How to Do a Website Accessibility Audit in 5 Minutes (Free Tool)

You don't need a $10,000 consultant to find out if your website has accessibility problems.

In the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee, you can get a solid picture of where your website stands — and what you need to fix first. This guide walks you through a practical 5-minute accessibility audit using free tools, including CheckMyADA.

We'll also be honest about what automated tools can't tell you — because understanding the limits of any audit is just as important as running one.

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Why Audit Your Website for Accessibility?

Before diving into the "how," a quick reminder of the "why."

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that businesses open to the public make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. Federal courts have consistently ruled that this extends to websites. In 2025, there were over 5,100 federal accessibility lawsuits filed — and the majority targeted small and mid-sized businesses.

Beyond legal risk, there's a practical reason: approximately 26% of U.S. adults live with some form of disability. That's a huge portion of your potential customers who may not be able to use your website if it's not accessible.

An accessibility audit is the first step toward fixing that — and protecting your business.

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What an Automated Audit Can (and Can't) Do

What automated tools catch well:

• Missing alt text on images
• Poor color contrast ratios
• Missing form labels
• Empty link text (e.g., "click here" with no context)
• Missing page titles
• Absence of language attributes on the HTML element
• Basic keyboard navigation issues

What automated tools miss:

• Whether alt text is meaningful (a tool can tell you alt text exists, not whether it actually describes the image)
• Complex keyboard traps in interactive elements
• Cognitive accessibility issues (confusing language, poor layout)
• Screen reader compatibility for dynamic content
• Whether a video has accurate captions (vs. auto-generated ones)

Automated tools typically catch 30–40% of WCAG violations. The rest require manual review or assistive technology testing.

That's not a reason to skip automated auditing — it's a reason to use it as your starting point, not your finish line.

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The 5-Step Audit Process

Step 1: Run a Free Automated Scan (2 minutes)

Go to checkmyada.com/free-scan and enter your website URL.

The tool will crawl your page and flag WCAG 2.1 violations across four categories:

• Perceivable — Can all users perceive the content? (Images, video, audio)
• Operable — Can all users operate the interface? (Keyboard, navigation)
• Understandable — Is the content clear and consistent?
• Robust — Does the site work with assistive technologies?

The scan takes about 60 seconds. You'll get a report organized by severity: critical, serious, moderate, and minor.

Tip: Run the scan on your homepage and your most important landing page or checkout page. Errors often cluster in specific areas.

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Step 2: Read Your Audit Report (1 minute)

Your report will list violations with three key pieces of information:

1. What the violation is — e.g., "Image missing alt attribute"

2. Where it appears — The specific element or page section

3. WCAG criterion it violates — e.g., "WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.1.1"

Don't be alarmed if you see a long list. Most small business websites have between 20 and 100 detectable violations. The majority are fixable without rebuilding your entire site.

Focus first on critical and serious issues. These are the violations most likely to block users entirely — and the ones most commonly cited in ADA lawsuits.

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Step 3: Check Color Contrast Manually (1 minute)

Automated tools flag contrast issues, but you can also quickly verify them yourself.

Use the free WebAIM Contrast Checker:

• Normal text requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1
• Large text (18pt+ or 14pt+ bold) requires at least 3:1
• Buttons and UI components require at least 3:1

Enter your text color and background color hex codes. If you're below the required ratio, your color scheme needs adjustment.

This is one of the most common violations — and one of the easiest to fix. A quick color tweak can resolve it entirely.

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Step 4: Test Keyboard Navigation (1 minute)

Close your mouse. Navigate your website using only the Tab key to move forward, Shift+Tab to go back, and Enter to activate links and buttons.

Ask yourself:

• Can you reach every interactive element (links, buttons, form fields)?
• Is there a visible focus indicator when you tab to an element? (The outline around the focused element)
• Do any elements "trap" your focus — meaning you can't tab out of them?
• Can you skip past repetitive navigation to reach the main content?

If you find yourself stuck, or if the focus indicator disappears, those are accessibility failures.

This quick test takes about 60 seconds on a typical page and reveals problems automated tools often miss.

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Step 5: Check Images and Forms (30 seconds)

Images: Right-click on images and inspect the HTML. Every tag should have an alt attribute. For decorative images (that add no information), the alt should be alt="" (empty string, not missing entirely).

Forms: Every input field should have an associated element. Check your contact form, search bar, newsletter signup, and checkout fields. If labels are missing, screen reader users won't know what to enter.

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How to Read Your CheckMyADA Report

When you run a scan at checkmyada.com, here's how to interpret the results:

Severity Levels

What the Numbers Mean

A score or violation count alone doesn't tell the full story. What matters more:

• Are there critical violations? (Yes/No)
• Are violations concentrated in high-traffic areas?
• How many unique violation types exist? (20 instances of the same error = one problem to fix)

What "Passing" Doesn't Mean

If your scan shows zero violations, that's a good sign — but it does not mean your website is legally compliant. Remember: automated tools catch 30–40% of issues. A clean automated scan means you don't have the easiest-to-detect problems. Manual review is still needed for full confidence.

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Prioritizing What to Fix First

Given limited time and budget, here's a pragmatic fix order:

Priority 1: Fix These Immediately

• Missing alt text on images with content
• Missing form labels
• Videos without captions (especially if they contain important information)
• Color contrast below 4.5:1 on body text

Priority 2: Fix in the Next Update

• Missing skip navigation links
• Focus indicator not visible
• Links with no descriptive text ("click here," "read more")
• Page missing