WCAG 2.1 & ADA Accessibility Checker
Enter any URL and get an accessibility score out of 100, an ADA risk read, and every detected WCAG 2.1 Level A/AA failure — mapped to its success criterion, ranked by severity, with the exact markup that caused it and how to fix it.
What is the WCAG & ADA accessibility checker?
It is a free website accessibility scanner. Paste a URL and it fetches the page in real time, then runs deterministic rule checks drawn from WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA — the standard cited in ADA Title III web litigation, in Section 508 procurement, and in the European EN 301 549 directive. Checks cover images and media, form labels, heading and landmark structure, links and buttons, page language and zoom, ARIA correctness, data tables, and presentational risks.
Every finding is transparent: you see the success criterion number and name, the number of occurrences, up to three real snippets from your own markup, why the barrier matters to a disabled user, and the concrete remediation step. The score is rule-based, not AI-generated, so the same page always produces the same number — and you can export the whole thing as a branded PDF to hand to a developer or client.
How this tool helps you
Cut legal exposure fast
The failures cited in most ADA web complaints — missing alt text, unlabeled inputs, empty links — are exactly what this scan surfaces first.
Findings tied to real criteria
Each issue names its WCAG 2.1 success criterion and level, so your remediation log maps directly to an auditor's checklist.
Severity-ranked, not a wall of noise
Critical, serious, moderate, and minor grouping tells your team what to fix this sprint versus what can wait.
Evidence developers can act on
We return the offending markup snippets, not vague advice, so a developer can search the codebase and fix it immediately.
Honest about its limits
The report states plainly what automation cannot test — contrast, focus order, screen-reader flow — and hands you a manual review checklist.
Better SEO as a side effect
Semantic headings, descriptive links, alt text, and landmarks are the same signals search crawlers and AI answer engines rely on.
Who should use it
- • Business owners who want to know their ADA exposure before a demand letter arrives.
- • Developers who need a concrete, criterion-mapped defect list with code evidence.
- • Designers and content teams checking that headings, labels, and link text hold up.
- • Agencies and consultants who want a branded accessibility snapshot for pitches, onboarding, and QA.
- • Public-sector and education sites working to Section 508 or EN 301 549 obligations.
Frequently asked questions
What standard does this tool check against?
WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA — the technical standard referenced by the ADA in US litigation, by Section 508 for federal procurement, and by EN 301 549 in the EU. Each finding names the exact success criterion it fails, such as 1.1.1 Non-text Content or 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions.
Does passing this scan make my site ADA compliant?
No, and any tool that claims otherwise is misleading you. Automated testing can verify roughly a third of WCAG 2.1 AA criteria. The rest — real colour contrast, keyboard focus order, screen-reader flow, caption accuracy — need a human. This scan removes the most common and most litigated barriers, and the report ends with a manual review checklist covering what is left.
Why do accessibility lawsuits matter for a marketing site?
Thousands of ADA Title III web complaints are filed in the US every year, and the overwhelming majority cite the same handful of failures: missing image alt text, unlabeled form fields, empty links and buttons, and keyboard-inaccessible menus. Those are exactly the checks in this report, so fixing them removes the easiest grounds for a demand letter.
Does it scan my whole website?
No. It scans the single URL you submit. Most people start with the homepage, then run key templates — a product page, a blog post, the contact form, and checkout — since each template usually shares the same underlying issues.
Why can't the tool measure colour contrast?
Real contrast depends on the fully rendered page: computed CSS, background images behind text, hover and focus states, and theme variables. A static HTML scan cannot resolve those. We flag risky inline colour declarations and list contrast as a manual-review item rather than reporting a number we cannot stand behind.
Will accessibility work help my SEO?
Yes, substantially. Semantic headings, descriptive link text, image alt attributes, language declarations, and proper landmarks are all things crawlers and AI answer engines rely on to understand a page. Accessible markup is machine-readable markup — which is why we treat this scan as a companion to our SEO and GEO tools.
Need the barriers removed, not just listed?
eSearchLogix runs full WCAG 2.1 AA remediation programmes — manual audit with screen-reader testing, developer-ready fixes, and implementation support.
Talk to eSearchLogix →