WAVE Tool

Previous: WAI-ARIA

Using tools to help with compliance

Before going any further, it is very important to review this principle:

You cannot guarantee accessibility with any technical tool.

The WCAG2.0aa guidelines, the principles of accessibility, and the RANCH rules CANNOT be adequately tested with a technical tool. The WAVE tool cannot test all WAI-ARIA compatibility. The WAVE tool cannot by itself test accessibility compliance.

It takes a knowledgable human to test your website for accessibility compliance.

Technical tools can definitely help with testing for compliance but cannot and should not be the sole determining test as to whether a website is technically compliant.


WAVE Tool Capabilities and Limitations

The WAVE tool will help you get a handle on certain aspects of accessibility compliance. The WAVE tool is very good at:

  • Checking Readability regarding ALT tags (the “R” in RANCH)
  • Checking Architecture (the “A” in RANCH)
  • Checking Contrast of text elements (the “C” in RANCH)

The WAVE tool is not great at:

  • Checking Readability regarding scaling (The “R” in RANCH)
  • Checking Navigation (the “N” in RANCH)
  • Checking Helpers (the “H” in RANCH)

Remember: Just because the WAVE tool finds no errors on your website does not mean you are accessible.


Using the WAVE Tool

To use the WAVE tool:

  1. Point your browser to http://wave.webaim.org
  2. Enter your website into the browser’s search box.
  3. Click “Go”
  4. Within seconds, you will be presented with a results screen that will get you going.

The results screen is broken in to two main portions: The left hand “report” pane and the main body “results” pane.

The main body of the page is the results pane. The Results pane is the website you entered with some special markup that corresponds to results. The markups are clickable and will tell you what results is associated with each markup. These markup results will help you narrow down possible areas of inaccessibility on your website.

Make sure to check the Contrast tab at the top as well. Contrast is not an optional compliance. In order to be accessible, a web page cannot have contrast concerns.