♿ WCAG 2.2 Accessibility Auditor — Bulk axe-core

Audit any website for WCAG 2.2 AA compliance in seconds. Headless Chrome renders each page, axe-core scans for violations, and you get a structured report per URL — severity, WCAG tags, failing selectors, HTML snippets, and a 0-100 accessibility score.

Why this exists: Enterprise accessibility platforms (Siteimprove, AudioEye, Monsido, Deque axe DevTools Pro) charge $5k–$100k/year for site-wide audits. The open-source axe-core engine they all use under the hood is free and MPL-licensed. This actor wraps axe-core in a headless Chrome runner with a clean JSON output — so devs, agencies, and SMBs can audit hundreds of pages for cents, then fix issues without paying for a dashboard they'll check twice a year.

🔑 Features

• WCAG 2.2 AA by default — includes wcag2a, wcag2aa, wcag21aa, wcag22aa tag sets
• axe-core 4.10.0 — same engine used by Deque, Microsoft Accessibility Insights, Google Lighthouse
• Bulk mode — audit 100 URLs in one run, pay per URL audited
• Severity breakdown — critical / serious / moderate / minor counts per page
• Top-25 failing rules — with CSS selector, HTML snippet, and human-readable failure summary
• 0-100 accessibility score — severity-weighted, deterministic, comparable across runs
• Real browser rendering — catches client-side React / Vue / Angular issues that static HTML scanners miss
• Custom WCAG tag config — audit against 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, or best-practice only

💼 Common Use Cases

• Legal compliance — ADA, EN 301 549, Section 508 spot-checks before launch
• Agencies & consultancies — white-label audits for client sites at bulk pricing
• CI/CD gating — fail builds on critical WCAG violations
• Pre-redesign baseline — scan the current site before a redesign, track improvement
• SEO audits — accessibility overlaps with SEO (alt text, heading structure, link labels)
• Procurement — audit vendor SaaS tools you're evaluating for a11y compliance
• Lawsuit risk reduction — screen for low-hanging a11y issues that drive serial-plaintiff demand letters

📥 Input Example

{
  "urls": [
    "https://example.com/",
    "https://example.com/products",
    "https://example.com/checkout"
  ],
  "wcagTags": ["wcag2a", "wcag2aa", "wcag22aa"],
  "timeoutMs": 25000
}

📤 Output (per URL)

{
  "url": "https://example.com/",
  "audit_engine": "axe-core 4.10.0",
  "wcag_version": "2.2",
  "total_violations": 7,
  "total_passes": 38,
  "total_incomplete": 2,
  "total_inapplicable": 62,
  "severity_breakdown": {
    "critical": 1,
    "serious": 3,
    "moderate": 2,
    "minor": 1
  },
  "wcag_tag_coverage": {
    "wcag2a": 4,
    "wcag2aa": 5,
    "wcag22aa": 1
  },
  "accessibility_score": 62,
  "top_violations": [
    {
      "rule_id": "color-contrast",
      "impact": "serious",
      "description": "Ensures the contrast between foreground and background colors meets WCAG 2 AA contrast ratio thresholds",
      "help": "Elements must meet minimum color contrast ratio thresholds",
      "help_url": "https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/4.10/color-contrast",
      "wcag_tags": ["wcag2aa", "wcag143"],
      "affected_nodes": 8,
      "sample_selectors": [".nav-link", ".btn-secondary", "footer a"],
      "sample_html": ["<a class='nav-link' ...", "<button class='btn-secondary' ...", "<a href='/privacy' ..."],
      "failure_summary": "Fix any of the following:\n  Element has insufficient color contrast of 3.2:1 ..."
    }
  ]
}

🐍 Python SDK Example

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("nexgendata/wcag-accessibility-auditor").call(run_input={
    "urls": [
        "https://example.com/",
        "https://example.com/about"
    ]
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"{item['url']} → score {item['accessibility_score']} "
          f"({item['total_violations']} violations)")
    for v in item["top_violations"][:3]:
        print(f"  [{v['impact']}] {v['rule_id']} — {v['affected_nodes']} nodes")

🌐 cURL Example

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/nexgendata~wcag-accessibility-auditor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "urls": ["https://example.com/"]
  }'

🔗 Zapier / Make.com / GitHub Actions Integration

• GitHub Action — run on every PR, comment on violations introduced
• Zapier — new page published in CMS → audit → Slack alert if score drops
• Weekly cron — scan your whole sitemap, track score trends over time

❓ FAQ

Q: What's the difference between this and Google Lighthouse's accessibility audit? Lighthouse also uses axe-core under the hood, but runs only on one page at a time from DevTools. This actor is a bulk API wrapper — run it on 500 URLs programmatically and get machine-parseable JSON per page.

Q: What WCAG version is covered? WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 (Level A and AA) by default. Configure the wcagTags input to narrow to a specific version.

Q: Does this catch all accessibility issues? No automated tool does. axe-core catches roughly 30-40% of WCAG issues — primarily the objective ones (color contrast, missing alt text, missing labels, ARIA misuse). Human testing with screen readers is still needed for the full picture. But automated audits are the cheapest way to catch the bulk of fixable issues fast.

Q: Does it handle logged-in pages? Not yet. Pass only publicly-accessible URLs for now. Authentication support is on the roadmap.

Q: What's the accessibility score based on? Severity-weighted deduction: critical=-15, serious=-8, moderate=-3, minor=-1, scaled by affected node count. A clean site scores 100; typical SMB sites land in 50-80 range.

Q: Is axe-core's output reliable? Yes. axe-core is maintained by Deque Systems (the accessibility firm), is used by Microsoft, Google, IBM, Adobe, and has the lowest false-positive rate of any automated a11y scanner. It's the industry standard.

💰 Pricing (Pay-Per-Event)

• Actor start: $0.005
• URL audited: $0.01

Typical run cost: 100-URL scan = $1.005. Compare with Siteimprove (~$10k/yr starter plans) or enterprise axe DevTools Pro ($495/user/yr).

🔗 Related NexGenData Actors

• Facebook Ads Library Scraper — research competitor ads for a/b positioning
• Google Trends Scraper — track accessibility search interest
• SaaS Pricing Tracker — compare a11y tool pricing

🚀 Apify Affiliate Program

New to Apify? Sign up with our referral link for free platform credits.

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Automated WCAG 2.2 AA auditing for developers, agencies, and procurement teams who need real accessibility scans without enterprise SaaS pricing. Built by NexGenData.