How to conduct a section 504 digital accessibility audit

Compliance and legal requirements

Section 504 imposes explicit duties regarding digital access. Large companies must address these duties with a structured compliance program that spans policy, audits, accessibility issues, and ongoing updates.

Section 504 compliance isn’t just about one-time fixes. It’s about building a system that keeps your digital tools open to everyone.

Create a unified compliance baseline

To stay compliant, you can’t look at accessibility laws in isolation. Section 504 requires that any program that receives federal funding must be accessible. You should map Section 504 requirements to the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 to create one clear set of rules for your teams.

Most experts agree that following the World Wide Web Consortium’s WCAG 2.1 AA standards is the best way to comply with these laws. Using a single high standard across all your properties will make it easier for your teams to stay on track.

Governance models

Large organizations need more than just a checklist. You need a governance model that puts accessibility requirements at the heart of every project. To create this model:

• Set a company-wide policy that defines what accessible means.
• Build audit checkpoints into your product launch cycles.
• Require digital leads to sign off on accessibility before any new site goes live.

To make governance stick at an enterprise scale, it helps to back policies with shared visibility. Whether built internally or supported by a platform such as Siteimprove.ai, a centralized dashboard can provide teams with a consistent way to track audit findings, ownership, and remediation progress across multiple websites and apps.

A governance model and dashboard help make sure that compliance isn’t an afterthought. They’ll become a standard part of how your company builds and buys technology.

Legal and financial risks

Ignoring compliance rules isn’t an option today, as the Department of Justice is increasing its focus on digital noncompliance. If your apps or portals aren’t accessible, you could face serious legal and financial risks, along with costly lawsuits and heavy fines.

There’s also a risk to your brand’s reputation. Users expect inclusive tools, and if they can’t use yours, they’ll lose trust in your brand. One way to protect your profit and your name is to build a strong accessibility audit program.

How to conduct a Section 504 digital accessibility audit

A Section 504 digital accessibility audit is a repeatable workflow. It helps you inventory your digital assets, test against high standards, and create a clear plan for fixes.

Inventory and user journeys

First, you must list every digital touchpoint your company owns, including websites, mobile apps, and portals. Large organizations often have hundreds of these.

Rank these touchpoints by how much they impact your business and their level of legal risk. High-traffic sites should come first.

Next, document user journeys for people with disabilities. Don’t just look at single pages. Think about real tasks, such as filling out a form or checking out.

If a user can’t finish a core task, it’s a major compliance failure. Focus on these outcomes to keep your audit grounded in the real world.

Test with the right tools

You shouldn’t rely on software alone. A good audit uses a mix of methods, including:

• Automated testing: Use tools to find easy errors, such as missing alt text.
• Manual testing: Have experts check complex parts of the site that code can’t understand.
• Assistive technology: Test your site with auxiliary aids, such as screen readers and keyboard-only navigation.

To achieve clear results, use the same rules for every accessibility test. Also, use a standard scale to rate how bad an issue is. Consistency helps you compare results across different teams and platforms.

Plan for fixes

Once you have your audit findings, turn them into a backlog. Don’t try to fix everything at once. To create your backlog, rank issues based on how they impede the user, the legal risk, and how hard they are to fix. Give every task a clear owner and deadline. This type of plan makes your progress trackable and proves your effort to auditors.

Design and user experience

Inclusive design patterns put Section 504 rules into every click and swipe. When you build with web accessibility in mind from the start, you won’t have to fix things later. Good design helps disabled users and makes your site better for everyone who visits. Overall, this saves money and keeps your legal risk low.

How to build accessible interactions

Designing for Section 504 means thinking about how people move through your site. Users should be able to navigate menus and buttons without a mouse, so keyboard navigation is a top priority.

You must also manage focus. This means showing a clear box around the item a user has selected.

Color contrast is another key part of accessible UX. Text must stand out clearly against the background. If the text and background colors are too similar, people with low vision can’t read your digital content.

Also, make sure your error messages are helpful. If a user misses a field in a form, tell them exactly what went wrong and how to fix it.

Content and structure

The way you organize information matters. Web content accessibility guidelines can help you create a clean information architecture that helps users find what they need without getting lost.

Use clear labels for all buttons and links. Instead of saying “click here,” use descriptive text, such as “download the 504 audit guide.” A specific description helps people using screen readers understand what will happen next.

Use assistive tech for testing

You can’t know if a design works until you test it with real tools. By testing with assistive technologies, every user will have a fair and easy experience.

Design your pages to work with screen readers, which read text out loud. Test your layouts with magnifiers to make sure they don’t break when zoomed in. In addition, testing voice input is vital for users who can’t use their hands.

Accessibility training for staff

Targeted accessibility training makes Section 504 rules a part of your company’s DNA. It brings teams together around the same standards and workflows.

Without ongoing training, even the best audit results will fade. New updates can also unintentionally decrease your site’s accessibility standards. Continual learning keeps your digital tools compliant and prevents old mistakes from returning.

Customized learning for every role

Not everyone needs the same training, so you should create specific paths for different jobs:

• Developers: Focus on clean code, keyboard focus, and ARIA labels.
• Designers: Learn about color contrast, font sizes, and inclusive layouts.
• Content creators: Focus on writing suitable alt text and using clear headers.
• Managers: Understand the legal requirements of Section 504 and how to manage risk.

