Website accessibility checklist: 25 checks you can do yourself: PageKiwi

In short: this checklist is like walking around a house before you sell it: you try every door, tap and light switch. It finds the common problems fast. The full rules (WCAG) are the surveyor's report, and they go further.

Check the official rules. Rules and dates change, so check them with the official sources before you rely on them: ADA.gov (the US Department of Justice), the W3C's WCAG pages and Section508.gov. PageKiwi helps you find problems and get closer to meeting the rules. It can't promise a website meets them, it isn't legal advice, and we can't take responsibility for decisions made from it.

Before you start

Pick three pages: your home page, your contact page and the page people use most.
Allow about an hour the first time. It's quicker after that.
Run Accessibility Check first. It reads a page's code and finds some of these for you.
Write down what fails: the page, the check and what happened. That's what your web person needs.

The checks come from the W3C's Easy Checks and from WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 at level AA, the guidelines most US rules point to (WCAG explained). The number after each check is the WCAG rule it comes from, for your web person. This list covers common problems a person can spot without code, not every rule. Passing it doesn't make a site accessible or mean it meets the law; as the W3C says of its own quick checks, a page can pass them and still have serious barriers.

Pictures

Every picture that shows something has alt text.
How to check: run Picture Check, or open each picture's alt text box in your website builder. WCAG 1.1.1
The alt text says what the picture is for on that page.
How to check: read it aloud. Would it make sense to someone on the phone? Decorative pictures should have empty alt text. Alt text examples. WCAG 1.1.1
Words inside pictures are also written on the page.
How to check: look for posters, flyers and menus posted as pictures. Are their words in the page text or the alt text? WCAG 1.1.1, 1.4.5

Links

Every link says where it goes.
How to check: read only the links on the page. "Click here" and "Read more" fail. "Click here" link text. WCAG 2.4.4
Icon links and buttons have a name.
How to check: Accessibility Check lists links and buttons with no words, often social media icons, a search magnifier or the menu button. Icon links with no text. WCAG 2.4.4, 4.1.2

Headings and page basics

Each page has its own title.
How to check: look at the browser tab. Does it say what this page is, not just your site's name? Google and share preview shows it. WCAG 2.4.2
One main heading, then headings in order.
How to check: one Heading 1 per page, then Heading 2 and 3 with no skipped levels, set as real headings, not just big bold text. Headings in order. WCAG 1.3.1, 2.4.6
The page's language is set.
How to check: Accessibility Check reports "No page language" if it's missing, so screen readers may use the wrong accent. WCAG 3.1.1

Color

Text stands out from its background.
How to check: put the text and background colors into Color check. Ordinary text needs 4.5 to 1, large text 3 to 1. Check gray text and text on photos. WCAG 1.4.3
Color is never the only signal.
How to check: would the page still make sense in black and white? "Required fields are in red" needs words too, and links in a paragraph need an underline or another mark. WCAG 1.4.1

Keyboard

Everything works with the keyboard alone.
How to check: put the mouse away. Press Tab to move forward, Shift+Tab back, Enter to follow a link. Can you open the menu, fill in every form and use any pop-up, in the order you read the page? WCAG 2.1.1, 2.4.3
You can always see where you are.
How to check: as you press Tab, an outline or underline should move with you, and never hide behind a sticky banner. WCAG 2.4.7, 2.4.11
You never get stuck.
How to check: tab into every pop-up, map and video player. Can you get back out? Esc should close a pop-up. WCAG 2.1.2

Forms

Every box has a label you can see.
How to check: is there a word above or beside each box, and does it stay when you start typing? Gray hint text inside the box isn't enough. WCAG 1.3.1, 3.3.2
Required boxes say so in words.
How to check: "(required)" beside the label, or a line explaining what the asterisk means. Not color alone. WCAG 3.3.2
Mistakes are explained in words.
How to check: send the form half filled in. Does it say which box is wrong and how to fix it, and keep what you typed? Contact form not sending covers forms that fail for other reasons. WCAG 3.3.1, 3.3.3

Video and audio

Videos have correct captions.
How to check: play a minute with captions on. Do they match what's said, with names spelled right? Automatic captions need correcting. Captions for recorded meetings. WCAG 1.2.2
Audio has a transcript.
How to check: podcasts and sound-only recordings need the words written out nearby. WCAG 1.2.1
What's only shown on screen is also said.
How to check: listen to a video without watching. If a slide or caption on screen carries facts nobody reads out, they need describing. WCAG 1.2.5
Nothing plays or moves by itself without a stop button.
How to check: sound that starts on its own for more than 3 seconds, and slideshows or scrolling text that last more than 5, need a way to pause or stop them. WCAG 1.4.2, 2.2.2

Documents

You can select the text in your PDFs.
How to check: open a PDF and try to highlight a sentence. If you can't, it's a scanned picture and a screen reader hears nothing. Make a scanned PDF accessible. WCAG 1.1.1, 1.3.1
Documents are made accessible at the source.
How to check: Word files use real headings and are saved as PDF with the accessibility option, not printed and scanned. Save a Word document as a PDF; for towns, PDFs, agendas and minutes. WCAG 1.3.1

Phones and zoom

Zoomed to 200%, nothing is cut off.
How to check: press Ctrl and + (⌘ and + on a Mac) until it says 200%. Text shouldn't overlap or disappear. Screen sizes has a 200% view. WCAG 1.4.4
On a phone, you read without scrolling sideways.
How to check: open the page on a phone, upright and turned sideways. You should only need to scroll down. Is my website mobile friendly? WCAG 1.4.10, 1.3.4
You can pinch to zoom, and buttons are easy to tap.
How to check: pinch the page on a phone. Small links squeezed close together, like icons in a row, are hard to hit. Accessibility Check reports zoom turned off. WCAG 1.4.4, 2.5.8

When something fails

Fix what stops people first: forms, links and buttons with no words, keyboard traps, and PDFs people need.
Template problems show on every page. Your web person fixes them once, for all of them.
Your own words and pictures (alt text, link text, headings, captions) you can usually fix yourself in your builder. How to edit your own website.
More by-hand tests, such as trying a screen reader: How to check your website's accessibility for free.
Tell visitors how to reach you if something doesn't work for them: an accessibility statement.

Send this to your web person

Not sure what to say? Copy this into an email, add your website's address, and send it.

Hi,

I went through an accessibility checklist on [your website address]. These checks failed:

- [page]: [the check, for example: I can't reach the menu with the Tab key] (WCAG [number])
- [page]: [for example: the contact form boxes have no labels] (WCAG [number])
- [page]: [for example: the newsletter PDF is a scan] (WCAG [number])

Could you fix these, starting with anything that stops people using a form or a link? If something comes from the template, one fix there should cover every page.

Thanks

A checklist is a good first step to making your website accessible. Website accessibility: where to start, with the tools that help and what the law asks.

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Website accessibility checklist