Accessibility audits
After an accessibility audit
- Last reviewed
- 14 September 2026
- Owner
- DesignOps
Find out what to do with your accessibility audit report, how to prioritise and fix issues, and when to retest your service.
Your accessibility audit report
Your audit report will identify accessibility and best-practice issues that may affect 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 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
Use your audit findings to understand, prioritise and fix accessibility issues. As a team you need 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 - you can do this within the accessiblity issues and statements service
- update your accessibility statement, including adding any unresolved issues
Before your service goes live
You should fix most accessibility issues, especially high-impact issues, before users access your service.
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
You should budget for an accessibility audit every 12 months to help you identify and fix accessibility issues.
These may come about because of:
- changes to your service
- new patterns of 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.