Intake ComplianceThese are starting checks, not a complete accessibility audit or a determination of legal compliance. Keep a record of what you tried, which page you used, and where you could not complete a task.
1. Follow the route a new patient takes
Begin on the home page and find the practice location, contact details, appointment request, and new-patient forms. Include the insurance page and any links into an external booking system or patient portal.
Ask your provider: Does the proposed review include the whole patient journey, including third-party tools, or only the home page?
2. Try the appointment path with a keyboard
Use Tab and Shift+Tab to move through links and controls. Check whether the current control is clearly highlighted, whether the order makes sense, and whether you can operate the booking form without a mouse. A control that receives focus without a visible indication can leave a patient unsure where they are.
Record: The first control you cannot reach or operate, and any point where focus disappears or becomes trapped.
3. Check labels and required-field instructions
Every field should make its purpose clear. Look for instructions that disappear once someone types, required questions identified only by a color, and calendar or other icon buttons whose meaning may not be available to a screen reader.
Ask your provider: Are visible labels associated with their fields, and do icon buttons have meaningful accessible names?
Our appointment-link accessibility example shows how a scheduling graphic or phone icon can look clear while its link has no accessible name.
4. Try an incomplete or invalid answer
Where it is safe to test without submitting a real request, leave a required answer blank or enter an invalid email format. The form should explain what needs correcting. A red outline by itself does not tell the patient what happened.
Ask your provider: Can a screen-reader user identify the error and find the field that needs attention?
5. Check text and field visibility
Read the appointment instructions and any smaller text. Also look at the outlines of fields and the indication of keyboard focus. Text can appear readable to one person and still have insufficient contrast for another.
Ask your provider: Were text contrast and meaningful control boundaries measured against the applicable WCAG criteria? Visual judgment alone is not a measurement.
6. Enlarge the page and check the layout
Increase the browser’s zoom and check whether the information and controls remain available. Watch for cropped text, controls hidden behind fixed banners, overlapping labels, or an appointment button that disappears off the page.
Record: The zoom level, browser, page address, and task that became difficult. This makes the issue easier for a provider to reproduce.
7. Include the forms patients download
List the PDFs and other documents used for registration, history, and consent. Check whether the practice has editable source files and which vendor is responsible for updating each published copy.
A form’s visual appearance or fillable fields are not enough to establish accessibility. Our dental intake-form accessibility guide explains the reading-order, labeling, and navigation issues to include.
8. Agree who will fix each issue and how it will be checked
Ask for a defined scope, a responsible provider for each system, and verification of the changes. Separate an automated scan’s findings from completed fixes, and keep track of issues that depend on an external platform.
Intake Compliance provides dental website accessibility services that include the agreed fixes and direct coordination with the practice’s web vendor.
A record your practice and provider can share
For each issue, record the patient task, the page or file, what went wrong, who owns the change, and what happened when it was retested. A finding marked “not tested” should stay open rather than being counted as resolved.
Download the vendor handoff template (plain text). It includes space for reproduction steps, software versions, the planned fix, and retest evidence. Use blank forms or fictional data in an approved test environment.
What this checklist cannot tell you
These checks cannot establish that every WCAG criterion has been met, evaluate every assistive technology, or decide which laws apply to your practice. The next step is a scoped review of the actual pages, documents, and patient tasks, followed by repairs and verification.