Make Your Website Accessible to Every Australian
Accessibility is a legal obligation in Australia, not a nice-to-have. We audit your site against WCAG 2.2 Level AA, fix what fails, and show you exactly who was blocked and how.
★ WCAG 2.2 AA standard · Screen-reader & keyboard testing · Prioritised fix list, not jargon
Is My Website Legally Accessible in Australia?
If your business sells goods or services in Australia, your website almost certainly needs to meet an accessibility standard. Under section 67(1)(k) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, goods, services, facilities and online content must be provided on an accessible basis. The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) advises that WCAG 2.2 Level AA is the accepted benchmark, and since April 2025 WCAG 2.2 is the version Australian organisations are expected to meet. This matters because around one in six Australians has a disability — accessibility is not a niche edge case, it is the large share of people with disabilities who are currently unable to complete your forms or read your content. Non-compliance is not theoretical: it drives legal risk, blocks paying customers, and is regularly raised in accessibility complaints and digital-experience audits.
Everything Needed to Reach WCAG 2.2 AA
A full audit and remediation pathway, whether you need to fix an existing site or build accessible from the start.
WCAG 2.2 AA Audit
A manual and automated assessment of every critical user journey — colour contrast, focus order, form labels, alt text and more — scored against Level AA success criteria.
Keyboard & Screen-Reader Testing
We navigate your site as a keyboard-only and screen-reader user would, catching the issues automated scanners miss.
Prioritised Remediation
Issues ranked by user impact and legal risk, so you fix what actually stops people first — not a 400-item wall of warnings.
Developer-Ready Fix List
Each finding mapped to the exact element, the WCAG criterion it fails, and how to fix it — ready for your team or ours.
Accessibility Statement
A published accessibility statement documenting your conformance level, known issues and contact for support — a requirement for good practice.
Ongoing Compliance
Re-audits after every significant redesign or release so accessibility does not silently regress as your site evolves.
What WCAG 2.2 AA Actually Covers
WCAG 2.2 is the current W3C accessibility standard, and Level AA is the conformance level Australian businesses are expected to meet under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. It is organised around four principles: content must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. In practice that means text alternatives for images, sufficient colour contrast, keyboard-operable controls, visible focus indicators, meaningful form labels, captions for media, and consistent, predictable navigation.
WCAG 2.2 tightened several criteria compared with 2.1, and added new ones. The ones that most often break existing Australian sites are Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) — content or sticky headers covering the element you are tabbing to — and Target Size (Minimum), which requires interactive elements to be at least 24×24 CSS pixels. Dragging Movements and Consistent Help were also added or refined.
Why Automated Scanners Alone Are Not Enough
Automated tools — and most "instant accessibility check" widgets — typically catch only 20–30% of real accessibility problems. They are excellent at flagging missing alt text, low contrast and duplicate IDs, but they cannot tell you whether your form errors are actually announced, whether the heading structure makes sense to a screen reader, or whether a keyboard user can complete your booking flow at all.
A genuine conformance claim means combining automated scanning with manual testing: keyboard-only navigation of every interactive element, screen-reader testing on real devices (VoiceOver on iOS/macOS, NVDA on Windows), zoom and reflow at 200–400%, and colour-contrast verification against the actual rendered page. This is exactly how we audit — and it is why our reports are short and prioritised instead of a generated list of hundreds of automated warnings.
The Australian Legal and Commercial Context
Section 67(1)(k) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 covers the supply of goods, services, facilities and online content. The AHRC has consistently advised that WCAG 2.2 Level AA — which aligns with the international EN 301 549 standard referenced in Australian government accessibility requirements — is the appropriate benchmark for Australian organisations. For federal, state and local government, and many large organisations, meeting WCAG conformance is mandatory rather than advisory.
Beyond the legal dimension, the commercial case is straightforward. Around one in six Australians has a disability, and the adjustments that make a site accessible — clear headings, strong contrast, labelled forms, generous tap targets — are the same changes that improve usability and conversion for everyone. Accessibility work and SEO work overlap heavily: semantic HTML, meaningful link text and fast, reflowable layouts help both audiences.
