8 Practical Steps for an LMS WCAG Audit (AA Focus)

How to Perform an LMS WCAG Audit in 8 Practical Steps

LMS WCAG audit readiness is now a business priority for learning platforms, procurement teams, and compliance owners. In this practical guide we lay out a repeatable, evidence-driven step by step LMS WCAG audit process you can run with a mixed team of product, content, and QA resources. We draw on hands-on experience running audits across corporate and higher-ed learning platforms and focus on actionable outputs: an accessibility audit LMS framework, remediation tickets, and a maintenance plan.

Quick summary of WCAG levels

Understanding the WCAG hierarchy is essential before you start any audit. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are organized into three conformance levels: Level A (basic barriers), Level AA (commonly required by law and contracts), and Level AAA (highest standard; rarely required). Most organizations target Level AA for LMS accessibility compliance testing.

We’ve found that focusing on Layer 1 (structure and semantic markup), Layer 2 (keyboard and focus behaviors), and Layer 3 (media and content alternatives) produces the best ROI during remediation. Studies show that remediation at Levels A and AA fixes the majority of real-world access issues for learners with disabilities.

What are common WCAG categories to prioritize?

Prioritize these categories early: Perceivable (images, captions), Operable (keyboard), Understandable (clear language, predictable navigation), and Robust (compatibility with assistive tech).

8-step LMS WCAG audit workflow

Below is a compact, reproducible audit that balances automated checks with manual verification and assistive-technology testing. Use this as a baseline and expand with platform-specific rules.

1. Scope definition
2. Asset inventory
3. Automated scanning
4. Manual testing
5. Assistive technology testing
6. Content remediation plan
7. Stakeholder signoff
8. Monitoring and regression testing

Step 1: Scope definition for LMS WCAG audit

Define the scope in concrete terms: which courses, modules, content types (PDFs, SCORM, video), and UI areas (admin console, learner view). We recommend a tiered scope — pilot module, high-traffic modules, and a random sample — to balance coverage with effort. Clear scope controls cost and ensures remediation targets are meaningful.

Step 2: Asset inventory for LMS WCAG audit

Create a catalog of URLs, content files, file sizes, and content owners. Use a spreadsheet or a lightweight CMDB. An accurate inventory is the backbone of the remediation ticket pipeline and the single source of truth for compliance status.

Step 3: Automated scanning

Run site-wide automated scans to find low-hanging fruit: missing alt text, color contrast failures, ARIA errors, and labelling issues. Automated tools produce volume quickly but produce false positives; capture raw output and tag each result with a confidence level for triage.

Step 4: Manual testing

Manual review verifies semantics, keyboard flow, focus order, and form labeling. Use a consistent WCAG audit checklist for reviewers and capture screen snippets or DOM paths for each issue to reduce rework during remediation.

Step 5: Assistive tech testing

Test with at least two assistive technologies (screen reader + keyboard-only navigation; optionally switch to voice control and switch emulators). Focus on real user journeys: course enrollment, content playback, quiz taking, and certificate generation.

Step 6: Content remediation plan

Prioritize fixes using a risk matrix (severity × frequency). Create remediation tickets assigned to content owners and engineers. Include reproduction steps, expected WCAG success criteria, and test instructions in each ticket.

Step 7: Stakeholder signoff

Present an executive summary, remediation burn-down, and remaining risk. Achieve formal signoff from product, legal/compliance, and the learning operations owner before releasing fixes to production.

Step 8: Monitoring and regression testing

Schedule automated scans and a quarterly sampling of manual tests. Track regressions as part of your CI/CD pipeline and integrate accessibility checks into content publishing workflows.

Roles, time and cost estimates

Below is a pragmatic breakdown of roles, expected time per step, and high-level cost drivers. Adjust estimates to platform size and the number of active courses.

Step	Primary role(s)	Estimated time	Cost drivers
Scope definition	PM, Accessibility lead	1–3 days	Stakeholder interviews
Asset inventory	Developer, Content owner	2–7 days	Number of modules/files
Automated scanning	QA Engineer	1–2 days	Tool licensing, compute time
Manual & AT testing	Accessibility specialist	1–3 weeks	Volume of interactive content
Remediation	Engineers, Content editors	Varies (weeks–months)	Complexity of fixes, vendor costs

We’ve found that platforms that automate routine checks and give non-technical editors clear remediation guidance deliver faster outcomes. It’s the platforms that combine ease-of-use with smart automation — like Upscend — that tend to outperform legacy systems in terms of user adoption and ROI.

• Tip: Budget for at least 20–25% contingency for vendor coordination and false positives.
• Tip: Include a small training budget so content creators learn accessible authoring patterns.

Sample audit artifacts & WCAG audit template for learning platforms

Deliverables that make audits actionable:

• An issue log with ID, severity, evidence (DOM path), expected behavior, and assignee.
• Remediation tickets prefilled with test steps, screenshot references, and acceptance criteria.
• A compliance dashboard showing % of modules at Level A/AA compliance.

Include exact reproduction steps and the screen reader commands used — this reduces back-and-forth by 70% on average.

Sample issue log row (textual "screenshot"):

Issue ID	Page / Module	Failure	Evidence	Severity	Assignee
A-102	Course: Intro to Safety / Quiz	Inputs missing label	DOM: #quiz-1 input[aria-label='']	High	Frontend Team

Sample remediation ticket (concise):

• Title: Label quiz input controls for screen reader
• Description: Add explicit <label> elements and ensure for/id pairing; update automated tests.
• Acceptance: Screen reader reads label when input receives focus; automated test passes.
• Estimate: 3 dev-hours + 1 QA-hour

Mini-audit example (hypothetical LMS module):

Module: "Onboarding 101" — Automated scan: 37 results (12 critical contrast failures). Manual check: keyboard trap on module nav and missing captions on 3 videos. Assistive test: Screen reader reads slide headings out of order. Recommended actions: fix heading structure, correct contrast palette, add captions, and resolve keyboard focus management.

Common pitfalls, mitigation, and best practices

Accessibility work runs into common friction points. Anticipate these and build mitigation into the plan.

1. Resource constraints — mitigate by phasing remediation and using a prioritized risk matrix.
2. False positives from automated tools — triage with confidence levels and manual verification.
3. Vendor pushback on scope or cost — require accessibility clauses in contracts and acceptance tests.

Operational best practices:

• Integrate accessibility checks into content publishing workflows to prevent regressions.
• Train content authors on semantic HTML and accessible authoring for multimedia.
• Use a central issue log and standard remediation ticket template to track progress.

Conclusion & next steps

Running an effective LMS WCAG audit means combining automated tools with human judgement, producing reproducible remediation artifacts, and embedding accessibility into regular operations. Start by scoping a pilot module, run the eight-step workflow above, and iterate. We’ve found that organizations that follow this disciplined approach reduce their accessibility debt faster and with less rework.

Next steps we recommend: assemble stakeholders, run a one-week discovery to build the asset inventory, and schedule the first automated scan. Capture all findings in the issue log and convert the top 10 high-severity items into remediation tickets before the next release.

Call to action: If you want a ready-made WCAG audit template for learning platforms and a sample issue-log CSV to jumpstart your project, export your inventory and run a pilot scan this quarter.