Guide
2026-02-10
Accessibility Checklist Before Launching a Website
A concise preflight list for designers, developers, and content owners before you flip DNS.
When to use this guide
Use before you flip a site or major template to production, or when you need a shared checklist for a release.
Who this is for
Developers, designers, and content owners who want a practical pass/fail list next to automated scans.
Typical release loop
- Scan staging
Catch DOM issues early.
- Fix templates
Shared components first.
- Keyboard pass
Complete primary tasks.
- Rescan prod-like URL
Keep report links.
Checklist visual
No associated label
Placeholder is not a replacement for a label.
Label linked to field
Revisit fields that ship on every template.
Checklist visual
Body text sample
Fails WCAG AA for normal text
Body text sample
Stronger contrast
Gray-on-gray fails most often in marketing sections.
Scan while you read
Paste a public URL. You get a shareable report. Fix issues, deploy, then rescan the same URL to compare results.
Structure
- [ ] Logical heading order on key templates
- [ ] One clear primary action per screen where possible
- [ ] Skip link to main content on content-heavy pages
Media
- [ ] Alt text for informative images; empty alt for decorative
- [ ] Captions for spoken video; transcripts when audio-only matters
Forms
- [ ] Visible labels or programmatic equivalents
- [ ] Error messages tied to fields, not only color
Keyboard
- [ ] Full task completion without a mouse
- [ ] Visible focus on all interactive elements
Verification
Run an automated scan on production-like URLs, then repeat the keyboard pass after fixes.
What to do after this
Keep the scan, fix, rescan loop going
Ship a fix, then run another scan on the same URL. Each run gets its own report link so you can compare before and after.
Open scan