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Buying an accessibility audit? Seven questions to ask before you pay
Since the European Accessibility Act came into force in the EU, everyone seems to offer accessibility audits, from large agencies to "one-minute" online tools. Prices differ tenfold, and it is not always clear what you are paying for. Here are seven questions that help tell a real audit from a printout of an automated scan.
Why this is no longer theory
USA: Target, almost 10 million dollars. In 2006 the National Federation of the Blind filed a class action: Target.com did not work with the software blind people use. Target argued that the law covered only physical stores, but the court did not dismiss the case. In 2008 the company settled without admitting wrongdoing: 6 million dollars in damages for blind customers in California, about 3.7 million more for the plaintiffs’ lawyers, a fully accessible website by February 2009, and three years of testing by the Federation. Since then, such lawsuits have become routine in the US: in 2025, 3,117 were filed in federal courts alone, 27% more than a year earlier.
Europe: Carrefour, 500 euros a day. In early July 2025, days after the law took effect, French disability organisations sent formal notices to four supermarket chains, Carrefour among them, warning that they would go to court if nothing changed by 1 September. The case went to court. On 4 June 2026, the court in Caen ordered Carrefour France to make its website and mobile app fully accessible within six months. If it misses the deadline, every day of delay will cost 500 euros. Carrefour argued that its site met 71% of the accessibility criteria. The court replied that an online shop cannot be only partly accessible: it has to be fully accessible. Carrefour said it was studying the decision and might appeal.
1. Is there a manual check?
Automated scanners find only part of the problems, often estimated at around a third. They cannot tell you whether an order can be placed with a keyboard alone, or whether a screen reader announces the "Buy" button clearly. A good audit combines an automated check with a manual one: keyboard navigation, visible focus, heading order, contrast, form labels.
2. Which pages will be checked?
Ask for the list. For a shop, the minimum is the home page, a category, a product, the cart, the contact page and checkout up to the payment step. An audit of the home page alone says little about the site.
3. Against which standard?
The right answer is WCAG 2.1 level AA, the basis of the European standard EN 301 549. If no standard is named, that is a warning sign.
4. What exactly will you receive?
The report should show where each problem is, why it blocks people and how serious it is. A list of "147 errors" with no priorities will not help your developer.
5. Who will fix it, and how?
An audit finds problems; your developer fixes them. Ask whether your developer will get exact instructions with code examples, or will have to work it out alone.
6. Do they promise a "compliance certificate" or a widget?
There is no official EAA compliance certificate for websites. And an overlay widget does not fix the code, as we explained in our article on the European Accessibility Act. Both promises are a reason to be careful.
7. What happens after the fixes?
Without a re-check you do not know whether the fixes worked. And the accessibility statement the law requires has to reflect the real state of your site.
How we do it
So you can compare, here are our terms. Accessibility audit from €950: up to 10 page types, automated and manual checks, a report with severity levels. Remediation guide for your developer from €590. Accessibility statement €290. Re-check from €290. We do not issue certificates or install widgets, because they do not make a site compliant. Details are on our audits page.
Not sure where to start? Send us your website address in the form below: we will check it for free and email you a short report.