A checklist you can finish in an afternoon

Pass one, the scan

Run a browser extension or a free check on your homepage, your contact page and one deep page. Those three usually cover every template you have.

Fix missing alternative text, unlabelled fields, contrast failures, skipped heading levels and empty links. These are the machine readable faults and they are usually quick.

Do not chase the score. Fix the findings that would actually block somebody, starting with anything on a page where people contact you.

Write down what you fixed. The same faults recur after a redesign, and a list from last time turns an afternoon into an hour.

Write down what you fixed. The same faults return after a redesign, and last time's list turns an afternoon into an hour.

Pass two, the keyboard walk

Put the mouse away. Tab from the top of each template to the bottom.

Check three things: you can reach every control, you can always see where you are, and the order roughly matches the reading order.

Open every menu, open and close every popup with the escape key, and complete the contact form without touching the mouse.

Do it on a phone with a keyboard attached too, if you have one. Mobile templates often differ from desktop in ways nobody tested.

Pass three, the listen

Turn on the screen reader already installed on your computer. Listen to your homepage and your most important service page.

You are listening for things read as file names, controls announced as nothing, menus read out in full before the content, and anything that interrupts.

Five minutes each. It is uncomfortable the first time and it finds what nothing else does.

Pick a real task rather than browsing. Find the price, book an appointment, get the address — a task has a finish line, and where you would have given up is the finding.

Pass four, the read

Open each page and read your own alt text against the actual images. Then read your headings as a list and see whether they describe the sections.

This is the judgment pass that no scanner performs, and it is where the most misleading problems live.

Check link text too. Every link should make sense with the sentence around it removed.

Read the page titles as a set as well. Duplicates and vague titles show up immediately when they sit in a list together.

Then the layout checks

Enlarge the text to roughly double and look for overlap, clipping and sideways scrolling.

View a page in grayscale and see whether anything became ambiguous, which reveals meaning carried by color alone.

Check both light and dark themes if you offer both, since the second palette is usually the untested one.

• Enlarge the text to roughly double and look for overlap or clipping
• Check for any sideways scrolling
• View a page in grayscale to find meaning carried by color alone
• Check both light and dark themes if you offer both
• Test on a real phone, not a resized desktop window
• Check tap targets are big enough and far enough apart

Write down what you found

Keep the list with dates. Fixed items, open items, and anything you decided not to change and why.

That record is most of an accessibility statement, most of any report a buyer might ask for, and your starting point next time.

Set a date to do it again. Twice a year, plus after any redesign, is a reasonable rhythm for a small site.

That record is most of an accessibility statement and most of any report a buyer might ask for.

What happens continuously

Every page written by Website Builder Studio passes a check that runs before anything publishes, validated against Google Search Essentials and modern web standards, so the scan pass runs on every new page automatically.

The in-app assistant names the findings that still need a person, which is the other three passes.

None of this is legal advice. It is the order that finds the most real barriers for the least effort.

The division between what runs automatically and what needs a person is set out in automated and manual testing.