3 Affordable Accessibility Options for ADA Compliance: Audit Services and Software Less Than You Think
The reality is many accessibility companies grossly overcharge for audits and software.
Accessibility Company Packages
There’s a reason they won’t list their prices online and it’s because if they don’t trap you in a sales demo first (and you saw their pricing for services), there’s no way you’d ever consider them.
Think $15,000 as a minimum price tag for the honor of “partnering” with several enterprise accessibility companies and receiving a single audit and software access.
Solo Software
There are also large generalist companies that sell accessibility software. Sometimes they’ll also sell SEO, grammar, analytics, and other types of software of which may or may not be bundled.
The software usually starts at $2,500 annually, but keep in mind that at the core of the software, it’s a scan.
Some scans are fancier than others, but they’re still a scan and automated scans are quite limited (they flag approximately 25% of accessibility issues).
Widgets
Right now, many people opt for a subscription to an overlay widget ($50/month), but these don’t work. Website owners frequently by a widget under the hazy logic that they’re somehow a temporary solution or “help” with ADA compliance.
There’s no evidence of this.
In fact, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests otherwise because there are literally hundreds of complaints filed in court where the plaintiffs’ lawyer acknowledges the existence of the widget and then states it’s insufficient, creates a worse experience, or something else to the same effect.
Moreover, some plaintiffs’ lawyers actually target websites with widgets installed (because it means the website owner believes the widget takes care of accessibility).
3 Solid Options
Whether you’re trying to make your website ADA compliant or you need to take care of EAA compliance, here’s the menu for what’s affordable and actually works.
#1 Use the Accessibility Tracker platform as a substitute for software access.
Accessibility companies like to bundle their accessibility software (a scan) with an audit along with some technical support hours to make it seem like their package is more valuable than it is.
Once you get the price quote, ask for a cost itemization for each offering and swap out the multi-thousand dollar software subscription for Accessibility Tracker (starts at $19/month for one project, cancel anytime).
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Accessibility Tracker not only costs less, but actually does much, much more:
- Upload your audit so you can track full WCAG conformance
- Instantly prioritize issues in your audit
- AI assists your team with remediation
- Project communication through the platform
- AI executive summary reports
- Automated scan (with Chrome extension for authenticated pages)
- Schedule monitoring weekly, monthly, or custom intervals
#2 Go with Accessible.org for your WCAG audit.
Did you know most Accessible.org clients pay between $1,250 and $2,750 for their accessibility audit?
If that upfront cost is too high, you can divide your payment up into monthly installments with Audit Club.
The audit quality is top tier (and fully manual) and conducted by certified DHS Trusted Testers. Note that paying more for enterprise audits doesn’t mean you’ll get equal quality. Enterprise companies farm out their audits to large overseas teams and quality may or may not be checked.
When clients tell us quotes they’re getting from other accessibility companies, we’re hearing multiples of what our quote is.
Since accessibility projects almost always start with a WCAG 2.1 AA or WCAG 2.2 AA, this is a quick way to keep your costs low.
#3 Hire experts direct from Accessibility Base
For an audit and other services, another option is the Accessibility Base Marketplace.
With Accessibility Base, you can browse accessibility professional profiles for free — and contact them directly. No sign up, no fees.
The Base platform only charges if you create a page. For example, if you want to post a position within your company or you want to showcase the accessibility of your product.
Summary
The majority of accessibility companies price based on how much they think they can get away with charging, but there are affordable accessibility products and services on the market.
