What Does An Audit Cost?
What drives the price of an accessibility audit, what each package includes and how to compare quotes before you buy.
Read the audit cost guideAccessibility Glossary: 200 Web Accessibility Terms Explained In Plain English
Clear definitions of the WCAG, ARIA, ADA, Section 508 and European Accessibility Act terms you will meet in audits, VPATs and legal letters. Reviewed by our founder, an IAAP CPACC, WAS and CPWA certified specialist with 10+ years of hands-on accessibility testing.
Start Here
Turn These Terms Into A Plan
Looked up a term? These guides answer the questions people ask next. New here and not sure what you need? Book a free 30-minute call: a first conversation to understand where you stand and scope your project. Already have scan results or audit findings to go through with your developer? The $100 one-hour technical consultation is built for that.
Got An ADA Demand Letter?
What to do in the first days after a demand letter or lawsuit, and how an audit and documented fixes support your response.
Read the ADA lawsuit guideHow Remediation Works
How audit findings become code, content and design fixes, and how each fix is retested so you can show it is resolved.
Read the remediation guideAutomated Scans Vs Manual Testing
What automated accessibility testing catches, where it stops, and why a manual review with a screen reader still matters.
Read the testing guideSelling In The EU?
What the European Accessibility Act requires, who it covers and how EN 301 549 and WCAG fit together.
Read the EAA guideDo Overlays Make A Site Compliant?
Why accessibility widgets do not fix the underlying code, and what courts and the FTC have said about them.
Read the overlays guideget in touch
Know where you stand. Know what to work on next.
Tell us what you’re working on and where you need support. Our accessibility specialists can help with audits, remediation, VPAT/ACR, accessible development, and ongoing compliance.
Free 30-minute consultation (opens in new tab)
Free 30-minute call: talk through where you stand, scope a project or get a quote.
Need technical answers now? Book the $100 one-hour consultation to walk through an audit, talk with a developer or review your site live.
Let’s find the barriers before your users do
Indicates a required field.
Your information is kept private and never shared with third parties.
From Definition To Fix
Accessibility Glossary Terms Buyers Ask About Most
This accessibility glossary explains 200 terms in plain English. If you are buying an audit or answering a procurement request, start with accessibility audit, WCAG, success criterion, conformance level, VPAT, ACR, accessibility remediation, tagged PDF and accessibility roadmap. For the laws behind them, see ADA Title II, ADA Title III, Section 508, the European Accessibility Act and EN 301 549. Technical definitions follow the W3C’s WCAG 2.2 text.
Accessibility Audit
A structured review of your site against WCAG 2.2 Level AA using screen readers, the keyboard and automated scans. Our Quick Audit is $500 and a complete audit is $2,000.
Accessibility Audit ServicesVPAT And ACR
A VPAT is the ITI reporting template. Once it is filled in from real testing it becomes an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR), which buyers and Section 508 reviewers ask for.
VPAT And ACR DocumentationAccessibility Remediation
Fixing the issues an audit finds in your code, content or CMS settings, then retesting each fix so you can show it is resolved.
Accessibility RemediationADA Demand Letter
A letter claiming your website breaks the ADA, often sent before a lawsuit. An expert audit and documented fixes are the usual first response.
ADA Lawsuit RemediationTagged PDF
A PDF with a tag tree that gives screen readers its headings, reading order, tables and alt text. PDF/UA (ISO 14289) is the standard for accessible PDFs.
Document Accessibility TestingAccessibility Roadmap
A prioritised plan for fixing issues and keeping them fixed, with owners, dates and scheduled retests after each release.
Accessibility MonitoringAll Accessibility Glossary Terms From A To Z
200 definitions covering WCAG success criteria, ARIA, assistive technology, testing tools and accessibility laws around the world. Select a term to read the full definition.
ARIA Live Region
An ARIA live region is a part of the page marked with aria-live so that when its content changes dynamically, screen readers announce the update automatically without the user needing to navigate to it manually.
ARIA Role
An ARIA role tells assistive technology what kind of interface element something is, such as role="button", role="dialog", or role="navigation", when the underlying HTML element does not already convey that on its own.
aria-current
An ARIA attribute that marks an element as the current item within a set, most often used to indicate the active page in navigation or the current step in a process.
aria-describedby
An ARIA attribute that points to the ID of another element on the page, supplying that element's text as the accessible description of the control it is attached to.
aria-expanded
An ARIA state attribute set to true or false that tells assistive technology whether a collapsible section, menu, or disclosure control is currently open or closed.
aria-hidden
aria-hidden is an attribute that hides an element and everything inside it from assistive technology, while leaving it fully visible on screen, most often used on purely decorative icons and images.
Assistive Technology
Assistive technology (AT) is any device, software, or equipment that helps a person with a disability perform tasks they otherwise could not, or could only do with difficulty, including screen readers, switch devices, and voice control software.
Audio Description
Audio description is a separate narration track added to a video, describing important visual information (actions, scene changes, on-screen text) during natural pauses in dialogue, for blind and low-vision viewers.
