What Should I Look for in a Website Accessibility Vendor?

The main goal of digital accessibility is simple: ensuring people of all abilities can use your digital content. 

But creating an accessible website — and meeting compliance requirements — can feel complicated. Standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines(opens in a new tab) (WCAG), Americans with Disabilities Act(opens in a new tab) (ADA), and Section 508(opens in a new tab) provide clear requirements. Failing to meet those standards? It’s not just an oversight — it carries real consequences. Inaccessible websites can lead to legal fines, lost revenue, and damage to your brand reputation, while also excluding a significant portion of your audience.

That’s why choosing the right website accessibility vendor matters. The right partner can help you understand your accessibility needs, implement the proper tools, and maintain ongoing compliance. The wrong vendor? You could face the exact opposite: wasted time, missed opportunities, and continued risk.

So, how do you choose the right accessibility vendor? Let’s get into it.

How Do I Identify My Accessibility Needs Before Hiring a Vendor?

Before you can choose an accessibility vendor, you need to understand how accessible your existing content is. Knowing where gaps are will help you evaluate vendors more effectively and avoid paying for services you don’t actually need.

Here are a few ways you can test the accessibility of your content:

1. Conduct an Accessibility Audit

Take a look at your existing content. Is it meeting key accessibility requirements, like having alt text on images, captions for videos, sufficient color contrast, descriptive form labels, and compatibility with assistive technologies? 

Using both automated tools and expert audits from accessibility professionals or users with disabilities can help you get a more complete understanding of how accessible your content is. Keep a record of what you found during your accessibility audit so you can share it with potential vendors.

2. Map Your High-Priority Content and User Journeys

Pay attention to your highest-priority content, like your home or product pages, and checkout forms or processes. Check for accessibility issues on these pages, as these carry the highest legal risk. Focus your accessibility fixes on these areas first. 

3. Determine Your Goals for Accessibility

Before you start talking to vendors, figure out what your goals for digital accessibility are. Are you aiming for basic compliance? Do you want to create a fully accessible experience? Do you want to create an accessibility strategy that includes ongoing monitoring and fixes? Knowing what your goals are helps you choose a vendor that aligns most with your priorities.

4. Identify Internal Resources and Expertise

Consider whether your team has any accessibility experience or if you’ll need training and guidance from the vendor.

A stylized web browser with a number of accessibility issues highlighted by red exclamation points, next to icons of a wrench and some gears

What Services Should a Website Accessibility Vendor Provide?

When evaluating website accessibility vendors, pay close attention to the full range of services they offer. Not all vendors provide the same level of support, so knowing what to look for will help you choose a partner that can meet your organization’s needs. 

Below are some of the ‘must-have’ services an accessibility vendor should provide:

• Automated scanning and expert audits: Top vendors will provide automated tools to identify common accessibility issues, as well as expert audits to detect more complex barriers that automation may miss. A combination of both ensures a comprehensive understanding of your site’s accessibility gaps.

• Accessibility fixes, consulting, and ongoing monitoring: Vendors shouldn’t just identify issues; they should help you fix them. Look for vendors that provide accessibility fixes (whether through automation or with the help of experts) and ongoing monitoring to ensure your digital content stays compliant over time.

• Employee training and internal support: Training your team on accessibility principles helps prevent new issues from arising. Good vendors provide accessibility training or dedicated support to educate content creators, developers, and designers on accessibility. 

• Reporting and actionable insights: Clear actionable reports help your team understand what issues exist, why they matter, and how to prioritize fixes. High-quality vendors will include dashboards and in-depth reports to enable leadership to easily track progress, measure ROI, and demonstrate compliance.

Ensuring that vendors offer these services can help you be confident that your website not only meets compliance standards but also provides an accessible and user-friendly experience for all.

How Do I Evaluate and Compare Accessibility Vendors?

Once you know what services to expect, the next step is to evaluate various vendors. Pay attention to more than just pricing — look at the expertise, technology, support, and proven ability a vendor has to deliver results. 

Compliance and Expertise

Begin by reviewing the standards and guidelines your vendor adheres to. The best accessibility partners should align their approach with key frameworks such as WCAG 2.1, the ADA, and Section 508. Additionally, if your organization is required to meet additional requirements, like the European Accessibility Act(opens in a new tab) (EAA) or the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act(opens in a new tab) (AODA), be sure to ask the vendor if they can test against these standards as well. 

They should also demonstrate real-world expertise — not just with compliance checklists, but with creating accessible user experiences. Ask about their experience working with organizations similar to yours. Someone with a proven track record in your industry will better understand the nuances of your users, workflows, and compliance requirements.

