How Long Does Website Accessibility Take to Fix? Realistic Timelines

When clients ask me how long accessibility remediation takes, I resist the urge to give a vague "it depends." Instead, I try to give ranges that help them plan realistically. Because here's what happens when expectations are wrong: teams either rush and do sloppy work, or they treat accessibility as a multi-year project that never actually finishes.

The honest answer spans a wide range—from weeks to many months—depending on factors I'll break down here. By the end, you'll be able to estimate your own timeline with reasonable accuracy.

Q: How long does it take to fix website accessibility issues?

A: Most websites can achieve substantial WCAG 2.2 AA compliance in 2-6 months with dedicated effort. Smaller sites (under 50 pages) might complete in 4-8 weeks. Large enterprise sites or web applications with complex functionality may take 6-12+ months. Timeline depends on issue volume, site complexity, team capacity, and remediation approach.

Factors That Determine Your Timeline

Issue Volume and Severity

Let's start with the obvious: how much is broken?

A site with 50 issues remediates faster than one with 500. But volume alone doesn't tell the story. Issue severity and complexity matter more than count.

Low-complexity issues fix quickly:

• Missing alt text on images (minutes per image)
• Color contrast failures (CSS changes)
• Missing form labels (HTML attributes)
• Link text improvements ("click here" → descriptive)

High-complexity issues take longer:

• Custom interactive widgets needing ARIA implementation
• Dynamic content that confuses screen readers
• Complex forms with interdependent fields
• Video players requiring accessible controls
• Third-party components you don't control

According to WebAIM's accessibility research, the most common issues (images, links, forms, color contrast) are generally quick fixes. But they appear in high volume, so aggregate time adds up.

Site Size and Architecture

A 20-page marketing site differs fundamentally from a 10,000-page e-commerce platform.

Small sites (under 50 pages): 4-8 weeks typical

• Limited scope means complete coverage is achievable
• Often template-based, so fixing one template fixes many pages
• Fewer unique interactive components

Medium sites (50-500 pages): 2-4 months typical

• More templates and page types
• Likely some custom functionality
• May have multiple content contributors creating consistency challenges

Large sites (500+ pages): 4-12+ months typical

• Complex architectures with numerous templates
• Multiple applications or microsites
• Legacy code mixed with modern development
• Many stakeholders and competing priorities

Web applications: Highly variable

• Complexity comes from interactive features, not page count
• Single-page applications with complex state management
• User-generated content creating ongoing accessibility challenges

Team Capacity and Expertise

Who's doing the work matters enormously.

Internal team without accessibility experience: Add 30-50% to any timeline estimate. Learning while fixing slows progress. Mistakes require rework. Training your team on accessibility is valuable but takes time.

Internal team with accessibility experience: Most efficient path if you have it. No onboarding, no handoffs, full context on your codebase.

External agency: Fast start, but coordination overhead. Agencies often achieve faster wall-clock time because they throw multiple specialists at problems simultaneously. Expect 20-40% faster completion than equivalent internal effort.

AI-assisted remediation (like TestParty): Dramatically reduces fix implementation time. When a platform generates actual code fixes instead of just reporting issues, developer hours per issue drop substantially.

Technical Debt and Codebase Quality

This factor surprises people, but poorly-architected code makes accessibility harder to fix.

Clean, component-based architecture: Fix a component once, it's fixed everywhere it's used. Modern React, Vue, or Angular applications with good patterns remediate more efficiently.

Spaghetti code with inconsistent patterns: Every page is different. Fixes in one place don't propagate. Technical debt multiplies accessibility debt.

Third-party dependencies: Components you don't control may have accessibility issues you can't directly fix. You're dependent on vendor updates or need workarounds.

Realistic Timeline Scenarios

Scenario 1: Small Business Website

Situation: 30-page WordPress marketing site, standard theme, contact form, image gallery.

Typical issues found: 75-150 detectable issues (mostly images, links, forms, contrast)

Realistic timeline: 4-6 weeks

Week 1-2: Audit, prioritization, quick wins (alt text, contrast fixes) Week 3-4: Form accessibility, navigation improvements, content structure Week 5-6: Testing, verification, documentation

Key success factor: Using a platform like TestParty that generates fixes accelerates week 2-4 work substantially.

Scenario 2: Mid-Size E-Commerce Site

Situation: 500-page Shopify store with custom theme, product configurators, checkout flow.

Typical issues found: 300-600 detectable issues plus manual testing findings

Realistic timeline: 3-5 months

Month 1: Comprehensive audit, prioritize critical paths (checkout, product pages, search) Month 2: High-priority fixes—checkout must work, product images need alt text Month 3: Second-tier fixes—filters, navigation, account flows Month 4: Edge cases, third-party components, content cleanup Month 5: Verification testing, documentation, monitoring setup

Key success factor: Prioritizing the paths that matter for revenue and legal exposure. Fixing checkout accessibility before blog archives.

Scenario 3: Enterprise Web Application

Situation: Complex SaaS application, 50+ interactive features, data visualizations, multiple user roles.

Typical issues found: 800-2000+ issues across manual and automated testing

Realistic timeline: 6-12+ months

Months 1-2: Comprehensive audit including manual testing with assistive technology Months 3-4: Core navigation and authentication flows Months 5-6: Primary feature accessibility (dashboards, data entry, reports) Months 7-8: Secondary features, edge cases, less-common user paths Months 9-10: Complex components (data visualizations, drag-and-drop, rich text) Months 11-12: Verification, documentation, VPAT completion, monitoring

Key success factor: Executive sponsorship and dedicated resources. Enterprise accessibility fails when it's treated as a side project.

