The sales page promised compliance. You paid the subscription, pasted the script tag, watched the little icon appear in the corner, and for a while you stopped thinking about it. That was the point. Someone handed you a checkbox and you checked it.
Then the news started bleeding in. A settlement here, a class action there, a demand letter forwarded to you by a friend who runs a store about the same size as yours. You went back and read the widget vendor's fine print, and the language got softer the longer you read. "Assists with." "Helps toward." "Works alongside existing remediation." None of those phrases are the same as "you are compliant."
Nobody in this category is going to say it clearly, so we will: a JavaScript overlay cannot fix the underlying HTML of your site. It can add a menu for font sizing and a contrast toggle. It cannot rename your buttons, restructure your forms, or add alt text that actually describes your product photos. Screen reader users don't use the widget's menu anyway — they use the screen reader they already have, and the screen reader reads the raw page. If the raw page is a mess, the widget doesn't save you. We wrote the long version of this argument in accessiBe alternatives that actually work, with the technical reasons spelled out.
Here's what you actually get when you trade the widget for a human audit: someone reads your HTML, someone runs a real screen reader against your real pages, and someone writes down what is broken in language a developer can act on. That is the thing you were told you were buying the first time.
What the audit actually gives you
A full WCAG 2.1 AA sweep with axe-core, a manual NVDA or VoiceOver walkthrough on the pages that matter most (usually home, product, cart, checkout), and a written report grouped by severity and effort. No dashboard to log into. No monthly subscription you forget to cancel. One report, delivered as a PDF, useful whether you keep your widget or cancel it.
The Small Site Audit is $499. A year of overlay widget at $49/month is $588. Most of our overlay-refugee clients drop the widget after the audit and route the budget toward the actual fixes on the list.
Questions overlay-refugee clients ask us
How is this different from the widget I'm already paying for?
The widget runs JavaScript at page load and tries to patch your rendered DOM. An audit reads your actual source, runs a real WCAG sweep, and puts a human through your site with a screen reader. You get a written report you can show a lawyer, hand to a developer, or use as a remediation plan. The widget gives you a badge. The audit gives you evidence and a fix list.
Do I need to uninstall my widget first?
No. We audit the underlying page, which is what users and lawsuits see anyway. If anything, we'll flag whether the widget is actually doing anything measurable on the pages we test — sometimes it is, often it isn't, and you deserve to know either way.
Will I get sued anyway?
Honestly, we can't promise you won't. Nobody can, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. What we can do is give you a documented audit trail — the exact thing plaintiffs' firms look for when deciding whether a site is a soft target. A real report plus a remediation timeline is the defense pattern that works. A widget badge is not.
Can I cancel my widget after this?
Yes, and that's usually the point of getting the write-up. A few clients keep the widget around as a visual layer for users who genuinely like the font toggle, but most drop it once they realize they're paying for a feature screen reader users never touch. Your call, made with better information.
How fast can you turn around a report if I'm worried right now?
Quick Check is 24 hours. Small Site Audit is 72 hours. If you're nervous enough to be reading this page at 2am, Quick Check is the same-day option; the Small Site tier is the one we'd actually recommend if you want something you can hand to a lawyer.
More reading before you commit
Our deep-dive on what actually replaces overlay widgets is the single most important piece of reading if you're in this situation. The SaaS pricing pages cohort scan shows what a real audit output looks like when we run it on strangers' sites. Both are free, neither links to a sales page more than once, and together they'll tell you whether we're full of it.
Start an audit
Tell us your site and we'll reply within one business day. The Small Site Audit is the obvious fit if you're coming off a widget — it's cheaper than a year of subscription and it produces a document you can actually use.
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(Pricing not approved, do not launch without founder sign-off.)