Accessibility audits
After an accessibility audit
- Last reviewed
- 14 September 2026
- Owner
- DesignOps
Find out how to use your audit report, fix and retest issues, and keep your service accessible after it goes live.
Your accessibility audit report
Your audit report identifies accessibility issues and areas where your service could follow best practice to better support users with access needs.
It should tell you:
- where your product or website may not provide a good user experience, particularly for people with access needs
- which WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) criteria you're not meeting
- potential ways to fix the issues
Some audit providers may also prioritise issues for you.
What to do after an audit
Work as a team to review the audit findings, prioritise issues and fix them. Your team needs to:
- review your audit report
- prioritise the issues
- log the issues in the accessibility issues and statements service
- fix the issues, making sure you update your issue tracking
- request a retest of issues through the accessibility issues and statements service
- update your accessibility statement, including adding any unresolved issues
Before your service goes live
Fix as many accessibility issues as possible before users access your service, especially those with a high impact.
If there are still any lower-impact issues, your accessibility statement must include a timeline for when you will fix them.
After your service goes live
Budget for an accessibility audit every 12 months to help identify and fix accessibility issues.
You may need another audit because of:
- changes to your service
- new patterns or components
- user complaints or GDS monitoring findings
You may not need to carry out a new audit if:
- you have not made any changes to your service
- you have resolved and retested previously identified issues
- your team has carried out sufficient internal testing
Contact the DesignOps team to help you decide if you need a new audit. They aim to respond within 5 working days.