diff --git a/.github/workflows/check_a11y_docs.yml b/.github/workflows/check_a11y_docs.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6553dc98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/check_a11y_docs.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+name: check a11y docs
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [main]
+  pull_request:
+    branches: [main]
+
+jobs:
+  a11y:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout code
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      - name: Set up Python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: '3.11'
+          cache: 'pip'
+
+      - name: Set up Chrome
+        id: setup-chrome
+        uses: browser-actions/setup-chrome@v1
+        with:
+          install-chromedriver: true
+
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        run: |
+          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
+          pip install '.[dev]'
+          # install ChromeDriver
+          npx browser-driver-manager install chrome
+          # copy chromedriver path to ENV variable
+          echo "CHROMEDRIVER-PATH=$CHROMEDRIVER_TEST_PATH" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+
+      - name: Build public documentation
+        run: |
+          export DB_URI="sqlite:///:memory:"
+          export INITIAL_ALGORITHMS=""
+          export VERSION=${{ env.NEXT_TAG }}
+          ./scripts/build_docs.sh _site
+
+      - name: Serve documentation
+        run: |
+          # run npx serve in the background to serve the _site directory
+          npx serve _site & npx wait-on http://localhost:3000
+
+      - name: Run accessibility checks
+        run: |
+          npm install -g @axe-core/cli
+          # for every recursively nested *.html file in _site, run a11y checks
+          for file in $(find _site -name '*.html'); do
+            path=${file#_site/}
+            echo "path to check: ${path}"
+            echo "driver path: ${{ env.CHROMEDRIVER-PATH }}"
+            axe --exit --tags wcag2aa --load-delay 1500 http://127.0.0.1:3000/$path
+          done
diff --git a/docs/mkdocs.yml b/docs/mkdocs.yml
index 52f8ccd8..74505649 100644
--- a/docs/mkdocs.yml
+++ b/docs/mkdocs.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 site_name: !ENV [SITE_NAME, 'RecordLinker Documentation']
+site_url: !ENV [SITE_URL, 'http://localhost:3000']
 theme:
   name: "material"
   icon:
diff --git a/scripts/build_docs.sh b/scripts/build_docs.sh
index 609e7765..08a879e7 100755
--- a/scripts/build_docs.sh
+++ b/scripts/build_docs.sh
@@ -14,5 +14,5 @@ VERSION=${VERSION:-$(python -c "from recordlinker._version import __version__; p
 SITE_NAME="RecordLinker Documentation (${VERSION})"
 
 SITE_NAME=${SITE_NAME} mkdocs build --config-file docs/mkdocs.yml -d "../${OUT}"
-python -m recordlinker.utils.openapi_schema > ${OUT}/openapi.json
-npx  @redocly/cli build-docs -t docs/api_template.hbs -o "${OUT}/api-docs.html" "${OUT}/openapi.json"
+python -m recordlinker.utils.openapi_schema > "${OUT}/openapi.json"
+npx @redocly/cli build-docs -t docs/api_template.hbs -o "${OUT}/api-docs.html" "${OUT}/openapi.json"