AudioEye Review

The American Disabilities Act (ADA) Title III prohibits “discrimination on the basis of disability in the activities of places of public accommodations”. By many standards, that includes the internet, hence web accessibility is not a trivial issue. Through its web accessibility compliance solution, AudioEye is leading the way to ensure equality for all. This web accessibility solution combines technology with manual know-how to deliver websites that are meet ADA-related requirements as well as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. The brand came into existence over a decade ago as an R&D company. How it developed into one of the leading web accessibility solutions will be explained in this AudioEye review.

AudioEye leverages AI to run website accessibility score, which ranks the level of compliance from 0—100. The AI-powered algorithm is so sophisticated that it flags issues according to its impact on end-users. With this in mind, it should be noted that a website with few weighty or highly impactful errors may score lower on the accessibility tests than a website with many less impactful errors. Since each visit incurs a server cost, AudioEye, like virtually all accessibility solutions out there, charges based on pageviews to cover the cost, thereby making the web available and accessible to individual visitors.

• Website Monitoring: is automated scanning and WCAG testing of the website for compliance issues. The frequency schedule depends on the plan and could occur daily, weekly, or monthly.
• Accessibility Report: AudioEye’s automatically generates an accessibility report wherein WCAG risks and flagged for attention. Alongside the accessibility, the report comes with an accessibility score which reflects a history of improvement that has been made over time on the site with AudioEye’s toolset.
• Pdf/Mobile App Remediation: AudioEye ensures that not only your website but also pdfs and mobile apps are accessible to people with disabilities.

AudioEye Toolbar includes:

• Visual Toolkit: empowers site visitors to personalize their experience. Through this feature, end users can increase the font size, change color contrast, control the size of the mouse pointer, etc.
• Skip to the main menu: provides site visitors who use keyboard and screen reader with options to bypass navigation menus and blocks to the main content of the page.
• Player: a software similar to a screen reader in function which reads information on the web page to users.

Common Automated Fixes performed by AudioEye include:

• Detected CSS foreground with no background
• The form field label is empty
• Form field has no label
• The frame has no title
• The document has no language attribute
• Image has no alternative (Alt) text
• A detected downloadable document has no warning labels
• Images inside a link missing alt text if no other text is found
• A link image alt is redundant
• Link opens a new window without warning
• A link with no text content is detected
• A visually required field is missing a required attribute
• Improper use of list tags
• An empty header is detected
• A nested table is detected

  

How does AudioEye work? With AudioEye, you can choose the best way to eat or have your cake. There are three broad plans to elect from when considering their web accessibility solution.

1. Pro plan is a free, do-it-yourself digital accessibility service. AudioEye provides the toolbox to detect and fix compliance errors. You can rely on the Builder chrome extension to guide you on how to fix available errors on your website after you might have run a WCAG testing. The good thing about the Pro plan is that you get the same tools used by their experts for free, although not every tool is released to you. Even at that, you still get a weekly website monitoring, automated accessibility report, toolbar customization, AI guidance to fix WCAG errors, accessibility score, 24/7 help desk, and email support. That is more than enough. It’s like having your destiny in your hands at no fee.
2. Managed plan, a 3-in-1 alternative that not only gives you access to the accessibility tools but also enlists the help of AudioEye’s expert hands. Simply put, it is a do-it-for-me option. This plan comes with AudioEye’s WCAG AA 2.1, ADA, Section 508, EN 301549 Compliance compliance certification. Other features include accessibility warranty, on-demand webinar training, continuous fixes for standard templates, basic sustainable testing, and remediation plan, continuous AI-automated fixes for WCAG violations, amidst other fantastic features. Managed plans range from Simple, Advanced, to Commerce with varying prices.
3. Enterprise plan is the highest level plan which grants you unlimited access to almost everything. In short, it is an ask-and-it-shall-be-given plan that lets you have a custom plan built exclusively for your business. When you get on this plan, your website gets unlimited pageviews, daily accessibility monitoring, dedicated customer manager, expert advisor for legal consultation, among other mouthwatering features.

What plan is the best to go for? It is possible to opt-in for AudioEye’s full accessibility service or takes the step halfway. You should try to answer the following important questions before you settle for either of these plans: Do you have the time to fix errors if they are detected? Can you rely on your development team for continual management of your site to ensure compliance? Of course, what answers you provide are coupled with your website volume and company budget to arrive at the right answers.

We do not want to repeat ourselves, but AudioEye is reasonably priced. It is a great solution with hosts of free and paid features.

The Pro plan is totally free until as long as you are satisfied with its offerings. Beyond the free Pro plan, you incur a cost on the remaining plans depending on your site volume.
AudioEye’s Managed plan has three different options.

1. A simple plan for websites with up to 2k pageviews per month. Costs $39/month and $399/year
2. Advanced plan for complex websites that receive up to 20k views per month. Pegged at $99/month and $999/year
3. Commerce plan for websites that have up to 200k visitors on a monthly basis. Valued at $599/month and $5,999/ year

Lastly, for the Enterprise plan, there is no fixed price for that. Pricing depends on whatever service a client chooses to include in his custom design. Another good news is you can enjoy either of the Managed plans (Simple, Advanced, and Commerce) for a 30-day free trial.

There is a dedicated Customer Success Manager who ensures effortless implementation of the technology on customers’ website(s) and walks them through AudioEye’s multifarious features including Admin dashboard navigation, toolbar features, etc. As you might expect, this is a premium service. It is meant only for Enterprise customers.

In addition to the certificate of compliance that AudioEye issues to you when you buy any of its plans, the company supports you with up to $1,000 cash in warranty. You qualify for this benefit when an “eligible claim” is brought against you by a third party after purchasing and maintaining AudioEye’s subscription services. Either Simple, Advanced, or Commerce plan could be eligible as long as it’s managed by AudioEye and not any other person else. Even if you install AudioEye’s toolbar while you hire a team of development experts or handle site maintenance yourself, the company does not have any responsibility to you in this scenario. Meanwhile, you must notify AudioEye within ten days of learning about the third-party claim alleging a violation. Is this solution better than other ones?

AudioEye provides website owners a free hand to customize their website without having to buy a paid plan. AudioEye’s plugin enables end-users to customize web pages to meet their needs. This unique platform demonstrates an appreciable level of user-friendliness.

AudioEye is leaving no stone unturned to stay at the top of its game and to make competition difficult for its competitors. In addition to its large library of video tutorials, Managed and Enterprise clients are invited periodically by the company to live webinars where they are trends and best insights are discussed. Customers and end-users can report accessibility issues directly to a readily available 24/7 help desk either through mail or phone call.

AudioEye functions perfectly on all major CMS platforms to deliver a WCAG compliant website, like many other web accessibility technologies out there.