Overview
Store owners comparing accessibility options usually land on two choices: pay for a one-time human audit, or subscribe to an overlay widget like accessiBe or UserWay. These are not two versions of the same thing. They do different work, and only one of them changes your store.
This page compares them head-on. The deeper dive on why overlays fail is in overlay widgets don’t make you compliant.
What each one actually does
A manual audit is a human examination of your store. A specialist navigates it with a keyboard and screen reader, checks every template against WCAG 2.1 AA, and hands you a documented report: each issue, its location, its criterion, its fix. Your team applies the fixes, and the store is actually different afterwards. Sample findings are shown in what a real audit looks like.
An overlay widget is a JavaScript snippet. It draws a settings panel with font size and contrast modes, and attempts automated repairs in the browser at page load: guessed alt text, patched labels. Your store’s code never changes. Remove the script and nothing remains.
The comparison that matters
Coverage. Automated repair hits the same ceiling as automated testing: roughly a third of WCAG failures are even detectable by machine, and fewer are fixable by one. Keyboard traps, focus order, meaningful alt text, logical headings, the issues lawsuits actually cite, all need humans. The measurement is in why automated tools miss most issues.
Legal standing. The FTC fined accessiBe $1 million in January 2025 for misrepresenting that its widget made sites WCAG compliant. Hundreds of overlay-equipped sites are sued every year. Plaintiffs’ firms treat the widget as a target marker, not a deterrent, because it signals unresolved issues underneath.
User experience. Screen reader users report overlays interfering with the tools they already have configured. Many maintain browser extensions specifically to block overlays. The Overlay Fact Sheet, signed by hundreds of accessibility practitioners, recommends against them.
Documentation. An audit produces a dated report, which is evidence of diligence. A widget subscription proves only that you paid for a widget.
Cost shape. The widget is cheaper this month and more expensive forever: a subscription that never ends and never finishes the job. An audit plus remediation is a bounded project that ends with a fixed store.
Example
Two stores get the same demand letter. Store A has a widget: the complaint attaches screenshots of the store failing with a screen reader anyway, widget active, and the widget’s presence becomes a line in the complaint. Store B has last year’s audit report and the commit history of its fixes: its lawyer opens negotiation with documented, verified compliance work. Same letter, very different positions, very different settlement numbers.
Common mistake
Buying the widget while postponing the fixes. Some owners install an overlay “for now” and plan real work “later.” The widget’s presence creates a feeling of coverage that pushes the fixes back indefinitely, while the exposure stays exactly where it was. If the budget only covers one thing this quarter, run the free self-check and fix what you find. Free and real beats paid and cosmetic.