Last summer (August 2025), I wrote a blog post (When Your Accessibility Tool Isn’t Accessible) about what to do to prevent purchasing an accessibility tool or platform that itself fails its own accessibility tests.
BTW, the short answer is to require every vendor to submit an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR). An ACR is a report card that shows how well a product, like software, a website, or an application, meets accessibility standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) or other requirements like Section 508 in the U.S.
Now, back to this blog post. ☺️
There is another way to evaluate a potential vendor’s product. Their website.
Several days ago, a colleague mentioned a newcomer to the digital accessibility automated testing scene. Through a little digging, another colleague of mine found that this organization has actually been around a while, since 2018. And by the way, something else happened in 2018. January 18, 2018, to be exact. That’s the day the Section 508 refresh went into effect. (Maybe everyone didn’t get the news. Keep reading.)
So, like I always do, I found the company’s website and began to explore. And out of curiosity (actually, this is a habit from way back), I ran a quick accessibility test using WebAIM’s WAVE browser extension.
Wow, was I surprised. 😯 Not just at the number of accessibility issues, but at the basic skill level required to prevent those issues.
Back in 2016, when I began my accessibility journey, one of my go-to resources was the 7 Core Accessibility Skills from the University of Minnesota. To this day, I consider this list the most logical and practical introduction to accessibility and a set of compliance criteria that is straightforward to implement, easy to teach, and simple to test.
I reference this list because several of the criteria on it showed up in the WAVE report. Not a good sign for an organization bidding for your trust (and money) in keeping your website accessible.
There's a certain irony in an accessibility testing vendor failing accessibility basics on their own website. It doesn't necessarily mean their tool is bad. But it is a reason to ask harder questions, run your own tests, and not take the sales pitch at face value.
So the takeaway here is this. Don't stop at the ACR. Request it, definitely. But also do your own accessibility testing on the vendor's website. Use your accessibility tool of choice, and see what you discover. If an organization selling accessibility has barriers at their own front door, that tells you something an ACR alone won't.
A human author creates the DubBlog posts. The AI tools Gemini and ChatGPT are sometimes used to brainstorm subject ideas, generate blog post outlines, and rephrase certain portions of the content. Our marketing team carefully reviews all final drafts for accuracy and authenticity. The opinions and perspectives expressed remain the sole responsibility of the human author.
