Awfully Helpful

Accessibility checks that are awfully helpful.

(It’s right there in the name.)

The Limited Accessibility Check, for cities. I check your homepage, 5 pages and up to 5 PDFs.

Email me about a check See the sample report

An example: three common problems on a city web page

  1. A screen reader says only “link” here.Now it says “Sample City home, link”.
  2. No focus outline. Keyboard users lose their place.Now the button shows a clear outline.
  3. Too light to read: 2.84:1.Now easy to read: 7.00:1.

An example. Sample City is made up, but these three problems are real and common.

The price

$750, fixed.

Introductory price for the first 3 clients.

What the Limited Accessibility Check covers
WebsiteHomepage + 5 key pages
DocumentsUp to 5 PDFs, 25 pages total or fewer
StandardWCAG 2.1 Level AA, the web accessibility standard
You receiveWritten report + fix list, grouped by page
TurnaroundWithin 15 business days after your materials arrive
PaymentItemized invoice, Net 30

One client at a time. How I check

What you get

A plain report
Every problem says where it is, which WCAG rule it breaks and who it affects. No jargon you have to look up.
A fix list
Each problem has a fix and a way to retest it. Your web vendor or staff can work straight from the list.
Two checks, and a person
Tools collect browser evidence and real NVDA speech. Two AI judges from different vendors must agree on each finding, or I check it by hand. I read every finding before you get the report.

This is a limited check of the pages and PDFs you pick. It is not a full conformance audit, and it is not legal advice.

Tab through a made-up city website

People who use a keyboard move through a page one stop at a time. A screen reader speaks each stop out loud. Step through Sample City’s homepage, then turn on the fixes.

What a keyboard user meets on Sample City’s homepage
StopBefore the fixesAfter the fixes
The logo linkA screen reader says only “link”.A screen reader says “Sample City home, link”.
The main menuTab skips it. The submenus open only on mouse hover.Each menu item is a button. Enter opens it.
The “Pay now” buttonIt has focus, but no outline shows.A clear outline shows where you are.
A footer linkLight gray on white: 2.84:1.A darker gray: 7.00:1.

How it works, step by step

  1. You email me

    Tell me your city, your website address and what worries you.

  2. We agree on the scope

    You pick 5 pages and up to 5 PDFs. A short written agreement covers the rest.

  3. You send your materials

    The page list, the PDFs and your OK to test forms. The clock starts when they arrive.

  4. I do the check

    Two scanners first. Then browser probes and real NVDA speech. I confirm every finding and check sampled passes myself.

  5. You get the report

    Within 15 business days after your materials arrive. You pay an itemized invoice, Net 30.

A look at the sample report

The sample report is a real check of a small Minnesota city’s website. I did it as practice, so the city’s name is withheld.

Every finding looks like the one here. It says where the problem is, what is wrong, who fixes it, and how to fix and retest it.

Read the full sample report

The main pay-bill link has no name

Where
Pay a utility bill page, main content
WCAG rule
2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (Level A)
What is wrong
A screen reader reads part of the web address instead, an account code. It never says “pay your bill”.
Who fixes it
City staff. It is in the city’s own content.

How I check

First, two scanners

I scan every page with two engines, axe-core and AccessLint. I scan at a desktop size and at a phone size.

Scanners find only part of the problems. So I confirm each finding on the live page before it goes in your report.

Then, browser and screen-reader checks

  • Browser probes check keyboard access, focus, zoom and text spacing.
  • Tools run the real NVDA screen reader in Edge on Windows and record what it says.
  • Two AI judges from different vendors read the evidence and the screenshots on their own. A finding counts only when both agree, or when I check it by hand. The second judge also checks a random one-in-five sample of passes within each step type.
  • I read every finding before the report goes out. Steps the judges do not agree on come to me.
  • The report lists steps that were not tested and the limits of the tools.

Your PDFs

I check each PDF for tags, headings, reading order, image descriptions, form-field labels, the document title and the language. I use PAC (the PDF Accessibility Checker), Adobe Acrobat Reader with NVDA, and my own PDF checker.

AI tools, and a person

Claude proposes results from the evidence. Then two AI judges from different vendors check them, blind to each other. I read every finding, and I check by hand what the judges do not agree on. Some steps still need a person.

What the report tells you

For every problem, the report says:

  • where it is on the page or in the PDF;
  • which WCAG rule it breaks;
  • who it affects, in plain words;
  • how to fix it;
  • how to retest it after the fix.

Problems are grouped by page, and each one says who fixes it: your web developer or your own staff. See the format in the sample report.

What you send me

  • The web addresses of the 5 pages you want checked.
  • Up to 5 PDFs, or links to them.
  • Your OK, in writing, for me to test your forms.
  • The name of the person who can approve the purchase.

Please send links or public copies of your PDFs. Do not send private records, such as forms filled in by residents. If a PDF holds private information, we agree first how I will handle it.

The 15 business days start when these arrive.

What is not included

  • Fixing the problems. I write the fix list so your web vendor or staff can do the work.
  • Pages and PDFs outside the scope. I check only the ones we agree on.
  • A review of every page on your site. This is a limited check. It is not a full conformance audit.
  • Legal advice. The report is not legal advice.

The agreement, in plain words

Before I start, we sign a short written agreement. It covers seven things:

Scope
Which pages and PDFs I check, and what is not included.
Approval
Who at your city may approve the purchase.
Forms
Your permission for me to test your forms.
Your data
How I handle what you send me and what I see while testing.
AI tools
That I use AI tools, how they confirm each finding, and that I read every finding myself.
Liability
A limit on my liability.
Legal advice
That the report is not legal advice.

Payment

You get an itemized invoice. Payment is Net 30, which means within 30 days of the invoice.

One client at a time

I take one check at a time, so yours gets my full attention.

Email me about a check Read the questions people ask