# AccessKnight

> AccessKnight is a website audit tool that scores any site for both WCAG 2.1 accessibility and AI readability, then delivers one report with the shared fixes that satisfy screen readers and the AI engines that now read, cite, and shop the web. It is also the instrument behind Horizontal Impact's accessibility audit service for public-sector websites.

## What it does

- WCAG 2.1 accessibility scan — 33 automated rules across images, headings, forms, ARIA, color contrast, tables, navigation, documents, and media (including captions and hidden-focus checks).
- AI-readability score — 13 deterministic checks covering AI crawler access (OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Claude, PerplexityBot, bingbot, Googlebot), indexability, sitemap, server-rendered content, structured data, heading structure, landmarks, and accessible names.
- Shared-core fixes — the semantic structure that helps assistive technology is the same structure that lets AI engines read and cite a page. Fix once, win twice.
- Multi-page site audits — a representative page set, template-wide problems separated from page content, with a remediation effort estimate. Delivered as a service (see below), not self-serve.

## Free to use

Scan any public URL from the homepage with no signup and no credit card. You get both scores — all 33 WCAG checks and all 13 AI-readability checks — plus the top findings with fixes.

A free account adds 5 saved scans a month with every finding, its exact failing element, and a copy-paste fix.

## Core pages

- [Homepage](https://accessknight.com): What AccessKnight is, how it works, and a free scanner that needs no signup.
- [WCAG rule library](https://accessknight.com/wcag): One page per rule — what it means, the failing element, the fix, and the exact error strings accessibility tools print for it.
- [AI rule library](https://accessknight.com/ai): The same treatment for AI readability — crawler access, indexability, rendering, semantics, structured data, answer format.
- [Comparisons](https://accessknight.com/compare): AccessKnight versus accessiBe, UserWay, and WAVE.
- [Overlay-free accessibility checker](https://accessknight.com/overlay-free-accessibility-checker): Why accessibility overlays do not produce conformance, with sources.
- [Blog](https://accessknight.com/blog): Guides on accessibility, WCAG, ADA compliance, and AI readability.

## Original research

- [The .gov census](https://accessknight.com/research): Every one of the 16,314 domains in the CISA public .gov registry, scanned against WCAG 2.1 AA and machine-readability on 27 July 2026. Only 51.1% served a scannable page; 21% do not resolve at all; 24.8% of those scanned score below 70 on WCAG; 365 government homepages carry a noindex directive. Federal sites (Section 508, enforced 20+ years) have a median score of 89 against 81 for local government. Aggregates only — no per-domain results are published.
- [Methodology](https://accessknight.com/research/methodology): Corpus, crawler behaviour, what was measured, what was excluded, and the limitations bounding every figure.
- [Sign up](https://accessknight.com/signup): Free account — 5 saved scans a month, no credit card.

## Audits and remediation

Accessibility audits and the remediation work are delivered as a service by Horizontal Impact, using AccessKnight as the instrument. The audit covers a representative set of pages, separates template-wide problems (one fix corrects every page) from page-by-page content work, and produces a developer-hours estimate.

This matters most for state and local government: the US Department of Justice's ADA Title II rule requires public-entity websites to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA, by April 24 2026 for entities serving 50,000 or more people and April 26 2027 for those serving fewer, and all special district governments.

- [Accessibility audits](https://horizontalimpact.com/accessibility-audits): Scope, method, and how to request one.

## Limitations, stated plainly

Automated testing catches roughly a third of accessibility barriers. AccessKnight measures the machine-checkable subset; it does not replace manual keyboard and screen-reader testing, and it is not a legal conformance opinion.

## Company

- AccessKnight is built by Horizontal Impact (https://horizontalimpact.com).