This targeted training approach helps everyone understand exactly how their work affects the user. It moves accessibility compliance from a tech problem to a shared goal across the whole enterprise.

Workflow and training integration

Training shouldn’t happen in a vacuum. It must link directly to your daily tasks. For example, your QA team should use new checklists during their regular reviews. Content creators should also have a guide to follow every time they publish a blog post or a video.

Some organizations also reinforce training with in-workflow feedback so that teams learn while they ship. With platforms such as Siteimprove.ai, it’s possible to provide in-workflow feedback, including editor guidance and recurring issue trends.

When you map training to real workflows, it becomes a natural part of how you work.

Success metrics

How do you know if the training is working? You need to track it with clear metrics.

One way to measure success is by linking your training completion rates to your audit scores. If your teams are well-trained, you should see fewer accessibility bugs in your digital products. You can also track how quickly issues get fixed.

Higher scores and lower defect rates prove that your investment in staff is paying off.

Technology and tools for accessibility

Accessibility tools extend your teams’ capacity by automating checks and integrating into workflows. They also supply the evidence you need to prove Section 504 compliance.

Relying on manual work alone is too slow for a large organization. With the right tech stack, you can find errors faster and keep your digital products inclusive as they grow.

Enterprise tools to compare

Different tools solve different problems. Here are a few types of tools to consider:

• Automated scanners, such as Axe DevTools, are great for broad checks. They scan whole pages to find common issues, such as missing alt text.
• Component-level tools test small pieces of UI, such as a single button, before they’re used across your site. This stops a single error from spreading to hundreds of pages.
• Monitoring tools provide an overview of your entire digital estate. They track your compliance score over time and alert you if a new update breaks an accessible feature.

If your team is looking for a monitoring tool, a platform such as Siteimprove.ai can help you keep track of accessibility issues across large, distributed sites and prioritize fixes. In addition, the platform’s reporting features are useful for both product teams and compliance stakeholders.

Where to integrate tools into your stack

To be effective, these tools must live where your teams work, including:

• CI/CD pipelines: Set up automated tests every time code is updated to catch bugs before they reach your customers.
• CMS plugins: Give your content editors real-time feedback inside their publishing tools.
• Design systems: Use accessibility checkers within tools such as Figma to fix visual issues early.
• Analytics programs: Connect your audit data to business KPIs to show how accessibility impacts your performance.

How to select the right technology

When picking a tool, look for enterprise-readiness. It should handle complex sites and offer clear reports for legal teams. Also, it must support the latest WCAG standards used in Section 504.

A good tool will help identify problems and give your team the actionable steps they need to fix them.

How to overcome common challenges in digital accessibility

Enterprises often face big hurdles when trying to meet Section 504 rules. They must tackle technical debt, governance gaps, and siloed teams.

Cross-functional programs can break down these barriers. The right program can turn accessibility from a chore into a core part of how your company works. It's about making progress that sticks.

Technical debt and siloed ownership

Many large organizations struggle with old code. This type of technical debt makes it hard to add new accessibility features without breaking things.

Ownership is often fragmented, too. One team might manage the website while another runs the mobile app, leading to mixed results and gaps in compliance.

Without a clear owner, accessibility can fall through the cracks.

Typical obstacles include:

• Legacy systems that don’t support modern screen readers
• A lack of specialized skills among web developers and designers
• Unclear priorities that put launch speed before user inclusion

Build a road map for sustainable progress

You can’t fix everything overnight. You need a phased road map to make progress visible and lasting.

Start by addressing the most critical fixes first. Create a remediation plan that fits into your regular budget cycles. Prioritizing fixes will keep the work moving without overwhelming your IT team.

While this type of plan may seem time-consuming, it helps you avoid the high cost of fixing errors later. Strong governance helps every new project meet your standards from day one.

The power of cross-functional councils

The best way to unblock delivery is to bring different teams together. A cross-functional council of leaders from IT, marketing, and legal can set shared KPIs so everyone is held accountable for the same goals.

Executive sponsorship is also vital for success. When top leaders back the program, it’ll get the resources it needs.

Furthermore, sharing data and goals can help fix systemic issues across the business. A collaborative approach makes Section 504 compliance much easier to manage for your entire digital footprint.

Your path to Section 504 compliance

Building a Section 504 program is more than a legal task. It’s a way to strengthen your brand and improve the user experience for everyone.

Making accessibility a core part of your digital operations reduces risk and fosters true equity. Ongoing audits, staff training, and the right tools help your digital assets remain inclusive as you grow.

Accessible designs can help users with disabilities, expand your market reach, and build lasting customer loyalty. When everyone can easily navigate your site, conversion rates and brand trust rise naturally.

Next steps to get started

• Audit your assets: Create an inventory of all digital properties and rank them by risk.
• Build your team: Form a cross-functional council to lead your accessibility efforts.
• Pick your tools: Select enterprise-ready software to automate your accessibility testing.
• Set your policy: Establish clear standards that align with WCAG guidelines.

For continual Section 504 compliance, pair periodic audits with continuous monitoring. Both are possible using internal dashboards or platforms, such as Siteimprove.ai, that track issues, ownership, and remediation progress.