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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Automated accessibility checkers are good at finding some technically detectable problems quickly, and they are worth running repeatedly during development. They cannot show that a service is accessible or usable. A scan with no reported errors means only that the tool’s rules found no failures on the pages it examined. The rest has to be checked by people: whether keyboard users can reach and leave every control, whether focus is visible and follows a sensible order, whether link and form text makes sense, whether content still works at high zoom, and whether a screen reader user can complete a task.
What automated testing catches reliably
The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) describes automated evaluation tools as a way to quickly identify potential accessibility issues, and says they can be used throughout design and development. Coverage varies. Some tools check a single page, others check groups of pages, and products differ by the kinds of content they handle, the file formats and accessibility standards they support, the operating systems and browsers they run on, and how much of the standard they evaluate.
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A working example: GOV.UK’s monitoring process
The UK Government Digital Service (GDS) uses the Axe Chrome extension for simplified testing of GOV.UK services. Its process records severe or critical errors, and a person then checks each highlighted issue manually. That second step matters: it stops best-practice suggestions from being recorded as failures. This is one government team’s workflow, not evidence that Axe or any scanner covers every accessibility problem.
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The W3C WAI states the limit plainly: “Web accessibility evaluation tools can not determine accessibility, they can only assist in doing so.” The statement appears in WAI’s guidance on selecting evaluation tools.
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Section508.gov, the US federal accessibility resource, gives a practical reason. Automated tools cannot apply human judgment, and reducing false positives may mean testing only a small part of the requirements. A scanner tuned to be quiet is therefore not necessarily a thorough one. Section508.gov also flags content that automated checks often miss or handle poorly, including password-protected pages, document-format fidelity, and content types that need different tools.
The table below separates what a tool can inspect from what a person has to decide.
| Check | What an automated tool can inspect | What a person must judge |
|---|---|---|
| Image alternative text | Whether an alt attribute is present | Whether the words are meaningful in that context, or whether the image should be marked as decorative |
| Form controls and labels | Whether a label is structurally associated with its control | Whether the label tells the user what to enter, and whether instructions appear before the field |
| Link text | Whether a link has text at all | Whether the text describes the destination when read out of context, such as in a list of links |
| Keyboard focus | Not established by the official guidance as fully automatable | Whether every control is reachable, focus is visible, the order is logical, and focus is never trapped |
| Zoom and reflow | Not established by the official guidance as fully automatable | Whether text stays readable at 400% zoom and small-screen widths without content being cut off |
| Audio, video, and images of text | Whether an alternative element exists | Whether the alternative is adequate, and whether animations, carousels and their controls work for the user |
| Assistive technology use | Not applicable | Whether a complete task can be finished with a screen reader or speech recognition |
No authoritative percentage of accessibility problems that automated tools detect has been published that can be safely quoted. Any such figure depends on the study’s pages, criteria, and tools, so treat claims of a fixed coverage rate with caution unless you can check the study and its scope.
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Manual checks developers should run
Run these checks on each new feature and on any change to navigation, forms, or interactive components. They take less time than they sound, and they catch the failures that matter most to people who do not use a mouse or see the screen.
Keyboard use and focus
- Set the mouse and trackpad aside and load the page.
- Press Tab from the top of the page, then Shift+Tab to move backwards, and reach every link, button, form field and custom control.
- Confirm that focus is always visible on the element you are on.
- Check that the focus order follows the visual reading order, including inside menus, dialogs and expanding panels.
- Activate every control with Enter or Space and confirm that the action is expected and does not move focus unexpectedly.
- Check that you can leave every component with the keyboard. A component that captures focus with no way out is a keyboard trap.
Zoom and reflow
In Chrome, Edge or Firefox, press Ctrl+plus (Cmd+plus on macOS) until the page reaches 400% zoom. Then narrow the browser window to a small-screen width. Text should remain readable, and content should not be cut off or hidden. GOV.UK links this check to the WCAG resize-text and reflow success criteria, which describe these expectations in formal terms.
Link text and alternative text
Read the links on a page as a list, out of their surrounding paragraph. Phrases such as “click here” or “read more” that do not identify the destination need rewording. For images that carry meaning, the alternative text should convey the purpose of the image in context. A tool can tell you whether an alt attribute exists, but it cannot judge whether the words are right.
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Form labels and instructions
Check that every field has a visible label that remains when the field is focused, and that required fields and expected formats are described before the user submits. Then check that the label is programmatically connected to its control, using the browser’s accessibility inspector where available. The inspector shows the name a screen reader will announce.
Audio, video, and images of text
Confirm that audio and video have appropriate alternatives, such as captions or a text transcript where the content requires one. Check that text presented as an image is either avoidable or provided as real text. Where content moves, such as an automatic carousel, confirm that the user can pause or stop it and reach its controls with the keyboard.
Assistive technology testing
Use relevant assistive technologies, such as a screen reader or speech recognition software, and test complete user flows rather than individual pages. Start with the flow that matters most, such as sign-up, checkout or form submission, and note any step where the announced content does not match what you see. Simulated checks are not a replacement for this work, and the W3C recommends including disabled people in usability research for the same reason.
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Conformance testing and usability testing answer different questions
The W3C’s WCAG 2.2 Understanding Conformance guidance says: “All WCAG 2 success criteria are written as testable criteria for objectively determining if content satisfies them. Testing the success criteria would involve a combination of automated testing and human evaluation.”
That guidance also separates two activities. Functional conformance testing asks whether the content meets the success criteria. Usability testing asks whether people can accomplish tasks with it. The guidance recommends usability testing in addition to conformance testing, and recommends that usability test groups include users with disabilities. A page can pass a set of criteria and still be hard to use, and a page can feel usable to one tester and still fail a specific criterion. Plan for both.
State the scope of any accessibility report
A report is only useful if a reader knows what it covers. GOV.UK’s detailed audits test relevant WCAG A and AA criteria, use assistive technology, and remain sample-based: they do not cover every page on the website. Its monitoring method references WCAG 2.2 A and AA. GDS’s service guidance was last updated in October 2024. These describe one government workflow, not a universal legal standard, and requirements differ by jurisdiction.
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Record the following with every report:
- The pages, user flows, and content types tested, and the pages or flows deliberately excluded.
- The WCAG version and the levels (A, AA, or AAA) that were assessed.
- The browsers, operating systems, and assistive technologies used, with versions.
- Which findings came from automated tools, which came from manual checks, and which came from testing with disabled users.
- Any content that was password-protected or inaccessible to the tester, and any document formats that were not checked.
Choosing evaluation tools
W3C WAI recommends judging a tool against your own purpose before comparing features. The factors it lists include:
- Purpose and the stage of development where the tool will be used
- Product type, price or license, and tool type
- Which accessibility standards and file formats it supports
- Scope, meaning whether it checks a single page or groups of pages
- Operating system and browser support
- Accessibility of the tool itself, so that the people running it can use it
- Rules support and language coverage
Teams often combine tools, each suited to a different role, such as a browser extension for developers and a site-wide crawler for a content team. A scanner is one part of an evaluation plan, and the manual checks above remain necessary whichever tools you choose.
Start with the checks in this article, then add tooling to make them repeatable. The automated part of the work is most valuable when the manual part is already defined.
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