Automated Accessibility Testing
Automated accessibility testing uses software tools like axe, WAVE, or Lighthouse to scan a page's code and instantly flag a subset of WCAG issues, such as missing alt text or insufficient contrast, without human review.
axe DevTools
A free browser extension built by Deque Systems that scans a web page for automated accessibility issues directly inside Chrome or Firefox developer tools.
BITV 2.0 (Germany)
Germany's Barrier-Free Information Technology Ordinance, which sets the technical accessibility requirements for public-sector websites and apps, aligned with EN 301 549 and WCAG 2.1 AA.
Blindness
Blindness refers to the total or near-total absence of vision, and blind users typically navigate digital content using a screen reader, a braille display, or both, rather than viewing the screen directly.
Braille Display
A braille display (or refreshable braille display) is a hardware device with mechanical pins that raise and lower to form braille characters, letting blind users read screen reader output by touch instead of, or alongside, listening to speech.
Browse Mode vs. Focus Mode
The two operating modes screen readers use on the web: browse mode for reading and navigating static content, and focus mode for typing into and interacting with form controls and widgets.
California Government Code 11135
A California state law prohibiting disability discrimination in any program or activity funded or conducted by the state, applied by state agencies to require accessible websites.
Change on Request
A WCAG success criterion (3.2.5, Level AAA) requiring that changes of context, like a new window opening or focus jumping elsewhere, happen only when the user initiates them, never automatically.
Closed Captions
Closed captions are synchronized on-screen text for a video's spoken dialogue and important sounds, letting deaf and hard-of-hearing users, and anyone watching without sound, follow along.
Cognitive Disability
Cognitive disability is a broad category covering differences in memory, attention, problem-solving, language processing, or reading, affecting how someone understands and completes tasks online.
Color Contrast Analyzer
A free desktop tool from TPGi that measures the contrast ratio between two colors and reports whether the combination passes WCAG AA or AAA thresholds.
Color Contrast Ratio
Color contrast ratio is a mathematical measure of the difference in brightness between text and its background, expressed as a ratio like 4.5:1, used to ensure text stays readable for people with low vision or color vision deficiencies.
Put The Terms To Work
Not Sure Which Of These Terms Apply To Your Site?
New here? Start with a free 30-minute call to understand where you stand and scope your project. Already have scan results or audit findings to work through with your developer? Book the $100 one-hour technical consultation. Ready for findings? Start with a $500 Quick Audit or a $2,000 complete audit.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an accessibility glossary?
An accessibility glossary is a list of the terms used in digital accessibility, from standards such as WCAG and EN 301 549 to laws, assistive technologies and testing methods, each explained in plain language. Ours has 200 terms, written and reviewed by the web accessibility experts who run our audits.
What is the difference between WCAG, the ADA and Section 508?
WCAG is the W3C’s technical standard for accessible web content. The ADA is a US civil rights law: the Department of Justice’s Title II web rule requires state and local governments to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA by April 26, 2027 (populations of 50,000 or more) or April 26, 2028 (smaller entities and special districts). Section 508 covers US federal agencies, and its standards incorporate WCAG 2.0 Level AA. See ADA Title II, ADA Title III and Section 508 in the glossary.
What is the difference between a VPAT and an ACR?
A VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) is the blank reporting template published by the Information Technology Industry Council. When it is completed from real testing, the result is an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR). We write ACRs from hands-on testing through our VPAT and ACR documentation service.
What does WCAG 2.2 Level AA mean?
WCAG 2.2 became a W3C Recommendation on 5 October 2023. It adds nine success criteria to WCAG 2.1, such as Target Size (Minimum) and Accessible Authentication, and removes 4.1.1 Parsing (W3C: What’s New in WCAG 2.2). Level AA means a page meets every Level A and Level AA success criterion. It is the level most laws and contracts ask for.
How much does an accessibility audit cost?
Our packages are fixed prices: a one-hour technical consultation (audit walkthrough, developer Q&A or live issue review) is $100, a Quick Accessibility Audit is $500, and a complete audit is $2,000, including the Shopify Accessibility Audit. Remediation and VPATs are quoted after we see the findings. See accessibility audit pricing for what each package includes.
Can an automated scanner or overlay make my website compliant?
No. Automated tools cannot check every WCAG requirement, which is why the W3C’s guidance on evaluation tools says to combine them with manual review. An accessibility overlay does not fix the underlying code either; read why in accessibility overlays and ADA lawsuits. Our audits pair scans with manual testing in NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver and the keyboard.
Who writes and reviews these glossary definitions?
Our web accessibility experts. Reviews are led by founder Mohammad Shadab Saifi, who has 10+ years in digital accessibility and holds the IAAP CPACC, WAS and CPWA certifications. If a term on your audit report is unclear, book a $100 consultation and we will walk you through it.
I am new to accessibility. Where should I start?
Read WCAG and accessibility audit first, then the guide that fits your situation: audit cost, an ADA demand letter or the European Accessibility Act. When you want to talk it through, book a free 30-minute call. It is a first conversation to understand where you stand and scope a project. If you already have scan results or audit findings to go through with your developer, the $100 one-hour technical consultation is the better fit.