What a website accessibility audit covers
An audit measures your site against WCAG 2.2 Level AA and tells you which barriers stop people finishing a task, where each one lives in the code and what it will take to remove.
After our 2026 accessibility work on the Just Transition Commission website, axe-core found 0 WCAG 2.1 A and AA violations across the templates tested. We audit to WCAG 2.2 AA and EN 301 549, make the fixes in the code, never with an overlay toolbar in their place, and agree a fixed price before testing starts.
Accessibility sits within our websites and ecommerce service.
EAA compliance in Ireland and the rules for public bodies
Two sets of regulations cover websites in Ireland, and which applies depends on who you are. This summary is not legal advice. Where your position is unclear, ask your solicitor.
- Private businesses serving consumers. The European Accessibility Act applies here through S.I. No. 636/2023, in force since 28 June 2025. It covers listed services provided to consumers, including e-commerce services: services provided at a distance through a website or app “with a view to concluding a consumer contract”, such as an online shop or a booking engine. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission enforces it for e-commerce. The CCPC confirms that micro-enterprises providing services, meaning fewer than 10 staff and turnover or balance sheet of no more than €2 million, are exempt.
- Public sector bodies. S.I. No. 358/2020 applies to the State, local authorities and bodies governed by public law. It requires their websites and apps to be accessible and names the National Disability Authority as the monitoring body.
Our guide to EU website accessibility requirements sets out the EAA scope, exemptions and penalties in detail.
Which standard a WCAG audit should test against
EN 301 549 is the European standard for ICT accessibility, and its web clauses are built on WCAG. The version cited for public sector websites, V3.2.1, uses WCAG 2.1 Level AA. ETSI published EN 301 549 V4.1.1 in September 2026, aligned with WCAG 2.2 and mapped to the Accessibility Act. It gains its presumption of conformity once cited in the EU’s Official Journal. The criteria WCAG 2.2 added include target size and focus not obscured, both of which affect people buying on a phone.
How we test, with tools and by hand
We run axe-core and Lighthouse across every distinct template first, which catches missing labels and contrast failures quickly. The manual pass then covers what tools cannot judge:
- Keyboard only. Every menu, form, modal and cookie banner operated without a mouse, with focus visible at each step.
- Screen readers. Where a journey needs it, checkout, booking, sign-up and contact are completed with a screen reader, priced in the plan.
- Zoom and reflow. Text enlarged to 200% and the layout checked on a narrow screen with no sideways scrolling.
- Content. Headings, link text, alt text, captions and error messages read in context.
A prioritised report you can act on
Each finding names the WCAG success criterion it fails, where it occurs, how severe it is for a user, and the fix. Findings are ranked by what blocks a task, so the defect that stops someone paying sits above a cosmetic one. The report separates template faults, fixed once in code, from content faults that editors fix page by page, and it is yours to share with any developer.
Accessibility remediation built into the code
We fix template faults in the code: focus order, form labels, landmarks, contrast tokens, component states and media controls. On WordPress we ship the fixes as one plugin of our own that changes no core, theme or third-party file, so an update cannot overwrite them and they switch off in one step if needed. Content fixes come with short publishing rules for your editors.
When the audit shows the platform itself is the limit, our guide to website redesign in Dublin covers rebuilding without losing search rankings.
Writing your accessibility statement
Public bodies must publish, and regularly update, a statement in the EU model format. An in-scope business under the EAA must publish information explaining how its service meets the accessibility requirements, in writing and in an accessible format. We draft either one from the audit results, listing the known limitations.
How we run an audit
- Mark or Adam leads every audit, and the price is fixed before testing starts.
- You keep the report, the test notes and the code behind every fix.
- We never install an overlay toolbar in place of a fix.
- After fixes ship, we retest with the same tools and journeys.
- The statement claims only the conformance level the results support.
Accessibility work on the Just Transition Commission website
Loco Digital designed and built the Just Transition Commission website, launched in February 2026, including an Irish-language version.
In June and July 2026 we audited and fixed accessibility on the live site, using automated testing, manual keyboard testing and template review. A keyboard user’s first Tab stop is a skip link to the main content, the home page film has a labelled pause control that works from the keyboard, and the amber used for text measures 4.98:1 on white against the 4.5:1 AA bar. On 19 September 2026, axe-core found 0 WCAG 2.1 A and AA violations across the templates tested, and Lighthouse scored accessibility at 100. The Commission’s published accessibility statement describes the site as partially compliant, and its PDFs were out of scope. Read the Just Transition Commission case study.
Web accessibility in Ireland from the first design
On a new build, contrast, focus states and form errors are settled in the design system before a page is coded. Our web design in Dublin projects work this way.
