Audits
How an audit works
Every audit follows the same steps, so you know what happens and when.
- You get in touch. Email us your website address and what you'd like covered. Tell us which audit you're considering, or ask us to recommend one.
- We confirm scope and price in writing. You get a fixed price and a list of exactly what will be tested. Nothing starts until you agree.
- You pay by secure link. Once the scope is agreed, we send a secure payment link through Stripe.
- We test by hand. Once the payment is made, we work through the agreed pages and journeys using only a keyboard and using NVDA, in Chrome and Edge, checking against WCAG 2.2 AA. We don't need admin access and we don't change anything on your site. If part of your site needs a login, we'll agree how to handle that before we start.
- You get your report within 2 working days of payment. Each issue is rated by its real-world impact on users, explained in plain English, and paired with a clear fix a developer can follow. See a sample report.
- Afterwards. The audit finds and explains the issues. Making the fixes is up to you or your developer.
How we test
- Method: our approach follows the structure of the W3C's WCAG-EM: agree the scope, explore the site, choose a sample of pages, test it and report.
- Scope: agreed in writing before we start, for example the home page, a product page, the basket and checkout.
- Tools: keyboard-only testing and NVDA, plus automated checks. Automated tools only find part of the issues, so the manual testing is the audit.
- Severity: issues are rated by real-world impact on a user, not by WCAG level, because WCAG has no built-in severity scale.
- What an audit is not: it is a point-in-time review, not a compliance certificate or legal advice. We don't sell overlays or widgets. An audit covers only the pages agreed in writing. A partial audit shouldn't be described as a whole-site audit or as compliance.
Payment
No payment is taken until the scope is agreed in writing. Prices are fixed and shown on the audit page. No VAT is charged. Reports are delivered digitally, so we can't refund once a report has been delivered. If we can't deliver, you aren't charged.