WAVE Accessibility checker and evaluation tool is a robust, lightweight, free online accessibility checker that allows website owners to quickly check their web accessibility compliance. Since 2001, WAVE has been the accessibility lifeline for thousands of websites. What are the top features of this checker, and how does the scanner work exactly? Is WAVE accessibility checker the best website scanner today? Let’s find out.
Our first impression of WAVE Accessibility was riveting. The design of the website is quite basic. However, that shouldn’t influence your decision to use this platform. In a pilot scan, we tested WAVE Accessibility alongside a stopwatch. It completed its accessibility check-in in under sixteen seconds. This is about the average time for most of the top accessibility checkers we have tested, but then for a single page.
WAVE Accessibility provides robust accessibility testing through its online and in-browser extensions. For most accessibility scanners with this option, axe, for example, it is not always convenient to run a scan except by installing the Chrome extension before initiating the check on a computer. Contrary to this strict protocol, the WAVE Accessibility checker is generous enough to allow for a mobile scan. That is, you can conveniently run an accessibility check of a given page on your mobile phone. To take advantage of this on-the-go check, all you have to do is type your website URL in the web page address box which WAVE provides on its site for those going for the online scan — a similar process with aCe, TAW, and Siteimprove.
In no time, WAVE Accessibility will display a version of the page you have entered with your scan results in a sidebar on the left of the window. The result pops up under four broad headings: Summary, Details, References, Structure, and Contrast. At a glance, you can get a gist of your website accessibility in figures. When we go deeper into the audit report, the Summary section shows the check’s real result. Other headings — Details, References, Structure, and Contrast — are just accompaniments, very important ones, though. Mind you; WAVE Accessibility does not provide an option to export your audit report.
The Summary section is where you find accessibility Errors, Alerts, Contrast Errors, Features, Structural Elements, ARIA. As you might guess, Errors are genuine WCAG violations that the system has flagged on your website. These issues will impact some users. Alerts are elements that may cause accessibility issues which an accessibility evaluator is required to decide its impact. For instance, WAVE Accessibility could alert about a long alternative text which it has found on your page. You may then decide whether to rectify or ignore it. Features indicate accessibility features that could improve accessibility if affected. Structural elements are data concerning the organization of content on the web page. This item is also concerned with page regions with HTML or ARIA. It shows the heading structure, identifies hidden elements and indicates nesting elements.
By employing inline icons, WAVE Accessibility displays accessibility issues on a page. The beauty of these icons is that they lead you directly to the specific part of the page where the problem is spotted, a sort of shortcut. So, by clicking on an icon, it directs you to a related issue that the system had associated with it. On getting to the inline icon representing an accessibility issue, you may click on it to open a tooltip for the error. A tooltip describes a flagged issue in succinct terms and provides direct links to the World Content Accessibility Guidelines Standard related to it and the affected line of code.
The importance of using the Reference button is to have a full list of the issue. This section describes the issue at hand (what it means), its impact on users (why it matters), and a quick workable solution to it (what to do). Recall that each error tooltip comes with a link to the appropriate line of code; you can click on this feature to display the region and line. To make it easier for your developers to spot, the same inline icon is replicated next to the affected code.
It seems the WAVE Accessibility checker has been designed with a special focus on Contrast Errors because every scan gives special attention to it. This is understandable since the tool incorporates the World Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) level AA. The importance of contrast inaccessibility cannot be overemphasized. One way WAVE Accessibility emphasizes this is through the use of color-coded icons for each of the six categories of a scan result. The reason for doing this is to ensure that people with color blindness may easily find their way around it. WAVE Accessibility is also designed to be accessible to keyboard users and people who might rely on screen readers. Thus, the remaining four panels on the sidebar – featuring Details, Reference, Structure, and Contrast – are tab navigable. Mind you, WAVE Accessibility may not detect all contrast errors.
Yes, it is very much possible to run an accessibility check on all your website pages with WAVE’s free online software. The only sacrifice you may have to make is to dedicate the time to scan the pages one after the other since the free WAVE online web evaluation tool was designed to check pages individually. Another good news is that WAVE Accessibility supports multiple scanning. So, you can scan and re-scan almost without a limit.
That said, the creators of WAVE have created a solution for organizations with large or enterprise-sized websites. Pope Tech, an advanced version of WAVE Accessibility, lets users deploy the power of WAVE Accessibility across an entire website, be it big or small. Pope Tech functions the same way as WAVE except that it supports full, unlimited automated scans of large and small websites. It also provides a track of accessibility progress and email reports of scans. Not only that, Pope Tech grants you access to a customizable dashboard where you can run an instant scan or schedule accessibility checks for later. Finally, you can manage multiple websites through this advanced accessibility system and assign roles to users and groups to boost productivity.
WAVE checks specifically for WCAG (2.0) Level A/AA issues. Hence, it is much comparable with other accessibility checkers like TAW, Siteimprove, and so on. Regarding accessibility checkers, it seems the World Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is the gold standard. Only a few solutions have so far gone beyond this testing standard to include other regulations; those that did —including aCe and axe, the WCAG requirements still turn out to be the overarching metric.
WAVE accessibility checker works primarily on Chrome and Firefox. It also works with Internet Explorer and Edge browsers by adding WAVE Accessibility as an extension. However, it does not support the Safari browser at the moment. This probably is one of the upgrades its development team would work on in the nearest future. It is equally very possible to run a successful scan with all its processes on a mobile device. We tested WAVE online accessibility web service on a mobile Chrome browser, and the experience was nearly as smooth on the desktop.
WAVE Accessibility was intended to be a complementary tool from the outset, and it has remained so. Despite its being free, the tool is an amazing way to scan for accessibility and get suggestions for remediation. Nonetheless, there are several limitations on this free version that may push users to opt for the premium version.
Pope Tech, the WAVE Accessibility advanced website accessibility checker, is among the solutions with defined pricing. Its pricing model is based on several unique pages. Of course, it is possible to buy either a monthly or yearly subscription.
Perhaps because the tool is meant to be an open ground for every website owner to run a quick, free accessibility check on their website, WAVE Accessibility does not present any tangible customer support on its page. The only tab signaling something similar is the Feedback button, which lets users drop a message using a feedback form. There are no contact mediums on WAVE’s accessibility scanning page. When we looked further on Pope Tech, a paid version of WAVE Accessibility, we found a “Contact Us” page including a phone number, a mailing address, and a contact form.
WAVE Accessibility is one of the most impressive accessibility scanners we have seen on the market. It has many interesting features that make it a top accessibility checker. On top of its robustness, its ease of use is remarkable. WAVE accessibility report is rendered in plain English, making it comprehensible to every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Since accessibility is anchored on technical website build, the report includes code-level analysis. Every audit report comes with a full description of accessibility compliance status, including several compliance issues and their impact on users, as well as accurate suggestions for remediation. A testimony to its accessibility spirit, WAVE’s online web service supports tab navigation and is accessible through screen readers.
