form the strong foundations of your testing process.

It is a good starting point that enables your team to focus on critical fixes and plan for deeper manual testing.

Manual testing:

Manual accessibility testing involves human testers performing tasks on digital content to identify barriers.

Many organisations prefer this approach because accessibility is ultimately a human issue, and only people can truly understand how users experience a digital product.

Trained testers, with expertise in WCAG and legal frameworks, apply judgement and flexibility in authentic scenarios, providing the context and identifying issues that automation misses.

They also check compatibility with specific assistive technologies and identify issues with user journeys, navigation and task completion that automated tools cannot fully assess.

For example, an automated tool might confirm that a form field has a label, but a human tester will tell you whether that label is actually useful.

Of course, manual testing takes longer than automated testing and may impact your budget.

To that, we say: it can be done to great effect if incorporated into your process strategically.

For example, having first carried out automated tests, we can then test a smaller, carefully selected sample of pages for issues that only manual testing uncovers.

Even on this scale, manual testing provides the depth needed to understand a digital product’s accessibility gaps.

Simulated testing:

Even the most skilled testers cannot claim to authentically understand every disability, situational or long-term.

That is where simulated testing comes in.

Simulators like JAWS Inspect can replicate aspects of navigating digital content with different access needs, creating temporary insight into some of the challenges people face.

In web development and digital design, these tools help developers and content creators better understand how users interact with digital products and encourage greater empathy and better design decisions.

Simulated testing also supports teams in considering the wider range of situations in which people access information.

A person may be tired, distracted, using a mobile phone in bright sunlight, or experiencing a temporary injury.

Accessibility is not always about a permanent disability. Many of us will experience temporary or situational barriers at some point.

Used in conjunction with automated and manual testing, simulation ensures products are accessible for as many people as possible.

It supports learning, understanding and better decision-making as part of a wider testing process.

Why do you need an accessibility audit?

There are plenty of reasons to carry out an accessibility audit, and legal compliance is often one of the first organisations think about.

An audit minimises the risk of legal action by identifying barriers and helping organisations understand how their digital products align with standards such as WCAG, the Equality Act 2010 and, where relevant, the European Accessibility Act.

However, compliance should not be your stalling point when it comes to digital accessibility: quite simply, ensuring your digital products are accessible is the right thing to do, for everyone.

You can improve user experiences on any device and across every platform, and despite the urban myths, it need not put a huge strain on resources.

Taking action on access barriers ensures a site is easier to navigate, people can interact with it comfortably, and your content can be understood.

We should all be able to harness the power of digital, and locking people out of your services is simply discrimination.

Conducting accessibility audits also makes good business sense.

The global Purple Pound, the spending power of disabled people and their families, is estimated to be in excess of 8 trillion dollars.

In the UK alone, it is worth an estimated £274 billion each year.

Yet many organisations still unintentionally exclude customers, employees, students, service users and supporters through inaccessible digital experiences.

If someone cannot complete a purchase or navigate your website, the consequences will be just as costly for your organisation as for the user.

An accessibility audit identifies these barriers before they result in reputational damage or greater costs further down the line.

Did you know that accessibility and SEO go hand in hand?

That’s right, good accessibility means increased opportunities for brand exposure.

Implementing best practices such as using effective alt text on your images, meaningful keywords, descriptive links and good content structure can make your content easier for both people and search engines to understand.

Accessible digital experiences will inevitably boost your reputation for being genuinely committed to inclusion.

Plan your audit with Passion4Social

Over time, we have recognised that organisations come to accessibility with very different levels of experience and confidence.

Some are taking their first steps, while others are working towards full compliance with standards such as the WCAG firmly in their sights.

To reflect this, we have developed a package-based approach to our accessibility auditing services that empowers organisations to engage with accessibility in a way that feels achievable and sustainable.

Starter Accessibility Check

Our Starter Accessibility Check is designed for organisations beginning their journey. Ideal for anyone with no previous accessibility knowledge, it combines automated testing with feedback from real user testers and provides a clear, prioritised report highlighting the most important areas for improvement.

Trailblazer Accessibility Check

Our Trailblazer Accessibility Check builds on this foundation, being the perfect fit for organisations with prior knowledge and accessibility initiatives who want to take the next step.

As well as testing and reporting, organisations receive ongoing mentoring, access to practical resources, and regular support to help embed accessibility into everyday working practices.

Impact: Full Accessibility Audit

Our Impact: Full Accessibility Audit is a comprehensive evaluation for organisations that need detailed compliance mapping and deeper insight.

This includes expanded user testing across a wider range of disabilities, in-depth journey testing aligned to analytics, and strategic recommendations.

An accessibility audit is not about proving that your organisation has got everything wrong, but rather understanding where barriers exist, recognising who might be excluded and creating a practical improvement plan.

Our three accessibility audit packages combine technology, human insight, and lived experiences to help you meet compliance standards and build better digital experiences.

Find out more about our accessibility audit services.

The digital world should not be another locked door, and accessibility audits are an organisation’s key to unlocking it.

Unsure where you sit?

Start by taking our accessibility quiz, or contact us at enquiries@passion4social.com.

Frequently asked questions