8 questions to ask before choosing a website accessibility tool

Choosing a website accessibility tool means checking what it tests, how much of your site it covers, and what happens after detection. Website accessibility tools also differ in monitoring, reporting, remediation support, visitor controls, and the standards they assess. The eight questions in this article will help you compare website accessibility software and understand the limitations or capabilities that could affect your accessibility work.

1. Which accessibility standards does the tool check against?

Start by checking which accessibility standards and legal frameworks the website accessibility tool assesses. WCAG should be high on that list.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide testable success criteria for making web content accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG 2.2 is the current W3C Recommendation and contains three conformance levels: A, AA, and AAA.

Check both the WCAG version and conformance levels a tool evaluates. A vague claim that a product “checks WCAG” gives you little information about the criteria included in its testing.

Your organisation may also need to consider legal or technical requirements in addition to WCAG. Depending on where you operate and who you serve, these can include ADA requirements in the US or EN 301 549 in Europe.

For example, the US Department of Justice identifies WCAG as an established technical standard that businesses can use when addressing web accessibility.

A WCAG accessibility tool should also show how individual findings relate to the relevant criteria. This gives your team useful context when reviewing an issue and deciding how to address it.

Ask the provider:

• Which WCAG version does the tool assess?
• Which conformance levels are covered?
• Does each finding identify the relevant WCAG success criterion?
• Which other standards or legal frameworks are mapped within the platform?
• Does the provider clearly explain the scope of those mappings?

Testing against a framework is still an assessment of your website. It does not give a tool the authority to certify that your organisation meets every applicable legal requirement.

2. How much of your website can the accessibility tool scan?

A website accessibility checker that examines one URL can help with an initial assessment. It tells you much less about problems distributed across a large website.

When comparing tools, find out whether they can scan individual pages, selected groups of pages, or an entire site. W3C highlights scope as a key consideration when selecting web accessibility evaluation tools. Some check individual pages, while others can scan groups of related pages.

This becomes particularly important for websites using reusable templates and components. An inaccessible navigation element could appear across hundreds of pages. Other issues may exist only within a particular form, product page, or checkout journey.

You should also investigate how the accessibility scanning tool handles content that is harder to reach. That could include authenticated pages, dynamically generated content, or sections excluded from ordinary crawling.

Check how many URLs each plan can scan, especially if you manage a large website. A tool may support site-wide scanning while limiting the number of pages included in your plan.

Compare that allowance with the size of your site and make sure important pages will fall within the scan coverage.

3. What website accessibility issues can the tool detect automatically?

Automated accessibility testing can inspect large numbers of pages consistently, but it cannot assess every accessibility requirement. W3C states that no evaluation tool alone can determine whether a website meets accessibility standards.

A website accessibility tool might identify missing alternative text attributes, insufficient colour contrast, missing form labels, or certain structural problems. Other requirements depend on context and human judgement.

For example, software cannot reliably determine whether an image description communicates the right information. It also cannot fully assess a user journey involving navigation with assistive technology.

Automated testing can also produce false positives or miss issues that require manual evaluation. Look for documentation showing which checks are automated and where human review is required.

This information also makes comparisons between tools more meaningful. A higher issue count does not necessarily mean one scanner has identified a greater proportion of your site's accessibility barriers.

4. What happens after the website accessibility tool finds an issue?

Detection is only the beginning of the accessibility workflow. Your team still needs enough information to understand the problem, locate it, and decide what to do next. Look closely at what each finding contains. Useful results should identify the affected page and element, explain the issue, and connect it to an applicable accessibility criterion.

The next question is whether the platform helps your team move towards a resolution. Some web accessibility tools primarily report findings. Others provide remediation guidance, workflows, or automated assistance for supported issue types.

This is also where the needs of your team become important. A developer may benefit from technical information about the affected element. A content editor needs guidance they can act on without interpreting raw code.

AI-assisted remediation can help with supported accessibility issues, provided the suggested change remains reviewable. Welcoming Web, for example, provides AI-assisted suggestions for supported issues and lets teams review findings within the same accessibility workflow. Its WCAG compliance tools map findings to recognised accessibility criteria.

Check whether the website accessibility software gives you:

• The URL where the problem was detected.
• The affected page element.
• A clear explanation of the accessibility issue.
• The relevant WCAG criterion.
• Guidance or supported remediation options.
• A way to review whether an issue has been resolved.

These details determine how easily a scan result can become a useful task for the person responsible for fixing it.

5. Does the tool monitor for new accessibility issues over time?

Websites change after an accessibility review. New landing pages appear, products are added, plugins update, and developers release new components.

Those changes can introduce accessibility issues that were absent from an earlier scan. This makes ongoing website accessibility monitoring an important capability for organisations with frequently changing sites.

