The right accessibility platform saves you months of disorganized work. The wrong one costs you time and money while your conformance status stays unclear. Before signing up for any platform, you need to ask specific questions about how it works, what it tracks, and whether it fits your compliance goals.
Most platforms look similar on the surface. They all promise to help with WCAG conformance and ADA compliance. But the differences in how they get you there are significant, and those differences only become obvious after you start using the product.
| Question Category | What to Look For |
|---|---|
| Audit Integration | Does the platform accept (manual) audit reports and track issues from them, or does it rely only on automated scans? |
| Conformance Tracking | Can you track progress toward full WCAG 2.1 AA or WCAG 2.2 AA conformance at the issue level? |
| Reporting | Does the platform generate ACRs, progress reports, or conformance documentation? |
| Pricing Model | Is pricing transparent and based on project scope, or hidden behind a sales call? |
| AI Features | Does AI provide actionable remediation guidance, or is it surface-level scan analysis? |
Does the Platform Track Issues from a Real Audit?
This is the first question that separates platforms built for conformance from platforms built for appearances. A scan identifies approximately 25% of accessibility issues. That means 75% of your issues go untracked if the platform only ingests scan data.
Ask whether the platform accepts (manual) audit report data. Specifically, can you upload a spreadsheet of issues identified by a human auditor and track remediation progress against each one? If the answer is no, the platform cannot give you a complete picture of your WCAG conformance status.
Accessibility Tracker Platform was built around this concept. Audit data is the foundation, not scan data. Every issue from a (manual) accessibility audit gets imported and tracked individually.
What WCAG Standard Does It Support?
Not every platform distinguishes between WCAG 2.1 AA and WCAG 2.2 AA. Some reference WCAG generically without specifying a version. That matters because procurement requirements, ADA Title II regulations, and EAA compliance all reference specific conformance levels.
Ask which WCAG version the platform maps issues to. Ask whether you can select your target standard per project. If a platform cannot tell you whether your product conforms to WCAG 2.1 AA versus WCAG 2.2 AA, it is not giving you the information you need for compliance documentation or vendor procurement.
How Does the Platform Help with Remediation?
Tracking issues is one thing. Getting them fixed is another. Some platforms give you a list of issues and leave you to figure out the rest. Others provide code-level guidance, prioritization, and AI-assisted remediation recommendations.
Ask how the platform prioritizes which issues to fix first. Risk Factor and User Impact prioritization formulas can save development teams weeks of time by directing effort where it matters most. Without structured prioritization, teams often fix low-impact issues while critical ones sit unresolved.
The Accessibility Tracker Platform uses AI to generate remediation guidance tied to each specific issue. This is different from a generic recommendation engine. The guidance maps to the exact issue, the exact WCAG criterion, and the exact context identified in the audit.
Can It Generate Compliance Documentation?
Audit reports, ACRs, progress reports, and accessibility statements all serve different purposes. A platform that can generate these documents from your tracked data saves significant effort and reduces errors from manual documentation.
Ask whether the platform generates ACRs based on your audit data. An ACR (Accessibility Conformance Report) is the completed document produced using the VPAT template and represents your product's current conformance status. If the platform can auto-generate this from tracked audit results, you avoid the time-intensive process of filling it out by hand.
Also ask about progress reports. When leadership or procurement contacts ask for a status update, can you pull a current report in minutes? Or does it require a manual effort to compile data from multiple sources?
What Does the Pricing Look Like?
Pricing transparency matters. Enterprise accessibility software often requires a sales demo before revealing any cost information. That is a signal, and not a reassuring one.
Ask for pricing upfront. Ask what is included at each tier. Ask whether audit services are bundled or separate. Ask what the cost per project looks like and whether there are per-user fees that scale unexpectedly.
The pricing for the Accessibility Tracker Platform and associated audit services is published. That approach lets you budget accurately before committing.
Does the Platform Support Multiple Projects?
If your organization manages more than one digital asset, you need a platform that maps each project independently. A website, a mobile app, and a web app each have different scopes, different audit results, and different conformance timelines.
Ask whether the platform supports project-level organization. Can you see the conformance status of each digital asset separately? Can different team members be assigned to different projects? Portfolio-level visibility with project-level granularity is what separates a management platform from a single-use tool.
Is the Scan Feature Separate from Audit Tracking?
Scanning and auditing are completely separate activities. Scans flag approximately 25% of issues and are useful for ongoing monitoring. Audits are thorough, human-led evaluations that determine actual WCAG conformance.
Ask whether the platform treats these as distinct features or blends them together. Platforms that merge scan results with audit results create a misleading picture. You end up with inflated issue counts that double-report the same problem, or worse, scan-only data presented as if it represents full conformance status.
The Accessibility Tracker Platform keeps scanning and audit tracking in separate lanes. Scan monitoring runs independently and provides its own reporting. Audit-based issue tracking operates on a different track entirely. Both are available. Neither contaminates the other.
Does AI Do Anything Real?
Every accessibility company claims AI features now. The question is whether the AI does something practical or whether it is a marketing label attached to basic automation.
Ask what the AI actually does. Does it generate code-level fix recommendations? Does it fill in VPAT documentation from audit data? Does it provide portfolio-level insights based on real conformance results? Or does it run scans and call them "AI-powered"?
The research into how AI can make audit and remediation workflows more efficient is already integrated into the Accessibility Tracker Platform, including AI-generated remediation guidance and AI-assisted ACR generation.
What if I already have an audit report from another provider?
A good platform should accept audit data regardless of who conducted it. Ask whether you can upload a spreadsheet or structured report from any auditor. If the platform only works with its own proprietary audits, that is a lock-in you should understand before signing up. The Accessibility Tracker Platform accepts audit reports from any provider.
How often should I re-evaluate which platform I use?
After each major project cycle or annually, whichever comes first. Your needs evolve as your digital assets grow. A platform that worked for a single website may not scale to a portfolio of apps and web properties. Review your requirements against the platform's current feature set each year.
Do I still need an auditor if I have a platform?
Yes. A platform manages the data and workflow. A (manual) accessibility audit is the only way to determine WCAG conformance. No platform replaces the need for a human auditor to evaluate your digital assets against WCAG 2.1 AA or WCAG 2.2 AA criteria. The platform makes what happens after the audit dramatically more efficient.
The questions above give you a clear framework for evaluating any accessibility platform on the market. The answers will tell you whether you are getting a conformance management tool or a scan dashboard with a premium price tag.
Contact Accessibility Tracker to see how the platform maps to your project needs.