2026-05-17 · 6 min read

How to Do a Quick Accessibility Self-Assessment of Your Government Website

# How to Do a Quick Accessibility Self-Assessment of Your Government Website

Before you bring in an auditor, before you issue an RFP, before you even decide whether your agency needs a formal WCAG 2.1 audit — you should know roughly where your website stands.

A ten-minute self-assessment will not replace a professional audit. But it will tell you whether you are looking at a handful of fixable issues or a site that needs substantial remediation before April 2027. And it will help you have a more informed conversation with vendors when you do start the procurement process.

This is that ten-minute assessment.

What you are checking for

The DOJ Title II Final Rule requires conformance to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. There are 50 success criteria at levels A and AA. You cannot manually check all 50 in ten minutes. What you can do is check the ten that are most commonly failed by government websites and that carry the highest enforcement risk.

These are the issues that generate ADA complaints. They are the issues that appear in DOJ consent decrees. They are the issues a professional auditor will find first.

The ten-item quick check

1. Does the page have a skip navigation link?

Open your browser, go to your homepage, and press Tab once. The first focusable element should be a "Skip to main content" link. If it does not appear, your site fails WCAG 2.4.1 (Bypass Blocks). This is one of the most common failures in government websites and one of the first things a keyboard user notices.

2. Are all form fields labeled?

Go to your contact form, permit application, or any other form. Right-click any input field and choose "Inspect." Look for a <label> element with a for attribute that matches the input's id, or an aria-label attribute on the input itself. If your labels are implemented as placeholder text only (text that disappears when you type), that is a WCAG 1.3.1 failure.

3. Can you navigate the entire page with a keyboard?

Press Tab repeatedly through your page. Every interactive element — navigation links, buttons, form fields, dropdowns, carousels — should be reachable without a mouse and should have a clearly visible focus indicator (typically a colored outline). If you press Tab and focus disappears into invisible territory, that is a keyboard trap (WCAG 2.1.1).

4. Do your images have meaningful alt text?

Right-click any meaningful image on your site and choose "Inspect." Look for the alt attribute on the <img> tag. Decorative images should have alt="" (empty, not missing). Informational images should have alt text that describes what the image conveys. Images that contain text should have alt text that includes that text. Missing or empty alt text on informational images fails WCAG 1.1.1.

5. Does the page have a logical heading structure?

Install the WAVE browser extension (free from webaim.org) and run it on your page. Look at the Structural Elements view. Your page should have a single H1 that matches the page title. Subheadings should be H2s. Sub-subheadings should be H3s. Missing headings, skipped levels (H1 directly to H4), or multiple H1s are WCAG 1.3.1 failures.

6. Does text meet the minimum contrast ratio?

In Chrome DevTools, select any text element. In the Styles panel, click on the color swatch. Chrome will show a contrast ratio. For regular text (under 18pt), the minimum is 4.5:1. For large text (18pt or 14pt bold), the minimum is 3:1. Gray text on white backgrounds, light text on light backgrounds, and low-contrast navigation menus are the most common failures.

7. Can you understand the page with a screen reader?

Download NVDA (free screen reader, Windows) or use VoiceOver (built into macOS: Command+F5). Navigate to your homepage. Press H to jump between headings. Press F to navigate forms. Press T to navigate tables. If the reading order is disjointed, if buttons announce without context ("button button button"), or if headings are missing, your page will be difficult for screen reader users. This tests WCAG 1.3.1, 2.4.6, and 4.1.2.

8. Do error messages identify what went wrong?

Submit your contact form or any web form with an empty required field. The error message should identify which field has an error and what the user needs to do to correct it. Generic messages like "Please correct the errors below" without identifying the specific field fail WCAG 3.3.1 and 3.3.3.

9. Do embedded PDFs have readable text?

Open any PDF published on your site. Press Control+A to select all text, then Control+C to copy it. Paste into Notepad. If you get no text, or if the text is garbled, the PDF is not accessible — it is likely a scanned image without OCR. Inaccessible PDFs in high-traffic locations (permit applications, meeting agendas, public notices) are among the most common grounds for DOJ complaints.

10. Does the page have an accessible name for landmark regions?

Open the accessibility tree in Chrome DevTools (Elements panel → Accessibility tab on the right side panel). Your page should have clearly identified regions: <header>, <nav>, <main>, and <footer> — or ARIA equivalents (role="banner", role="navigation", role="main", role="contentinfo"). Missing landmark regions make screen reader navigation significantly harder (WCAG 1.3.1).

Interpreting your results

0–2 failures: Your site is likely in reasonable shape. A professional audit will surface issues in the 43% of WCAG criteria that cannot be checked manually — ARIA live regions, keyboard focus management, complex widget behavior, dynamic content — but you are not starting from zero.

3–5 failures: Your site has systemic accessibility issues in the most visible areas. A professional audit will surface a larger remediation backlog than you might expect.

6–10 failures: Your site has significant accessibility gaps. Given the April 2027 compliance deadline, you should begin procurement within the next 30–60 days to leave adequate time for remediation.

The limits of a self-assessment

This ten-item check covers the highest-visibility failure categories. It does not check:

• Whether your site remains operable when browser zoom is set to 200% (WCAG 1.4.4)
• Whether your ARIA implementation is correct, not just present (WCAG 4.1.2)
• Whether your modal dialogs properly manage focus (WCAG 2.4.3)
• Whether your color-coded information is communicated through means other than color (WCAG 1.4.1)
• Whether your custom dropdowns and date pickers work with a keyboard and screen reader (WCAG 2.1.1)
• Whether your site content reflows at 400% zoom without horizontal scrolling on a 1280px display (WCAG 1.4.10)
• Whether your videos have synchronized captions (WCAG 1.2.2)
• Whether your PDFs have correct tag structure, reading order, and document title (WCAG 1.3.1)

A WCAG 2.1 audit covers all 50 success criteria at Levels A and AA, using manual testing with real assistive technology for the criteria that automated scanners cannot evaluate.

The full 47-point checklist

If you want a more systematic self-assessment before going to procurement, our free ADA Compliance Checklist covers 47 WCAG 2.1 AA checkpoints, organized by testing method and priority. It is interactive and free to download.

For Florida state and local government agencies ready to begin a professional audit, the Parallax WCAG 2.1 AA audit is a fixed-fee engagement at $9,500. It delivers the findings report, remediation roadmap, accessibility statement, and VPAT your agency needs to document good-faith compliance with the Title II Final Rule.

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*Morton Technology Consulting LLC, Tallahassee, FL. Contact [email protected] for a scope conversation.*

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