Websites that work for everyone
Since June 2025 the European Accessibility Act makes accessible websites a legal requirement for most businesses selling in the EU. We audit against WCAG 2.2, fix what fails, and build new interfaces accessible from the first commit — on a CMS the W3C chose for its own website.
What an accessibility pass covers
Not a badge in the footer — a working session against the actual standards, with fixes, not just findings.
Standards
- WCAG 2.2 AA
- European Accessibility Act
- EN 301 549
- ARIA
What we audit
- Keyboard navigation
- Screen readers
- Color contrast
- Motion & animation
- Forms & errors
- Focus management
How we test
- axe-core
- Lighthouse
- VoiceOver
- NVDA
- Real keyboards, no mouse
The accessibility landscape in 2026 — sourced, not scare-marketed
Legal pressure is real, overlay widgets are a documented trap, and most fixes are invisible. Here is the evidence.
The web is getting worse, not better
95.9% of the top million home pages have detectable WCAG failures — averaging 56 errors per page, up 10% year over year (WebAIM Million 2026). The first regression in years, driven by rising page complexity and rushed AI-generated UI.
96% of failures are six basics
Low-contrast text (on 83.9% of pages), missing alt text, unlabeled form fields, empty links, empty buttons, missing document language. All six are preventable at the design-system level — fix the components once, and the fixes cascade sitewide.
Overlay widgets are a trap — on the record
The FTC ordered overlay vendor accessiBe to pay $1M for claiming its widget made sites compliant (April 2025); over 1,000 companies with widgets installed were sued anyway in 2024 (UsableNet). We will never sell you a widget — there is no shortcut, and now that is a regulator’s opinion, not just ours.
Automated scans catch barely half
Deque — the company behind the best automated scanner — measured its own tooling at 57% of issue volume. The other half needs keyboards, screen readers (NVDA, VoiceOver) and human judgment. That is why an audit costs more than a scan: it finds what the scan cannot.
EAA enforcement has started
The European Accessibility Act has applied since June 28, 2025; the first lawsuits were filed in France in November 2025, and penalties are set per country — up to €100,000 in Germany. The microenterprise exemption is narrower than most companies assume.
16% of your customers
1.3 billion people — 16% of the world — live with significant disability (WHO). Before any legal argument, accessibility is distribution: an accessible site simply sells to more people.
Sources: WebAIM Million 2026 · FTC order (accessiBe) · Deque coverage study · WHO disability facts
How an audit actually runs
Scope by sample, not page count
Following the W3C’s WCAG-EM methodology: every distinct template, shared components, and the critical flows — checkout, signup, login, forms. Fixing a template fixes every page built on it.
Automated scan + human audit
axe-core catches at most ~57% of issues — so the rest is keyboard-only passes, NVDA and VoiceOver screen-reader sessions, 400% zoom checks and code review.
Findings you can act on
Each issue with location, WCAG criterion, user impact, reproduction steps and a code-level fix — blockers separated from cosmetics, so your team starts where it hurts.
Remediation in priority order
Critical flows first, then shared components (root causes), then page-level leftovers. Most fixes are invisible; we flag the few that touch design before changing anything.
Retest, then guardrails
A validation retest against the original findings — remediation without verification is the most common failure in this industry — then axe in CI and the EAA-required accessibility statement so it stays fixed.
Recent builds we can show
Building a high-performance marketing website from the ground up for an AI-powered service
View case study →From legacy code to a fully managed marketing website for a global communications platform
View case study →From a blog rebuild to a trusted engineering partner for a luxury hospitality brand
View case study →Elevating the e-commerce experience for a B2B technology provider
View case study →Honest answers
Does the European Accessibility Act really apply to us?
If you sell products or services to consumers in the EU, most likely yes — it has applied since June 28, 2025. We are engineers, not lawyers, so we will not give legal advice — but we can tell you precisely where your site stands technically, and fix it.
Can you fix our existing site, or is this only for new builds?
Both. Remediation starts with an audit and a prioritized fix list; new builds get accessibility baked in from the first component.
Will accessibility make the site ugly or slow?
No — done properly it is invisible to users who do not need it and life-changing for those who do. Semantic markup is also lighter, faster and better for SEO, not worse.
Can’t we just install an accessibility overlay widget?
No — and this is now documented, not debatable: the FTC fined overlay vendor accessiBe $1M for deceptive compliance claims, over 1,000 widget-equipped companies were sued in 2024 anyway, and 72% of assistive-technology users rate overlays as ineffective. Overlays are the one thing on this page we will flatly refuse to sell you.
Do you audit every single page?
No, and distrust anyone who claims to for a fixed low price. Following the W3C’s own methodology, we audit a representative sample: every distinct template, shared components, and the critical flows — checkout, signup, forms. Most issues live in shared components, so fixing them once fixes them everywhere.
Can you certify us as compliant or guarantee we will not be sued?
Nobody honest can — “certified accessible” badges have no legal standing. What you get instead: documented WCAG 2.2 AA conformance at a point in time, the accessibility statement the EAA actually requires, a validation retest, and CI checks so the investment does not silently rot.
Not sure if your site complies?
Send the URL — we will check it against WCAG 2.2 and tell you honestly what needs work and what does not.
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