Accelerating Your Timeline

Prioritization Strategies

Not all issues matter equally. Smart prioritization dramatically improves time-to-meaningful-compliance.

Prioritize by user path importance. Fix checkout before contact page. Fix navigation before footer links. The paths users actually traverse matter most.

Prioritize by legal exposure. Issues cited in lawsuits (images, forms, keyboard navigation) should lead the queue. Understanding what triggers lawsuits informs prioritization.

Prioritize by fix efficiency. Issues affecting templates fix many pages at once. Start with high-impact template fixes before one-off page content.

Prioritize by severity. Complete barriers (user literally cannot proceed) before inconveniences (user can proceed but with difficulty).

Technology That Helps

AI-powered remediation platforms represent the biggest acceleration opportunity. Traditional workflow: find issue → understand issue → research fix → implement fix → test fix. With platforms like TestParty: find issue → review generated fix → apply fix → test.

This collapses the middle steps dramatically. What took developers hours per issue takes minutes.

Component libraries with accessibility built in. Replacing custom components with accessible design system components fixes issues and prevents new ones. Microsoft's Fluent UI, Adobe's React Spectrum, and similar libraries encode accessibility expertise.

Automated testing in CI/CD. Catching issues before deployment prevents accumulation. TestParty's Bouncer integrates accessibility checks into your deployment pipeline.

Process Improvements

Dedicated remediation sprints. Treating accessibility as "when we have time" means never. Block time specifically for accessibility work.

Parallel workstreams. Different team members can work different issue types simultaneously. Front-end developers on HTML/CSS issues, back-end on form handling, content team on alt text and copy.

Regular progress checkpoints. Weekly accessibility standup keeps momentum. Visible progress tracking motivates continued effort.

What "Done" Actually Means

There Is No Perfect

WCAG conformance isn't binary. The W3C's conformance requirements define specific levels (A, AA, AAA), but real-world accessibility exists on a spectrum.

"Done" typically means:

• No automated-detectable WCAG 2.2 AA violations
• Core user paths work with keyboard and screen reader
• Manual testing confirms usability for people with disabilities
• Processes prevent regression

This is meaningfully different from "zero accessibility issues" (impossible) or "perfect for all users" (subjective).

Ongoing Maintenance Reality

Accessibility isn't a project that ends. It's a practice that continues.

Content changes introduce issues. New images need alt text. New pages need proper structure. Content creators need guidelines.

Development adds features. Every new feature needs accessibility consideration. Without ongoing attention, you'll regress.

Standards evolve. WCAG 2.2 is current as of 2023. Future versions will add requirements. The European Accessibility Act takes effect in 2025, creating new obligations.

Plan for ongoing monitoring and maintenance. One-time projects create temporary compliance.

FAQ Section

Q: Can I fix accessibility issues in a weekend?

A: For tiny sites (under 10 pages) with minor issues, potentially. But meaningful accessibility for most sites requires sustained effort over weeks or months. Weekend sprints can make progress but rarely achieve compliance.

Q: Does fixing accessibility break my site's design?

A: Properly implemented accessibility doesn't require visual design changes. Most fixes are HTML structure, ARIA attributes, and interaction patterns that users don't see. Color contrast adjustments are the main visible change—and often improve design for everyone.

Q: Should I fix issues as I find them or audit completely first?

A: Hybrid approach works best. Run initial automated scan, fix obvious quick wins immediately, then conduct comprehensive audit. Starting remediation while auditing maintains momentum and reduces total issue count faster.

Q: How do I know when I've achieved WCAG AA compliance?

A: Combination of automated scanning (passing all tests), manual testing with screen reader and keyboard, and ideally professional accessibility audit confirming conformance. Self-assessment helps but expert validation provides confidence.

Q: What if I need to be compliant by a specific deadline?

A: Work backward from deadline. If you have 8 weeks and estimate 12 weeks of work, you need more resources or narrower scope. Focus on highest-priority user paths if time is limited. Document your good-faith efforts—courts view ongoing improvement favorably.

Planning Your Remediation Project

The timeline question ultimately depends on your specific situation, but you can estimate reasonably:

1. Assess your site - page count, complexity, technical architecture
2. Understand your issues - run automated scan, estimate issue volume
3. Evaluate your resources - team capacity, expertise, budget for tools or agencies
4. Choose your approach - internal, agency, platform-assisted, or hybrid
5. Build realistic schedule - use ranges from this article as starting points

Most organizations underestimate accessibility work. Adding 30-50% buffer to your initial estimate accounts for discoveries during remediation and competing priorities.

Want to understand your specific remediation scope? Get a free accessibility scan to see your issue volume and complexity before planning.

Related Articles:

• Why Am I Getting Sued for Website Accessibility?
• Accessibility Agencies: Full-Service Compliance Partners
• What to Expect from an Accessibility Audit

About this article: TestParty's editorial team worked with AI research and writing tools to develop this content on digital accessibility. Our specialists in automated WCAG compliance reviewed the material for accuracy. However, accessibility requirements depend on your specific context, jurisdiction, and business type. This information is provided for educational purposes and should not be considered legal, professional, or compliance advice. Please consult with qualified accessibility consultants and legal professionals before implementing changes to your digital properties.