Practical advice for UK small businesses
Website accessibility audit: can people use your site?
A website accessibility audit looks for barriers that stop people reading content, navigating pages or completing tasks. Automated tools can flag some problems, but keyboard use, understandable instructions and assistive-technology behaviour also need human checks.
By GrowthCheck · Updated 12 September 2026
Does accessibility affect my website?
Yes. A contact form that cannot be used with a keyboard, text that disappears when enlarged or an unlabelled button can prevent a customer completing a simple task. Accessibility is about whether people can use the website, not just whether it looks tidy.
Start with the journey that matters most to your business: finding a service and making an enquiry, booking a table or asking for a quote. Test the whole journey, including any third-party booking or payment screen.
What can I check without specialist software?
- Use only the keyboard. Press Tab through the page. You should see where focus is, reach links and form controls, and activate them without a mouse. Check that menus and dialogs can be closed.
- Enlarge the page. Increase browser zoom and check whether text, navigation and buttons remain readable and usable. Important content must not disappear behind a fixed banner.
- Read form labels and errors. Each field needs a clear label. Explain what is missing or wrong and how to correct it; colour alone is not enough.
- Review images and media. Describe meaningful images with suitable alternative text. Decorative images should not interrupt reading. Provide appropriate text alternatives for audio and video.
- Check contrast and structure. Make text distinguishable from its background and use real headings in a logical order. A large bold paragraph is not automatically a heading.
What does a useful accessibility finding look like?
Record the page, task, barrier and a repeatable check. For example: “On the quote form, the submit button has no visible keyboard focus. Add a clear focus style and confirm the button can be reached and activated with Tab and Enter.”
After a fix, repeat the same task. Also check similar components elsewhere: a shared menu problem may affect every page. Keep evidence of unresolved barriers rather than treating an automated score as a certificate.
What does the GrowthCheck free check cover?
It looks at visible homepage signals, including basic accessibility indicators available in the page markup. It does not perform a full keyboard, screen-reader or WCAG conformance evaluation. A good score does not mean every page or customer journey is accessible.
Use the result as a starting point alongside the manual checks above. The £99 full audit includes automated findings and clear evidence limits; it is not a certification service. Website fixes are separate and optional.
When should I ask for a deeper review?
If people cannot complete a key task, fix that barrier promptly and seek specialist testing when your team cannot verify the result. Review again after changing navigation, forms, themes or booking providers. Include people who use assistive technology when arranging a fuller evaluation.
Read W3C’s preliminary accessibility checks for practical examples. For the wider customer journey, see why a website may lose enquiries and the small-business audit checklist.
Turn the first check into a useful next step
Run the free automated homepage check, read the limitations alongside the findings and choose one priority to investigate. See the fictional sample report or the £99 full audit for the wider direction.