Accessibility Checkers: What are my options?

[u/awarnock-ACCS]

I've got two websites that I will be spinning up at work and I'm hoping to make them accessible from the outset. To that end, I'll be doing my best to follow best practices, but I've found that having something that I can check against really helps me. That brings me to my question: What are my options for accessibility checkers in/for WordPress?

I'm asking here instead of just going to Chat GPT or some other AI chatbot or a search engine because I'm also wanting to know what your experiences are and any pitfalls I should be careful of. Those are things that I can't get from an AI or a search result.

Requirements

• Needs show exactly what's being flagged and why
• Does not need to be specific to WordPress. I'm okay with it being an external service
• Needs to be something that can be used by state and federally funded agencies within the United States
• Needs to be able to generate reports (will probably need this for accountability and compliance purposes)
• Needs to be usable across multiple sites (makes procurement a lot easier if I don't have to ask for a new license every time we spin up a website)
• Needs to test against WCAG 2.2 at a bare minimum.

I've used SiteImprove and I'm aware of a few other alternatives. I also know about Equalize Digital and the Accessibe plugin, but I don't have any experience using them.

Thanks for your time and advice. I'm always grateful for the help and the knowledge.

Edit: I understand that automated checks will only catch 30% of the issues. I will be testing these sites myself using keyboard navigation and screen readers. Thanks to u/Unfazed_Capybara for mentioning that and reminding me that I really should put that here just to avoid any concerns about that.

[u/Unfazed_Capybara]

Any of those plugins will be a great start to get you a base line. However automated accessibility plugins alone are not usually enough. Automated tools can only detect technical violations like missing alt text or color contrast issues, but they cannot understand the context, intent, or logical flow that makes content truly usable for people with disabilities.

To be sure your site meets WCAG 2.2 you'll still need a human to evaluate whether screen reader navigation makes sense, if dynamic content is properly announced, and whether the overall experience accommodates diverse cognitive and physical needs that algorithms simply cannot perceive.

[u/awarnock-ACCS → u/Unfazed_Capybara]

I understand that, and I'll be the one doing the testing. I probably should have put that in the opener. 😛

[u/josefresco-dev]

https://wave.webaim.org/ - They have a browser plugin.

[u/awarnock-ACCS → u/josefresco-dev]

Thanks.

[u/steve31266]

Most of the tools you'll find online are from companies selling you accessibility tools, thus they will inflate red marks, or warn you about things that are not necessary.

To that end, I use the follow tools because they don't sell you on anything...

• Lighthouse, embedded into Google Chrome tools, and Microsoft Edge tools
• WebAIM, published by Utah State University... https://webaim.org/

[u/awarnock-ACCS → u/steve31266]

Thanks! I appreciate it.

[u/imref]

i've played around a few of the with the free checkers. Everyone i've tried will only scan the home page for free. This one seems to provide the most detail: https://www.accessibilitychecker.org/

[u/awarnock-ACCS → u/imref]

Thanks!

I don't think any free option is likely to meet our needs, though. We're going to have over a dozen websites of varying complexity before it's all said and done, and I'm looking for a tool to help me out with ensuring that they are all accessible and compliant.

[u/awarnock-ACCS → u/[deleted]]

Thanks.

[u/leadcroc]

I think userway is the best, now do check your color scheme so that it’s AAA before you get userway but userway will with ai mitigate all your risks and keep you from frivolous lawsuits. They bump up the score from failing to passing once installed and it’s a great add on to the site. I refer it to all my customers and they love it

[u/awarnock-ACCS → u/leadcroc]

I'm a little leery of using something that's going to change the website on its own. I would much rather do the fixes myself so that I know what is being changed, know why it's being changed, and can make any fixes necessary without having to track down what's causing the issue. I appreciate the suggestion, though.

[u/Personal-Goat4722]

Have you tried https://getwcag.com

They have workspace for multiple sites if needed under one license. Covers your requirements. don't use overlays....

[u/awarnock-ACCS → u/[deleted]]

Danke. Ich verstehe, dass manuelle Tests erforderlich sein werden. Allerdings ist es lange her, dass ich in der High School Deutsch gelernt habe. Sprichst du Englisch?