Which WCAG level should we target?

Level AA is the target that the European Accessibility Act, the Web Accessibility Directive, and most US settlements reference, and it is what we recommend for a public website. Level A alone leaves barriers that users notice immediately, and Level AAA across every page forces design decisions few brands accept. We can take specific pages or components to AAA when your sector asks for it.

Does an audit protect us from legal action?

Nobody can promise that, and we will not. A documented audit, fixes on the journeys that matter, and an accessibility statement that describes the real state of the site reduce your exposure and give you something concrete to show if a complaint arrives. Questions about the ADA, the Equality Act, or the European Accessibility Act belong with your lawyer.

How long does the work take?

An audit of a five to ten template marketing site usually takes one to two weeks, and remediation runs two to four weeks after that depending on how much of the front end has to change. A large storefront with checkout, account, and search journeys takes longer, and we split it into phases so improvements reach production early.

Do you work on sites you did not build?

Yes. We audit WordPress, Shopify, and custom Next.js sites, and we have dealt with page builders that fight every fix. If the theme or builder makes a criterion impossible without a rebuild, we say so and quote the rebuild separately instead of promising a patch.

What do we receive at the end?

A prioritised issue list with the WCAG success criterion for each finding, a record of which pages and templates were tested and when, a draft accessibility statement, and editor guidance so new content does not undo the work. If a buyer or a tender needs a conformance report in ACR or VPAT form, we prepare that too.

Web Accessibility (WCAG 2.2) Compliance

WCAG 2.2 accessibility audits, code fixes, screen reader testing, and conformance documentation for websites that need to reach Level AA.

See our work:

Ukrainian-Australian Association NT→SP Cleaning: Corporate Website→

Most accessibility work arrives with a deadline attached. A tender asks for a conformance statement before the contract can be signed. A customer using a screen reader reports that the enquiry form will not submit. An automated scan returns hundreds of findings and nobody knows which ones a real user would notice.

We audit sites against WCAG 2.2, fix the failures in code, and document what was tested: markup, keyboard behaviour, contrast, forms, and media.

What WCAG conformance covers

WCAG 2.2 is the current version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines maintained by the W3C, a list of testable success criteria rather than a design style, with each one at Level A, AA, or AAA. Level AA is named by the European Accessibility Act, the Web Accessibility Directive, Section 508 procurement, and most US court settlements.

The criteria that decide most audits are concrete:

Text contrast of 4.5:1 for body copy, and 3:1 for large text and interface components.
A visible focus indicator on every interactive element, and criterion 2.4.11, new in 2.2, keeps focus clear of sticky headers and cookie banners.
Target size of at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels for pointer targets.
Headings that follow the content and labels that describe their fields.
Validation that names the error in text, suggests a fix, and keeps data already entered.
Accessible authentication, which rules out memory tests that block password managers.
Captions for video with audio, transcripts for audio, and text alternatives for anything that only makes sense visually.

Level AAA is not realistic across a commercial site; we take specific pages or components there when a tender names it, and say which parts stay at AA.

Who this is for

Public bodies and their suppliers meet these requirements first. Banks, insurers, universities, clinics, and retailers follow, because the European Accessibility Act reaches consumer-facing services sold in the EU and US plaintiffs have filed thousands of website cases under the ADA. The statute differs between Cyprus, the UK, and the UAE, and the exposure sits on the journeys people use: enquiry forms, checkout, login, booking, and document downloads. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. Our part is to leave your barriers documented, fixed, or scheduled, and to describe them honestly.

An audit is not a badge. A conformance claim covers the pages tested, at a stated level, on a stated date, so a plugin update that adds an unlabelled button to the cart next month sits outside it. Accessibility holds up as a practice: templates where the accessible option is the default, a short guide for whoever edits content, and a retest when the site changes materially.

What we deliver

Audit against WCAG 2.2

We inventory the templates and the journeys that carry revenue or legal risk, then test them by hand and with tools. Automated scanners catch mechanical failures, such as a weak contrast ratio, and miss judgments such as whether the tab order follows the screen. Every finding names the criterion it fails, the pages affected, and the fix.

