AccessEval vs AudioEye: Which ADA Compliance Tool Is Right for School Districts?

If you are a K-12 school district trying to meet the ADA Title II website accessibility deadline, you have probably come across both AccessEval and AudioEye. They solve the same core problem — helping you find and fix WCAG 2.1 AA issues on your website — but they take very different approaches, at very different price points.

The short version

AccessEval is built specifically for schools and small government entities. It scans your site with the same industry-standard engine (axe-core) used by enterprise tools, produces plain-English reports, and costs $99 to $599 per year depending on the number of pages you need to monitor. There are no per-page fees, no contracts, and no upsells.

AudioEye is an enterprise accessibility platform that combines automated scanning with AI-powered remediation overlays and manual auditing. Pricing typically starts at several thousand dollars per year and scales based on traffic and pages.

Scanning and detection

Both tools use automated scanning to identify WCAG violations. AccessEval uses Playwright (a real browser) combined with axe-core, which is the same engine that powers most accessibility testing tools including Deque’s own products. AudioEye uses proprietary scanning technology and adds a JavaScript overlay that attempts to fix certain issues in real time.

The overlay approach is controversial in the accessibility community. Organizations like the National Federation of the Blind have raised concerns about overlay tools, and some users with disabilities report that overlays can actually interfere with their assistive technology. AccessEval takes a different approach: it tells you exactly what is wrong and gives you step-by-step instructions to fix the underlying code, rather than papering over issues with client-side JavaScript.

Reporting

AccessEval produces a letter grade (A through F) and translates every axe-core rule violation into plain English that a non-technical administrator can understand. Reports include the exact location of each issue on the page and, on higher-tier plans, CMS-specific fix instructions for platforms like WordPress, Finalsite, and Squarespace.

AudioEye provides more detailed enterprise reporting with dashboards, compliance scoring, and VPAT documentation. If your district needs to respond to a formal audit or produce detailed compliance documentation for a vendor, AudioEye’s reporting may be more comprehensive — but for most small to mid-size districts, AccessEval’s reports provide everything needed to identify, prioritize, and resolve issues.

Pricing

This is where the tools diverge most. AccessEval’s pricing is public and simple:

• Scan — $99/year (100 pages, monthly scans)
• Comply — $299/year (500 pages, weekly scans, compliance docs)
• Fix — $599/year (2,000 pages, CMS-specific instructions, vendor reports)

AudioEye’s pricing is not publicly listed and typically requires a sales call. Based on public procurement records and published case studies, contracts generally start between $3,000 and $10,000 per year for a single site, with enterprise pricing going significantly higher.

For a district with a limited technology budget, the difference is significant. AccessEval’s most comprehensive plan costs less than AudioEye’s entry-level offering in most cases.

Who should use what?

Choose AccessEval if: You are a small to mid-size school district that needs straightforward scanning, clear reports, and affordable ongoing monitoring. You want to understand and fix your actual code rather than rely on an overlay. Your budget is under $1,000 per year.

Choose AudioEye if: You are a large district or state-level organization that needs enterprise-grade compliance documentation, managed remediation services, and has budget for a multi-thousand-dollar annual contract. You want a vendor to actively manage fixes rather than doing it in-house.

Try it yourself

The best way to evaluate is to see the results. Run a free scan of your district website with AccessEval — no signup required, results in under two minutes. Compare what you get against any other tool you are evaluating.