It gets the job done
We use this for very basic accessibility testing for our websites and applications and is by no means a comprehensive breakdown of the …
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What is WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool?
WAVE is a suite of evaluation tools that helps authors make their web content more accessible to individuals with disabilities. WAVE can identify many accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors, but also facilitates human evaluation of web content.…
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Pricing
WAVE API Credits 10000+
$0.25
Cloud
per credit
WAVE API Credits 1000-9999
$0.3
Cloud
per credit
WAVE API Credits 250-999
$0.4
Cloud
per credit
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
What is WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool?
WAVE is a suite of evaluation tools that helps authors make their web content more accessible to individuals with disabilities. WAVE can identify many accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors, but also facilitates human evaluation of web content. The vendor, WebAIM who offers WAVE as a free suite of tools, states their philosophy is to focus on issues that they know impact end users, facilitate human evaluation, and to educate about web accessibility.
The online WAVE tool can be used by entering a web page address (URL) in the field above. WAVE Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browser extensions are available for testing accessibility directly within a web browser - handy for checking password protected, locally stored, or highly dynamic pages. They also have a Accessibility IMpact (AIM) service, subscription WAVE API, and a stand-alone WAVE API and testing engine for collecting data on many pages. For enterprise-level reporting and tracking of accessibility, WAVE powers the Pope Tech accessibility tool.
The WAVE Browser Extension
The WAVE Chrome, Firefox, and Edge extensions allows users to evaluate web content for accessibility issues directly within a browser. Because the extension runs entirely within a web browser, no information is sent to the WAVE server. This ensures 100% private and secure accessibility reporting. The extension can check intranet, password-protected, dynamically generated, or sensitive web pages. Also, because the WAVE extension evaluates the rendered version of your page, locally displayed styles and dynamically-generated content from scripts or AJAX can be evaluated.
The WAVE API
The WAVE API allows automated and remote accessibility analysis of web pages using the WAVE processing engine. Users send the URL or content of the page to be analyzed, and WAVE sends back useful data about how accessible it is. The API engine evaluates the user's web page after CSS and JavaScript has been applied resulting in a very accurate evaluation of end user accessibility.
The WAVE Browser Extension
The WAVE Chrome, Firefox, and Edge extensions allows users to evaluate web content for accessibility issues directly within a browser. Because the extension runs entirely within a web browser, no information is sent to the WAVE server. This ensures 100% private and secure accessibility reporting. The extension can check intranet, password-protected, dynamically generated, or sensitive web pages. Also, because the WAVE extension evaluates the rendered version of your page, locally displayed styles and dynamically-generated content from scripts or AJAX can be evaluated.
The WAVE API
The WAVE API allows automated and remote accessibility analysis of web pages using the WAVE processing engine. Users send the URL or content of the page to be analyzed, and WAVE sends back useful data about how accessible it is. The API engine evaluates the user's web page after CSS and JavaScript has been applied resulting in a very accurate evaluation of end user accessibility.
The would-be user registers for a new API key and can purchase WAVE API credits. All new accounts get 100 free credits. Additional credits are available for as little as $.025 each. The more purchased, the less expensive credits become. For those with APIs, the user performs a simple GET request that contains an API key and the URL of the page to check, and WAVE sendS back results data in either JSON or XML format. It can be customized to get more or less data.
Pope Tech - Powered by WAVE
Pope Tech is an enterprise-level web accessibility evaluation system based on WAVE. This tool helps organizations large and small significantly improve their web site accessibility for people with disabilities by providing monitoring and reporting of accessibility over time.
Pope Tech - Powered by WAVE
Pope Tech is an enterprise-level web accessibility evaluation system based on WAVE. This tool helps organizations large and small significantly improve their web site accessibility for people with disabilities by providing monitoring and reporting of accessibility over time.
WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool Video
Watch Introduction to WAVE
WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
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(5)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Pros
- Cons
Comprehensive and Helpful Reports: Many users have found the reports generated by the product to be comprehensive and helpful in identifying and rectifying accessibility issues quickly. The detailed analysis provided by the product's dashboard is praised for its usefulness in making business decisions.
Customizable Settings: Users appreciate the ability to customize settings according to their preferences, such as scanning the entire webpage or specific sections, and choosing to ignore certain types of accessibility issues. This flexibility allows users to tailor the product to their specific needs.
Seamless Integration through API: Users appreciate the seamless integration of accessibility testing into their development process through the API. This feature streamlines workflow and ensures that website accessibility is addressed from an early stage.
Limited customization options: Some users have expressed a desire for more customization options to tailor the accessibility checks to their specific needs. They feel that having the ability to customize the checks would greatly enhance the usability and effectiveness of the API for their particular use cases.
