Writing · MARGIN NOTESFor founders
Accessibility debt: what an audit actually finds
An audit is not a score. It is a list of failures, and the useful ones are the failures that stop someone from finishing the job.
- Author
- Nicola Riker Urdaneta
- Published
- October 11, 2026
- Reading time
- 1 min read
Contents
A score is not a list
Lighthouse will give you a number. The number does not say which path is broken. An audit worth paying for names the control, the failure, and who it blocks: keyboard, screen reader, low vision, or someone on a phone in the sun.
What shows up, almost every time
Contrast that looked fine on a calibrated monitor. Buttons and inputs with no accessible name. Focus that disappears, or lands in an order that does not match the page. Motion that cannot be reduced. Forms that explain the error by color alone. These are not exotic. They are what is left when the happy path was the only path that got tested.
What to do with the list
Do not boil the ocean in one sprint. Fix the path people use to finish the job: sign in, search, pay, submit, read the result. File the rest where it will actually get scheduled. An audit that becomes a long ticket and then goes quiet was a PDF, not a repair.