How One Side Hustler Makes 8000 Monthly as a Freelance Accessibility Tester

Lucas: So the other day I’m scrolling through a freelancing forum, and I see someone post, ‘I make eight grand a month testing websites for blind people.’ And I thought, that is either a very specific scam or a very smart niche. Luna: I’m guessing it’s the smart niche, because I’ve been seeing accessibility testing pop up everywhere lately. Lucas: It’s legitimate, and it’s growing fast. The person behind that post is a former elementary school teacher named Maya. She now works as a freelance accessibility tester, earning about eight thousand dollars a month. And today we’re going to break down exactly how she does it. Luna: And it’s such a timely topic. June 2026 – we’re seeing more lawsuits around digital accessibility, plus the population is aging. So demand is only going up. Lucas: Exactly. If today’s episode gives you a concrete path to a side hustle that pays well and actually helps people, that’s the goal. And if you find value in conversations like these, the way we keep the show ad-free is through listener support at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it’s a small way to keep this resource going for everyone. Speaking of resources—Maya’s story is full of them. Lucas: Alright. So Maya was teaching third grade three years ago, and she had a student who was visually impaired. That experience made her curious about how blind people use the internet. She started poking around, took a free course on web accessibility offered by the World Wide Web Consortium—the W3C—and realized she had a knack for spotting barriers. Luna: So she didn’t have a tech background? She was a teacher? Lucas: Correct. No coding. No design. Just patience and attention to detail. She learned how to use a screen reader—that’s software that reads aloud what’s on a screen. And she learned the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, which are the standards most companies follow. Luna: And then she started looking for clients? Lucas: She started on Upwork. Her first gig was testing a small e-commerce site for fifty dollars. She wrote a detailed report noting that the checkout button had insufficient color contrast and that the image alt text was missing. The client loved it, and she got a five-star review. Luna: That’s the classic Upwork hustle—overdeliver on a small job to build credibility. Lucas: Exactly. From there, she raised her rates. Within six months she was charging seventy-five dollars an hour. Now she charges one hundred and twenty-five. Her typical engagement is a full website audit, which takes about twenty hours, so that’s two thousand five hundred dollars per audit. She does about three of those a month, plus some smaller consulting gigs. Luna: And her clients—she mentioned Target and Major League Baseball. How did she land those? Lucas: She didn’t cold pitch them. She built a LinkedIn presence where she posted about common accessibility fails—like a bank’s login page that a screen reader couldn’t navigate. A recruiter from Target’s accessibility team saw her posts and reached out. Similarly, MLB found her through a webinar she did for a nonprofit. Luna: So content marketing worked for her. She basically showed her expertise publicly and let clients come to her. Lucas: Exactly. And the timing helped. In 2024, the Department of Justice issued new guidance under the Americans with Disabilities Act making it clear that websites are places of public accommodation. That triggered a wave of demand. Companies that ignored accessibility suddenly needed audits to avoid lawsuits. Luna: Right. And that wave hasn’t crested yet. So the opportunity is still there for someone starting now. Lucas: Absolutely. But let’s get into the specifics of the work itself. What does an accessibility tester actually do all day? Maya walks us through a typical audit. She starts with automated tools—like WAVE or Axe—which scan a site and flag obvious issues. But that only catches about thirty percent of problems. Luna: The rest is manual testing? Lucas: Yes. She then uses a screen reader—she prefers NVDA on Windows and VoiceOver on Mac—to navigate the site as a blind user would. She checks if all interactive elements are reachable via keyboard, if error messages are announced, if headings are structured logically. She also uses a color contrast analyzer to ensure text meets the four-point-five-to-one ratio required by WCAG. Luna: That sounds tedious, but also kind of meditative. Like a puzzle. Lucas: Maya actually describes it that way. She says it’s like being a detective. And the payoff is real. She’s had clients whose checkout conversion rates went up after fixing accessibility issues, because the improvements also helped users on mobile or with slow internet. Luna: So accessibility improvements often benefit everyone, not just people with disabilities. Lucas: Exactly. That’s the business case. Now, what about the tools and certifications? Maya doesn’t have any formal certification. She just has experience. But there is a credential called the Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies, or CPACC, from the International Association of Accessibility Professionals. Some job postings ask for it. Luna: Is it worth getting? Or can you skip it? Lucas: Maya says she’s never needed it for freelance work. Clients care about your portfolio and your ability to communicate findings. She recommends starting with free resources: the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative has a free course, and there are YouTube channels like ‘Accessibility Guy’ that show real testing sessions. Luna: And how does she find clients if she’s not on Upwork anymore? Lucas: She gets referrals now. But she also monitors websites that are being sued for accessibility. There’s a site called ADA.gov that lists enforcement actions. She’ll reach out to similar companies and offer a pre-litigation audit. It’s a bit bold, but she says it works because those companies are already nervous. Luna: That’s smart. She’s selling peace of mind. Lucas: Exactly. And she’s very transparent about pricing. She has a standard audit package for a ten-page website that costs one thousand dollars. For an e-commerce site with fifty pages, it’s three thousand five hundred. She also offers retainer-based monthly monitoring for five hundred dollars a month. Luna: So if someone wants to start this week, what’s the first step? Lucas: Pick one screen reader—NVDA is free—and practice navigating your own favorite websites. Try to complete a task, like buying a product or signing up for a newsletter, using only the keyboard and the screen reader. You’ll quickly find frustrations. Document them. That’s your first sample report. Luna: And then offer to do a free audit for a small business or a nonprofit to get that first testimonial. Lucas: Exactly. That’s how Maya got her first paid gig. She did a free audit for a local charity, they posted about it on LinkedIn, and a small business owner saw it and hired her. Luna: It’s a niche where you can genuinely make a difference while making good money. That’s a rare combination. Lucas: It really is. And with the legal landscape and demographic trends, I don’t see demand slowing down anytime soon. Luna: Alright, so for anyone listening who’s detail-oriented and wants a side hustle with purpose, this is definitely one to look into. Lucas: Agreed. Thanks for joining us on The Side Hustle Podcast. We’ll be back next week with another real story of how someone is building extra income on their own terms.