Check the journey
Accessibility issues often appear when people try to complete real tasks, not just when pages are scanned.
Digital accessibility
Website accessibility audit UK
A website accessibility audit should do more than scan for obvious code errors. It should identify the barriers that stop people reading, navigating, understanding, completing tasks and using your site with confidence.
AXS Audit helps organisations understand what needs fixing, what matters most and how to prioritise practical improvement.
Include cognition
Clarity, reading load, forms and decision points matter as much as code.
Prioritise fixes
A useful audit explains what to fix first and why.
What an accessibility audit should cover
WCAG checks
Technical and content checks against relevant WCAG criteria.
Keyboard access
Whether users can navigate without a mouse.
Forms and journeys
Whether key actions are accessible and understandable.
Documents and media
PDFs, captions, transcripts and downloadable content.
Cognitive accessibility
Clarity, reading load, instructions, decision points and task friction.
Practical priorities
What to fix first and why it matters.
Scanner vs audit
An accessibility scanner can find some issues quickly. A proper audit interprets those issues, checks what automation misses and prioritises fixes based on user impact.
A scanner is fast, useful and partial. An audit is contextual, manual, prioritised and user-aware.
Why cognitive accessibility matters
Many audits focus heavily on code. Code matters, but people also fail because the journey is confusing, instructions are unclear, pages are too dense or forms are cognitively demanding.
A good audit should ask:
can people understand what the page is asking?
can people navigate without losing context?
can people complete forms and tasks?
can people recover when something goes wrong?
How AXS Audit helps
AXS Audit combines accessibility expertise with practical recommendations, helping organisations understand what needs fixing and what will make the most difference to users.
AXS Toolbar can then support users while deeper remediation work is planned and delivered.
Audit the site, then support the user
AXS Audit helps identify barriers. AXS Toolbar gives users more control while improvements are made.
Frequently asked questions
What is a website accessibility audit?
It is a review of a website to identify accessibility barriers, technical issues, content problems and user journey risks.
Is an automated scan enough?
No. Automated tools are useful, but they cannot find every issue or judge user experience properly.
What standards should an audit check?
Most audits consider WCAG criteria and practical usability, depending on the organisation’s goals and legal context.
What is cognitive accessibility?
It concerns how easy content and journeys are to understand, process, navigate and complete.
How does AXS Audit help?
AXS Audit identifies accessibility issues and gives practical recommendations for improvement.
Should we also use AXS Toolbar?
A toolbar can support users, but an audit is needed to find and fix underlying issues.