Cluttered dashboard: The cluttered dashboard has been mentioned by some users as unhelpful. They find it overwhelming and difficult to navigate, which can hinder their workflow when trying to manage and track accessibility issues.
Lack of advanced features and functionality: Several users have noted that they feel the API lacks certain advanced features and functionality that could be useful for specific use cases. They believe that incorporating these additional capabilities would make the API even more robust and valuable in addressing complex accessibility requirements.
Reviews
(1-4 of 4)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
February 16, 2024
It gets the job done
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use this for very basic accessibility testing for our websites and applications and is by no means a comprehensive breakdown of the state of accessibility.
- Identifies contrast errors
- Identifies skipped headings
- locates hidden or empty containers
- It uses pt VS px. Nobody outside of print is using pt
- It has some tools and they are incomplete at best
- misidentifies inputs as needing labels (like a submit which does not require a label)
56.66666666666667%
5.7
- It's free, so it certainly does help
- It gets the low hanging fruit quickly
July 07, 2022
WAVE helping make websites accessible
It addressed accessibility concerns on our website and let us know what we needed to fix in terms of things like alternative text, color, contrast. It helped us look at our website as a whole and go one by one through sections. It was very easy to run the report and discover.
- Provides report of errors for you
- Explains what needs to be fixed so you know why
- Shows the errors next to each item on your website so you can see which one they mean
- Help provide you to resources to fix your website
- Have the website look a little more detailed, it is very plain
- Have people that work to help you make changes to your website
- The summary
- The details where it outlines errors
- Conrast
- It has led us to be more inclusive and accessible in our website
- We have more website visitors
- We have had positive comments about our website in terms of being accessible
The other tools would be a little better than WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. They do require you to pay for their services but offer more support on a daily basis so I would say it would be worth the money. However, I could not go ahead with the websites because they don't work with websites created on GoDaddy Managed Websites and I had to go with WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool.
I routinely use the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool browser extension to check accessibility for web pages and web content. I primarily use it to give vendors a clear and understandable way to see the accessibility errors in their websites as well as in content they want us to embed on our websites. The tool helps us keep our partners meeting at least the bare minimum for accessibility.
- Easy to use
- Easy to read and understand
- Free to use, leaving even stubborn vendors without a reason to refuse.
- Sometimes the automated functions miss things or are mis-triggered
- I would like it to link out to more in-depth reading on issues and resolving them
- I would love it if it generated a PDF report to send people.
- Hosted online so I can send it, or an analyzed page to anyone
- Free
- Easy for anyone else to pick up and check things prior to sending on
- Catches all of the basic issues
- Gives basic explanations that help teach the fundamentals
- Boosted accessibility on pages and page content across our websites
- Allowed us to easily audit content hosted by others
- Given us a method of requiring partners/vendors to meet basic accessibility standards.
WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool is basic and doesn't go far in depth like Siteimprove or a larger suite. It gives you a great view into exactly where basic issues are on the page, in the HTML and how to fix them. Unlike accessibilitychecker.org, it doesn't try to sell you promoted services and doesn't try to collect your email address, sign you up for anything or get you started on a quote with a company. It is exactly what it says on the tin and does that job with no BS.
July 06, 2022
Simple to understand interface makes this a great tool for entry level through experienced testers!
I am the lead web accessibility specialist for the state. This tool was the first automated plugin I ever used during accessibility testing. I use this to spot-check specific web pages as well as automated testing for smaller-scale sites. I also strongly encourage any of our testers to use this as the automated testing component of their testing process.
- Creates a great visual display of where the error is located, both in HTML source and page view.
- An excellent option in the contrast checker is to select the color slider to locate a color that will pass accessible.
- Clearly displays the alt text of images to check that it makes sense and is accurate
- Great at indicating if an error is visually hidden but in the code.
- Clean, organized, easy-to-understand details report
- Have it check for ARIA errors
- Indicate whether errors are A, AA, etc.
- Have the ability to set the accessibility standard level
- Quick export of report
- Simple, easy to understand interface so staff pick up on it quickly.
- Quickly figure out correct color to use for contrast issues via the color slider
- The carefully planned interface makes it great to do screenshots to share with someone to let them know where the error is
- It's great at explaining what the error is and what it means.
- It is an excellent testing tool for our web applications.
- The fact it is free gives the freedom for anyone to use it at any time without needing to budget a tool.
- It is a longstanding, trustworthy product.
For this, I'm speaking specifically to the Siteimprove browser plugin. The Siteimprove plugin: Allows to filter on guideline level Catches a few more errors than WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool, but comes pretty close But, both do a great job in all other aspects WebAIM shines in its simplicity of overlaying of errors and warnings on the page. I think its real benefit is a lower learning curve on understanding how to use the tool