Check whether the website accessibility tool supports recurring scans and how frequently they can run. Weekly monitoring may suit a site publishing or deploying frequently. A smaller website with occasional changes may require a different schedule.

You should also find out how the accessibility monitoring tool presents changes between scans. Being able to distinguish new, recurring, and resolved findings makes the results easier to use.

Alerts are another consideration. If an important accessibility regression appears after a release, the relevant team needs a way to discover it without repeatedly checking a dashboard.

Ask how monitoring fits with your existing release cycle. The useful frequency is the one that gives your team visibility into accessibility changes at the pace your website evolves.

6. What accessibility reports and records can the accessibility tool provide?

Accessibility scan results are often used by several teams across an organisation. Developers may need issue details to plan fixes. Agencies may need to share findings with clients. Compliance teams may need a record of assessments, while leadership may want to understand whether outstanding issues are decreasing.

Check what the website accessibility tool records and how that information can be exported. Useful accessibility scans and reports can include affected pages, issue types, severity, relevant accessibility criteria, and the status of findings.

• Export formats can affect how easily this information moves between teams. PDF reports work well for sharing a readable snapshot. CSV exports make it easier to filter, analyse, or move findings into other workflows.
• Historical information adds another layer. If the platform retains previous scan results, teams can see when issues appeared and whether resolved problems later returned.
• Accessibility reports document what the software detected at a particular point in time. They should not be presented as a legal certificate or a guarantee that no accessibility barriers remain.

7. Does the tool include accessibility controls for website visitors?

Some website accessibility tools also provide controls that visitors can use while browsing. An accessibility widget can allow someone to change aspects of the website according to their individual needs or preferences. Controls might cover text size, contrast, spacing, motion, or other presentation and navigation settings.

These controls serve a different purpose from accessibility scanning. A scanner helps your organisation identify issues in the website. Visitor-facing controls such as widgets and overlays give an individual user options for adapting their own browsing experience.

If a tool includes a widget, test it from the visitor's perspective. Check which controls are available, whether changes apply only to that visitor, and how easily settings can be reversed. Consider implementation too. Ask whether you can customise the widget's appearance, where it sits on the page, and how it behaves across desktop and mobile devices.

Visitor controls can form one part of a broader accessibility approach. They do not remove the need to identify and address accessibility barriers in the underlying website.

8. What claims does the website accessibility tool make about compliance?

Compliance language deserves close attention when choosing a website accessibility tool. Be cautious when a provider claims that installing its software will automatically make any website WCAG compliant. The same applies to promises of guaranteed ADA compliance or permanent protection from accessibility-related legal action. W3C's position is clear that evaluation tools cannot determine accessibility on their own because some checks require human judgement.

There is also regulatory precedent for scrutinising stronger claims. In April 2025, the US Federal Trade Commission approved a final order requiring an accessibility software provider to pay $1 million. The FTC alleged that the company made misleading claims about its automated product's ability to make websites WCAG compliant. The order also prohibits claims that automated products can make any website WCAG compliant or ensure continued compliance without adequate supporting evidence.

You should also separate technical standards from legal obligations. ADA.gov explains that businesses open to the public must meet the ADA's requirements, while technical standards such as WCAG provide guidance for website accessibility.

A responsible provider should tell you what its software can assess, monitor, or help resolve without promising a legal outcome it cannot control.

How does Welcoming Web help you find and manage accessibility issues?

Welcoming Web brings accessibility scanning, monitoring, AI-assisted remediation, and visitor controls into one website accessibility tool. It is designed to help teams identify barriers and manage improvements as their websites change.

Scans assess pages against WCAG 2.2 and map findings to frameworks including ADA Title III, EN 301 549, and the UK Equality Act 2010. Teams can review affected elements and track findings through the dashboard.

For supported issue types, AI-assisted remediation suggestions help teams move from detection towards a potential fix. Findings can still be reviewed before changes are applied.

Recurring scans help teams identify new or returning accessibility issues after website changes. Reports can also be exported in PDF or CSV formats for internal review and sharing.

The visitor-facing widget provides controls for adjustments including text size, contrast, spacing, and motion. These settings change the individual visitor's experience without redesigning the underlying website.

Welcoming Web's visitor-facing accessibility widget is added using a short code snippet. It does not certify legal compliance or guarantee a particular legal outcome.

Choose a website accessibility tool that fits your website

A useful website accessibility tool should fit the website you manage and the people responsible for improving it. The questions above give you a framework for finding that fit before committing to a platform.

When comparing options, test them using your own website wherever possible. Real pages will tell you far more about the quality of the findings, guidance, and workflow than a feature page alone.

Once you understand what a tool can help your team accomplish, you can make a more informed choice about the support your website needs.

Put these questions into practice with your own site. Run a free accessibility scan with Welcoming Web and see what issues are identified on a live page.