# Website Accessibility Scanner (WCAG · axe-core) (`andadinosaur/web-accessibility-scanner`) Actor

Scans any website for WCAG 2.1 A/AA accessibility violations using axe-core in a real Chromium browser. Crawls representative pages, returns violations with selectors, HTML snippets, and fix guidance.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/andadinosaur/web-accessibility-scanner.md
- **Developed by:** [And a Dinosaur](https://apify.com/andadinosaur) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, SEO tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$10.00 / 1,000 page scanneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Website Accessibility Scanner (WCAG · axe-core)

Audit any website for accessibility issues in minutes. This actor loads your pages in a real
Chromium browser, runs [axe-core](https://github.com/dequelabs/axe-core) — the same engine
used by Lighthouse and most professional audit tools — and returns every WCAG violation it
finds, with CSS selectors, HTML snippets, and links to fix guidance.

### What you get

One dataset item per audited page:

- **violations** — each axe rule that failed, with impact level (critical / serious /
  moderate / minor), the number of affected elements, and up to 10 sample elements with
  their CSS selector, HTML, and a plain-language failure summary
- **violationCount / criticalCount / seriousCount** — totals for quick triage and dashboards
- **passes** — how many checks the page passed
- **incomplete** (optional) — checks that need human review, for manual audits

### What it's for

- **Agencies & freelancers** — generate the findings for client accessibility audits
  (European Accessibility Act, ADA, Section 508 work)
- **Monitoring** — schedule it and diff results to catch regressions after releases
- **Lead generation** — scan prospect sites and open conversations with concrete findings
- **CI-adjacent checks** — audit staging or production URLs on a cadence without wiring
  axe into your build

### How it works

Give it one or more start URLs. For each site it audits the start page, then discovers
same-site links and audits up to *Max pages per site* of them — favoring structurally
different pages (a product page, a blog post, a contact page) over near-duplicates, so a
small page budget still covers your main templates.

Choose the rule set: WCAG 2.1 A+AA (default), A only, or WCAG 2.2 A+AA.

### Honest limits

Automated testing finds roughly half of accessibility issues — the machine-checkable half
(contrast, missing labels and alt text, ARIA misuse, document structure). It cannot judge
whether alt text is *meaningful* or whether keyboard focus order makes sense. A clean scan
is a strong start, not proof of compliance — no automated tool can truthfully promise that.

### Pricing

Pay per page scanned. No subscription, no minimum — scan one page or a thousand.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

One entry per website. The scanner opens each URL, discovers same-site pages from its links, and audits up to <b>Max pages per site</b> of them.

## `maxPagesPerSite` (type: `integer`):

How many pages to audit per website, including the start page. Link discovery favors structurally different pages (different URL sections) over near-duplicates.

## `wcagLevel` (type: `string`):

Which rule set axe-core applies.

## `includeIncomplete` (type: `boolean`):

Also report checks axe could not decide automatically (rule id + element count). Useful for manual audits.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.example.com"
    }
  ],
  "maxPagesPerSite": 5,
  "wcagLevel": "wcag2aa",
  "includeIncomplete": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One item per page: url, title, violations (rule id, impact, help URL, sample elements with CSS selectors and HTML), violationCount, criticalCount, seriousCount, passes.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "startUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://www.example.com"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("andadinosaur/web-accessibility-scanner").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.example.com" }] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("andadinosaur/web-accessibility-scanner").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.example.com"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call andadinosaur/web-accessibility-scanner --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,andadinosaur/web-accessibility-scanner"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/tcRFAp12WAthGRli4/builds/3LhiOUtoGzWzj4sfl/openapi.json