Why website accessibility monitoring needs to be ongoing
An accessibility audit records the condition of a website at a particular point in time. It does not prevent a future edit from introducing a new barrier. A new banner can reduce colour contrast, a plugin update can change keyboard behaviour and a newly uploaded image can be published without useful alternative text.
That makes accessibility a maintenance issue as well as an audit issue. W3C recommends evaluating accessibility during development and throughout the life of a website, particularly because automated tools cannot check every aspect of accessibility.
Monitoring is most useful on websites that change regularly. Ecommerce stores, recruitment sites, membership systems and content-heavy websites may add pages and interactive elements frequently, which increases the opportunity for regressions. The aim is to detect those changes before they become a large remediation backlog.
If you need to establish the site's current position first, start with an accessibility audit. Monitoring is better suited to maintaining a known baseline than replacing a detailed initial assessment.
What accessibility monitoring includes for £69 a month
The Accessibility Monitoring plan costs £69 a month or £690 annually. Key pages are scanned monthly against WCAG 2.2 AA, with the flagged results reviewed by a person rather than automatically treated as confirmed failures.
- Monthly WCAG 2.2 AA scans of key pages
- Human review of flagged issues
- Fixes for issues within 24 hours
- Quarterly compliance certificate
- Accessibility statement kept current
- Priority European Accessibility Act regulation alerts
The human review is important because automated tools can report false positives and cannot assess every WCAG requirement. W3C's guidance on accessibility evaluation explicitly states that tools assist evaluation rather than determine accessibility by themselves.
The quarterly certificate is a record produced as part of the monitoring service. It should not be read as a statutory approval, regulator accreditation or guarantee that every page and user journey conforms to WCAG.
What we look for between accessibility audits
Monitoring is designed to catch change. A page that passed testing several months ago may be altered by an editor, developer, marketing script or software update without anyone deliberately changing its accessibility.
Common regressions include controls losing accessible names, heading structures becoming inconsistent, text dropping below required contrast, keyboard focus being obscured, form errors no longer being announced and images being added without appropriate alternatives. Changes to cookie tools, chat widgets, popups and embedded services can also affect keyboard or screen reader behaviour even when the main website code has not changed.
When an issue is confirmed, the right response depends on its cause. A content error may take only a few minutes to correct. A defect in a reusable navigation component can require development and regression testing across multiple templates. Fixes for issues found are made within 24 hours under the monitoring plan. Larger remediation work can be handled separately through accessibility remediation.
Accessibility statements should change when the website changes
An accessibility statement should describe the website that users actually encounter. GOV.UK guidance for public sector websites says statements should explain the site's compliance status, identify known accessibility problems and be reviewed when major changes occur and at least annually.
Monitoring helps keep the technical position and the published statement connected. If testing identifies a material issue, the statement may need to record it until it is fixed. If a previously disclosed problem has been resolved, the statement should not continue presenting outdated information.
The legal position differs according to the organisation and the services it provides. UK public sector bodies have specific accessibility statement duties. Organisations offering services covered by the European Accessibility Act can also have accessibility information obligations under the law that applies in the relevant EU member state. The EU Directive requires covered service providers to make information available about how applicable accessibility requirements are met.
For organisations that need a new statement rather than ongoing upkeep, see our accessibility statement service.
Monitoring is useful, but it does not replace manual testing
No credible monitoring programme should imply that a scheduled scanner proves an entire website conforms to WCAG. Some barriers require human judgement, and complex interactions often need keyboard or assistive technology testing.
Examples include deciding whether alternative text conveys the purpose of an image, checking whether focus moves logically through a modal, confirming that a screen reader announces a form error at the correct time and evaluating whether instructions make sense without relying only on colour or visual position.
Automated monitoring is therefore best used as an early warning system within a wider accessibility process. It can repeatedly test detectable rules across selected pages, identify changes and provide evidence for investigation. Human review determines what the result means and whether further testing or remediation is needed.
You can also run an immediate automated check with our free accessibility checker.