Accessibility Audit — WCAG 2.1 AA & EAA Compliance

EAA deadline status (April 2026): The European Accessibility Act came into force in Ireland on 28 June 2025. We're now ten months past compliance. Most affected Irish businesses — banks, telecoms, e-commerce, transport, public-facing service providers — are subject to enforcement by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) and other regulators. Penalties run up to €100,000 or 4% of annual revenue. If your site hasn't been audited against WCAG 2.1 AA, this is the catch-up window.

What you get

A full accessibility evaluation of your website (or a defined sub-section, for very large sites) against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 Level AA — the technical standard the EAA references. The audit pairs automated tooling with manual evaluation by an experienced accessibility tester. Both are necessary; neither alone covers the standard.

Methodology

  • Automated scan using axe-core and WAVE, run across a representative sample of templates (typically 8-15 URLs depending on site size). Captures the ~30% of WCAG criteria that automation can reliably check.
  • Manual evaluation across the same sample, covering the ~70% of criteria that require human judgement: keyboard-only navigation, screen-reader compatibility (NVDA / VoiceOver), 200% zoom flow, focus order, error-message clarity, alt-text relevance, form labels, dynamic content announcements.
  • User journey checks — at least three end-to-end task flows (e.g. homepage → product → checkout, or homepage → contact form submit) tested fully accessibly.
  • Document-level review for any downloadable PDFs that count as part of the digital service.

Deliverables

  • Prioritised findings report. Each finding tied to the specific WCAG 2.1 success criterion it fails (e.g. "1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) — fails on body text in primary CTA button: 3.2:1 vs required 4.5:1"). Severity scored: critical / serious / moderate / cosmetic.
  • Remediation guidance. Specific, code-level recommendations. Not "improve contrast" — "change body-button text from #888 on #6699cc to #ffffff on #4477aa to reach 4.6:1."
  • Accessibility Statement template ready to publish on your site, formatted to the structure the EAA expects.
  • Remediation log skeleton. A starter spreadsheet to record fixes and dates — useful evidence if the CCPC ever asks.
  • Live findings session. 90-minute walkthrough with your team, screen-share, Q&A.
  • 30-day Q&A window with the auditor for follow-up questions while you remediate.

Who this is for

  • Irish e-commerce, banking, telecom, transport, or B2B-SaaS websites in EAA scope.
  • Public-sector websites required to comply with the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Directive (different but overlapping standard).
  • Any business that has had an accessibility complaint and wants to assess and document the response.
  • Sites being rebuilt — auditing the existing site informs the brief for the new one.

Who's exempt from the EAA

Microenterprises (fewer than 10 employees, turnover or balance-sheet under €2 million) are exempt from the service-side EAA requirements. The product-side requirements still apply if you sell physical products covered by the Act. If you're not sure, the brief call sorts it out.

Engagement shape

Two to three calendar weeks from kick-off. Audit is run over week one; findings drafted and reviewed week two; live findings session and report delivery week three. Larger sites take longer — we scope it during the brief call.

Where this links into design and build

Some accessibility findings are content fixes the client team can do (alt text, heading hierarchy, link text). Others require design or development changes — typography, colour systems, focus styles, ARIA patterns, custom-component refactoring. Where you'd rather not handle those internally, our sister studio digitaldesign.ie picks up the remediation under a continuation engagement.

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Ready to scope it?

Free 30-minute brief call. No pitch deck. We tell you whether the project's a fit, which service shape suits, and a price band — within one working day.

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