Web accessibility isn’t just a box to check— it’s an ethical and legal obligation. With the updated ADA Title II regulations, organizations that receive federal funding are now expected to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards. So, the big question is: how can you be confident your website truly measures up? 

At KW2, we use a strategic suite of automated tools and manual testing to thoroughly evaluate accessibility across your entire site, including content, design, and underlying code. Our approach involves three key steps: scan, cross-check, and screen read. This method ensures your digital presence is inclusive, compliant, and provides an optimal user experience.  

Step 1: Scan

To gain a clear picture of a website’s accessibility state, we utilize an automated accessibility testing platform to quickly build a page-by-page assessment of a site’s accessibility issues. Our go-to tool?  Pope Tech – a flexible platform powered by the industry-standard WAVE testing engine. But we don’t stop at automation. Our UX strategists dive into the results, identifying patterns, spotting template-level flaws, and mapping out the smartest path to remediation. When smart tech meets expert insight, real accessibility progress begins. 

Step 2: Cross-Check

After crawling the site and running an automated accessibility scan, we take it a step further by cross-checking specific results with a website crawler focused on on-site SEO elements. Our trusted tool is Screaming Frog SEO Spider, which can handle large and small-scale site crawls. Screaming Frog gives a fast overview of what’s missing in the raw HTML, while Pope Tech gives a more user-focused view of what’s actually rendered and seen. Cross-checking helps ensure nothing gets missed – especially in cases where content is dynamically loaded or structured differently in the code compared to the final page view.

Step 3: Screen Read

Finally, we put ourselves in the shoes of users who rely on assistive technology like screen readers. These tools are essential for people with visual impairments, converting on-screen content into audio or outputting it to Braille displays. We recommend using system screen readers like VoiceOver (Mac) or Narrator (Windows), which are included on most computers.   By manually navigating a site with a screen reader, we catch issues automated tests can’t, like alt text quality, acronym pronunciation, and effective keyboard navigation. It’s an essential step to ensure your site works well for real people – not just according to automated checklists.

Taking the leap into web accessibility might seem overwhelming—but it’s one of the most impactful steps you can take for your users and your organization. By identifying your site’s biggest barriers, you can focus on what matters most: tackling common issues, implementing scalable fixes, and making meaningful progress one step at a time. But it all starts with a thorough assessment through the lens—and experiences—of all your users.