What do I do when an accessibility audit reveals way more issues than we have budget to fix?
I get asked this question a lot and uff, I've been there.
I'll say it off the bat. You can't fix everything. That's okay. Take it step by step. You already have a view of where you are. Form a view of where you want to be next.
Here's how you can get there.
Prioritise ruthlessly.
Start with the issues that block the most users from completing core tasks. Can't navigate with a keyboard? Can't use a screen reader to check out? Fix those first.
If you can, work on quick wins in parallel. You likely have senior and junior people on your team. Have the juniors pick the low hanging fruit and let the seniors focus on the critical issues.
If you look for quick wins that unlock multiple fixes, sometimes one change can solve dozens of reported violations at once. Focus on these "multiplier" fixes.
Don't expect to fix everything at once. But don't use that as an excuse to slack off. Create a realistic timeline by splitting fixes into phases: critical (blocks core functionality), important (major barriers), and nice-to-have (polish). Be honest about what each phase will cost and how long it'll take.
During each phase, aim for "significantly better," then iterate. Users benefit way more from steady progress than from waiting six months for a complete overhaul.
One thing most teams forget to do is to communicate the business case to leadership.
Don't be them. And when you do plead your case, frame accessibility fixes in terms your leadership cares about (think risk mitigation, market expansion, user satisfaction scores). Maybe for them, framing it as "technical debt" resonates better than "compliance."
As you go through the fixes, think how you can make sure those issues don't surface again. How could you bake accessibility into your regular dev process going forward? As you probably noticed, it's cheaper to do it right from the start than to be where you are now: the victim of a 50+ page audit report you don't know how to prioritise and fix.
The audit is painful, I hear you. But it's also your roadmap to avoid being in this situation again.