What Happens After an Accessibility Audit
You receive a prioritised report: every issue grouped as critical, serious, moderate or advisory, each mapped to the WCAG 2.2 success criterion it fails, the affected page and element, a plain-English explanation of who is blocked, and a recommended fix. Critically, we separate "blocks someone entirely from converting" issues from "polish" issues, because most businesses do not need to fix 300 warnings to be meaningfully more accessible.
From there we can remediate the fixes ourselves, work alongside your existing developers, or train your team to prevent regressions. Whichever route, the goal is durable conformance — not a certificate that goes stale the next time someone publishes a landing page.
Signs Your Website Has an Accessibility Problem
If you recognise three or more of these, an audit is the fastest way to find the full list.
- You cannot complete your own contact form using only the Tab key
- Form fields have placeholder text but no associated <label>
- Images carry no alt text, or decorative images have keyword-stuffed alt text
- Your primary navigation disappears entirely when JavaScript fails
- Body text sits below a 4.5:1 colour-contrast ratio against its background
- Video content has no captions or transcript
- Headings jump from an <h2> straight to an <h4> with no logical order
- Buttons and links are smaller than a fingertip can reliably tap on mobile
- A sticky header or chat widget covers content as you tab down the page
- Your site breaks or requires sideways scrolling at 200% browser zoom
Our Accessibility Audit Process
Four stages from first scan to a documented, maintainable standard.
Scope & Baseline Scan
We identify your critical user journeys — forms, bookings, checkout, key content pages — and run an automated baseline across the whole site.
Manual & Assistive-Tech Testing
Keyboard-only navigation, VoiceOver and NVDA testing, zoom and reflow checks, and contrast verification on the real rendered pages.
Prioritised Report & Remediation
You get a developer-ready, impact-ranked fix list. We then fix it — or hand it to your team with guidance — and re-test to confirm conformance.
Statement & Regression Prevention
We publish your accessibility statement and set up lightweight checks so new templates and pages do not reintroduce failures.
Website Accessibility — FAQ
Is WCAG 2.2 legally required for my Australian business?
Under section 67(1)(k) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, goods and services — which includes online content — must be provided on an accessible basis. The AHRC advises WCAG 2.2 Level AA as the benchmark, and for government and many large organisations it is effectively mandatory. For private businesses it is a legal obligation with real enforcement and complaint risk.
What is the difference between WCAG 2.2 Level A and Level AA?
Level A covers the most fundamental accessibility requirements — things like alt text for images and labelled form fields. Level AA adds a higher bar including colour contrast ratios, visible focus indicators, target sizes and captions for live media. Most Australian businesses are expected to meet Level AA, which is what we audit and certify against.
How much does a WCAG 2.2 AA audit cost?
A focused audit of a marketing site typically runs a few thousand dollars; larger sites with many templates, an e-commerce catalogue or a custom web application take longer because of the number of distinct journeys to test. We scope and quote after the baseline scan so you are not paying to fix problems you do not have.
Can you fix accessibility issues on a website built by another agency?
Yes. We start with an audit that documents every failure independently of who built the site, then either remediate the issues ourselves or provide a precise fix list for your original developer. This is a very common engagement for businesses inheriting a WordPress, Shopify or custom codebase.
Does an accessibility statement make my site compliant?
No. A statement is a transparency document describing your conformance level and known issues — good practice and often expected, but it does not fix any failures. Real conformance comes from the underlying code: labelled controls, keyboard operability, sufficient contrast and meaningful structure.
Will improving accessibility hurt my SEO?
The opposite. Accessibility fixes generally involve semantic HTML, meaningful link text, descriptive headings and fast reflowable layouts — all of which are also strong on-page SEO signals. Clean, semantic markup helps search engines and AI systems interpret your content more accurately too.
Related Services & Guides
Website Accessibility Checklist
The WCAG 2.2 AA items to check yourself, in order.
Read the checklist →
Web Design
Accessible design built in from the start, not retrofitted.
Explore →
On-Page SEO Factors
The semantic and structural fixes that help both SEO and accessibility.
Explore →
Website Redesign
A rebuild is the cleanest time to fix accessibility properly.
Explore →
Find Out Exactly Who Your Website Is Blocking
Get a free baseline accessibility scan and a short, prioritised list of the issues that matter most. No jargon, no 400-item automated report.
