Guide

Website accessibility remediation: how to fix your site after an audit

Website accessibility remediation means fixing the problems that stop people with disabilities from using your site. It is work in your theme, your code and your content. It starts from an audit that lists what fails and where. It ends with a re-test that shows the fixes work. This guide covers the steps, what the work costs, and what your developer needs from you.

We do not fix websites. AuditRush sells the audit that remediation starts from, and the same audit again as a re-test. Your developer, agency or theme vendor makes the fixes.

Remediation in five steps

Start from an audit. You need a list of every failure with its WCAG criterion, the page, the element and a fix. A free scanner is a start, but automated checks cover only about a third of the WCAG success criteria.
Group the findings by template. Many problems sit in parts that every page shares: the header, the menu, the footer, the product template, the contact form. One fix there clears the problem on every page that uses it.
Fix what blocks people first. Start with anything that stops a visitor from buying, booking or contacting you, such as a checkout that does not work with a keyboard or a form field without a label. Then work down by severity.
Fix the content. Alt text, link text, heading order and text in images live in your posts, pages and products. Your editors can fix most of this without a developer.
Re-test. Run the same tests on the same pages and compare. A fix can look right in the code and still fail with a keyboard or a screen reader.

Theme fixes and content fixes

Remediation splits into two kinds of work, and different people do them.

Code fixes. Missing focus outlines, menus that only open with a mouse, form errors a screen reader never announces, buttons with no name. These live in the theme or the site code, so a developer fixes them. On Shopify, WordPress, Wix or Squarespace that often means editing the theme or asking the theme vendor.
Content fixes. Images without alt text, links that say "click here", headings chosen for their size, low-contrast colors picked in an editor. Whoever writes the pages can fix these.
Third-party apps and plugins. You cannot edit their code. Report the problem to the vendor, look for a setting, or replace the app.

An overlay widget is not remediation. It adds a toolbar on top of the page and leaves the code as it was (accessibility widgets and lawsuits).

What remediation costs

Most remediation is billed by the developer hour. Accessible.org, a US accessibility firm, wrote in June 2026 that outside developers charge $100 to $200 an hour and that most sites need 15 to 40 hours. That puts the fixes for a typical site at roughly $1,500 to $8,000, before the audit and the re-test. These are the things that move the price:

Templates, more than pages. A shop with thousands of product pages can cost less to fix than a small site built from many one-off layouts, because the product pages share one template.
Custom components. Mega menus, product filters, pop-ups, carousels and checkout steps take the most developer time.
Theme or custom code. A maintained theme may have a vendor update that fixes part of the list. Custom code is all yours to fix.
Brand colors. If your brand colors fail contrast, the fix needs a design decision as well as code.
A deadline. Fixes promised in a settlement have a date, and rush work costs more.

The audit itself is a separate cost. Typical ranges are in our audit cost guide.

What your developer needs from the audit

A report your developer can work from has these for every finding:

The WCAG success criterion, so they can read the exact requirement.
The page and the exact element, as code they can search for.
Evidence, such as a screenshot or the quoted markup.
A severity, so they know what to fix first.
A fix instruction for your site that a developer can follow.
Repeated findings grouped, so a template problem is fixed once.

Our reports have all of these. When a shared template causes the same problem on many pages, the report lists it once and names every audited page where it appears. You can read a full sample report before you buy.

Re-testing after the fixes

Fixes break things. A new menu can trap keyboard focus, and a color change can fail contrast somewhere else. A re-test runs the same checks on the same pages. Compare it with the first report to see what is fixed, what is still open and what is new. You also get dated before and after reports. If a settlement promised fixes by a date, that record shows what you did and when. This is general information, not legal advice.

We re-test at the same flat price: order the same audit again for the same pages. The automated audit costs $149 for 10 pages and arrives within 24 hours. The signed audit costs $490 for 10 pages and arrives in 48-72 hours, reviewed and signed by a certified accessibility specialist.

Website remediation and document remediation

Many remediation services fix documents: PDFs, Word files and slide decks. That is a separate trade, usually priced per page, and published prices start at a few dollars a page. This guide is about websites. If your site links to PDFs that customers need, such as menus, forms or price lists, add them to your fix list or publish the same content as a web page.

Common questions

How much does website accessibility remediation cost?

For a typical small business site, roughly $1,500 to $8,000 in developer time, based on $100 to $200 an hour and 15 to 40 hours. Sites with many custom components cost more. The audit and the re-test come on top.

Can I fix my website myself?

The content fixes, yes: alt text, link text, headings and colors in the editor. Code fixes in the theme need someone who can edit HTML, CSS and JavaScript. On a site builder, check the theme vendor's updates before you pay for custom work.

Do you offer remediation services?

No. We audit and re-test. Every finding in our report has a fix instruction, so your own developer or agency can do the work. If you need someone to work with your team for months, see our guide to hiring a website accessibility consultant.

What is ADA remediation?

The same work under the name of the US law. The ADA does not name a technical standard for business websites. In practice, courts and demand letters measure a site against WCAG 2.1 AA. The term is also used for buildings and for documents, so check what a vendor means before you buy.

Is remediation a one-time job?

The first round is. New pages, new products and theme updates bring new problems, so check the site again after big changes.

Remediation starts with knowing what is broken. Run the free one-page check, or give your developer the full list with the automated audit ($149) or the signed audit ($490).