Semantic structure

Landmarks for navigation, main content, and footer, with one h1 per page and heading levels that do not skip. Lists, buttons, and tables use the elements built for them, and link text makes sense out of context. Language attributes sit on the page and on any passage in another language, and ARIA appears only where HTML cannot carry the meaning.

Keyboard and focus

Menus, tabs, accordions, modals, carousels, and custom selects operable without a mouse. Focus follows the layout order, the indicator stays visible against the background, modals return focus to the trigger on close, Escape closes what it should, and nothing traps a keyboard user.

Colour, contrast, and motion

Contrast measured on the rendered combination of text, background, opacity, and image rather than the values in a style guide. Status carries a second signal besides colour, so an error field is not marked in red alone. Animation follows the reduced motion preference.

Forms and error messages

Programmatic labels tied to inputs, fieldset and legend grouping for radio and checkbox sets, autocomplete attributes, and error text connected to the field it describes. Errors appear in a summary and beside the field, say what went wrong in words, and keep whatever the person typed. Login and payment steps get extra attention.

Media and documents

Captions for video with audio, transcripts for audio, descriptions where the visuals carry information, and text alternatives written for the purpose of the image rather than its filename. PDFs are the common gap: if a document is part of your service, we remediate it or move it to HTML.

Assistive technology testing

A keyboard alone is the baseline. From there we test with NVDA in Firefox and Chrome on Windows, JAWS in Chrome on Windows, VoiceOver in Safari on macOS and iOS, and TalkBack in Chrome on Android. We also check 200% and 400% zoom, Windows High Contrast Mode, and the site with images disabled.

Documentation and handover

You receive the prioritised issue list, the test record, changed files or a pull request your developers can review, a draft accessibility statement, and a short guide for editors covering headings, alt text, link text, and captions. For a public buyer we also draft an accessibility conformance report and complete the VPAT sections procurement teams ask for.

How the engagement runs

The audit begins with a template inventory and a scope decision, which on a mid-size site takes one to two weeks. Remediation runs in priority order: blocking failures on the main journeys first, then structure, contrast, media, and documents. Fixes ship in small batches so progress is visible. Where a failure is a design decision, such as a brand colour that fails contrast, the fix belongs with our design work, and we coordinate both sides.

What it costs

Work is billed at our flat rate of $39 per hour, or as a fixed scope once we have seen the site and agreed the target level. The drivers are the number of distinct templates rather than pages, whether the code is custom or a builder that resists change, who does the remediation, whether PDFs are in scope, and whether any journey has to reach AAA. A five to ten template marketing site usually needs an audit of one to two weeks and a remediation phase of two to four. The pricing page sets out the hourly rate, the monthly capacity plans from $2,699, and the fixed-price orders we publish.

Proof

The Ukrainian-Australian Association NT is a community site we built for members in Darwin, with Ukrainian and English content, Square payments for memberships and donations, and volunteers editing content. Two languages on one site means every page needs the correct language attribute, and a payment journey used by non-technical members needs labels and error messages that state what to fix.

SP Cleaning is a Cyprus cleaning company whose site replaced a generic template with a custom WordPress build, bilingual English and Greek with hreflang, and a quote request form capturing service type, location, frequency, and contact details. A form with that many fields only works when grouping, labels, and validation messages carry the person through it, which is where accessible form design pays for itself in completed enquiries.

Related services

Web development for the front-end and back-end work that ships the fixes
Design when contrast, target size, or layout decisions change at the design level
Website redesign and UI refresh when the accessible version can ship during a wider visual update
Technical SEO audit and fixes because headings, link text, and structured markup serve search engines and assistive technology
Mobile responsiveness optimization for the touch target and zoom behaviour that phones expose most often

Next step

Send us the URL and say what triggered the request: a tender, a complaint, a scan result, or a decision to do this properly. We will look at the site before the call and name the riskiest templates.

Contact us with the site and the deadline you are working to, or run the requirement through the Vasilkoff.info estimator for an initial scope before you speak to anyone.