Technology and Tools

Not all accessibility tools are created equal. Some vendors rely solely on automation or consulting, while others take a hybrid approach. Look for solutions that pair automation with expert audits. Automated scans are fast and efficient, but human expertise ensures accuracy and context — especially for complex design and content issues. 

Also, ask if vendors’ platforms can integrate directly with your existing tools, as this will make it easier to maintain accessibility over time. For example, AudioEye’s Developer Tools integrate directly into your CI/CD workflows, enabling developers to test for accessibility before code goes live, minimizing the risk of accessibility barriers impacting users.

Reporting and Insights

Effective accessibility isn’t just about fixing issues. It’s about understanding progress. Your vendor should provide clear, actionable reporting that helps you see where your website stands and how improvements are tracking over time. 

Look for solutions that provide dashboards, in-depth reports, and summaries that highlight key trends, outline risks, and keep teams aligned and informed. The best reports translate complex accessibility data into insights your team can act on. 

Support and Responsiveness

Select a vendor that provides responsive and expert support. You should have access to specialists who can answer questions, guide accessibility fixes, and help you respond quickly to new accessibility issues. 

Some vendors also provide legal support or documentation to demonstrate compliance efforts in the event of a complaint or lawsuit — an added layer of protection for your organization. For example, AudioEye Assurance offers comprehensive legal support in the event of an ADA lawsuit, thoroughly examining claims to determine their validity and crafting a customized legal response. For any issues found, we’ll apply custom fixes to ensure consistent progress towards compliance and accessibility.

Track Record and Reputation 

Finally, look at how well a vendor has delivered for others. Review case studies, examine client testimonials, and request examples of specific accessibility fixes they’ve implemented. A strong vendor will be transparent about their process and be able to show measurable outcomes. 

Reputation matters, especially when accessibility is at stake. Look for vendors who are recognized leaders in the industry, participate in accessibility communities, or contribute to advancing inclusive design best practices.

AudioEye, for example, has helped more than 120,000 real organizations achieve true accessibility with our three-pronged approach to accessibility, including Duda, Rippling, 15Five, Explore Utah Valley, and Gendarme. See what our customers have said about working with us on our case studies page.

Illustration of a person thinking beside a web interface with WCAG, UX labels, and accessibility icons on a red background.

Red Flags to Watch Out for When Choosing a Vendor

One thing to note: Not every accessibility vendor lives up to their promises. Some take shortcuts or rely on incomplete approaches that can increase your legal risk. As you’re evaluating vendors, keep an eye out for these red flags:

• Promises of “100% automated compliance.” Accessibility can’t be fully automated. Scanning tools are helpful, but they can only catch about 30-40% of issues. Any vendor that guarantees “instant” or “fully automated” compliance is oversimplifying a complex process. True accessibility requires human expertise, expert audits, and user feedback. 

• Lack of transparency about their process. Be cautious of vendors who can’t (or won’t) fully explain how their audits, fixes, or monitoring tools work. You should understand what’s being tested, how issues are prioritized, and what steps are being taken to resolve issues. Transparency is key to trust and long-term results. 

• No expert audits or testing with users with disabilities. Vendors that skip expert audits or fail to involve users with disabilities will miss critical usability barriers. A strong vendor includes lived experience and hands-on validation in every audit.

• No relevant industry experience. Accessibility challenges vary across industries — from e-commerce and education to healthcare and government. Vendors with experience in your field will better understand regulatory expectations, user needs, and common accessibility pain points. 

Choosing the wrong vendor can leave your organization with a false sense of compliance — and continued exposure to legal, reputational, and user experience risks. Watching for these red flags will better position you to find a partner who truly understands accessibility and delivers lasting results.

Start Your Accessibility Journey with the Right Vendor

Here’s the bottom line: the right accessibility vendor makes all the difference.

Accessibility isn’t a one-time project — it’s an ongoing commitment to creating a web that works for everyone. The right vendor doesn’t just help you check a compliance box; they help you protect your brand, improve user experience, and build digital spaces that welcome every visitor.

That’s exactly what we do at AudioEye. Our Digital Accessibility Platform expertly combines automation with human-assisted AI technology to find and fix more accessibility issues than any other vendor on the market — and prevent new ones from forming with Active Monitoring. Plus, with AudioEye Assurance, you’ll enjoy up to 400% more legal protection than consulting or automation-only approaches. 

From ongoing monitoring to comprehensive legal support and detailed reporting, AudioEye makes accessibility simpler, smarter, and sustainable.

Ready to see how? Schedule a demo and discover how AudioEye helps you find, fix, and prevent accessibility issues to deliver a better experience for every user.