# Accessibility Checker – WCAG 2.2 Audit with axe-core (`ostrata/accessibility-checker`) Actor

Check websites for WCAG 2.0 / 2.1 / 2.2 accessibility issues with axe-core in real Chrome. Violations by impact, WCAG criteria, failing elements, fix links, pass rate per page. Audit a URL list or crawl a site. European Accessibility Act / ADA checks, pay per page.

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

## Pricing

from $6.00 / 1,000 pages

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?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Accessibility Checker – WCAG 2.2 Audit with axe-core

**Find the accessibility problems on any website, page by page.** The Actor opens each page in a real Chrome browser, runs [axe-core](https://github.com/dequelabs/axe-core) (the open-source engine behind most accessibility tools), and returns the WCAG violations with their impact, the WCAG success criteria, the failing elements and a link explaining how to fix each one.

**Also known as:** WCAG checker, ADA compliance checker, accessibility audit API, axe accessibility scanner, European Accessibility Act (EAA) / EN 301 549 check, RGAA pre-audit, website accessibility test, a11y scanner.

- **WCAG 2.0 A/AA, 2.1 AA, 2.2 AA or AAA rule sets**, plus optional axe best practices.
- **Real browser:** pages are rendered in Chrome (desktop or mobile viewport), so JavaScript apps are audited as users see them.
- **List of URLs or site crawl:** audit only the pages you give, or follow same-site links up to N pages per site.
- **Clean output for reports and dashboards:** counts by impact (critical, serious, moderate, minor), failing-element samples with CSS selectors and HTML, "needs review" items, rule pass rate.
- **Polite:** robots.txt respected, one page at a time per site, at least 1 s apart. No login, no CAPTCHA solving, no bot-protection bypass.

### Input

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://www.w3.org/WAI/demos/bad/before/home.html", "https://example.com/"],
  "standard": "wcag21aa",
  "includeBestPractices": false,
  "maxPagesPerSite": 1,
  "device": "desktop"
}
```

Crawl a site (up to 50 pages, WCAG 2.2 AA, mobile):

```json
{ "urls": ["https://www.example.org/"], "maxPagesPerSite": 50, "standard": "wcag22aa", "device": "mobile" }
```

### Output (real run, 19 Oct 2026, W3C "inaccessible" demo page)

```json
{
  "url": "https://www.w3.org/WAI/demos/bad/before/home.html",
  "status": "ok",
  "title": "Welcome to CityLights! [Inaccessible Home Page]",
  "standard": "wcag21aa",
  "violationsCount": 5,
  "violationNodesCount": 44,
  "critical": 2, "serious": 3, "moderate": 0, "minor": 0,
  "needsReviewCount": 1,
  "rulePassRatePercent": 72.2,
  "violations": [
    {
      "id": "image-alt", "impact": "critical",
      "help": "Images must have alternative text",
      "helpUrl": "https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/4.14/image-alt?application=axeAPI",
      "wcagCriteria": ["1.1.1"], "nodesCount": 33,
      "nodes": [{ "target": "img[src$=\"border_left_top.gif\"]", "html": "<img src=\"./img/border_left_top.gif\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\">", "failureSummary": "Fix any of the following: Element does not have an alt attribute …" }]
    }
  ],
  "axeVersion": "4.14.0",
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-19T10:35:00.000Z"
}
```

Pages that cannot be loaded (HTTP 4xx/5xx, timeout, robots.txt disallow, unreachable site) come back as free rows with `status: "error"`. A `SUMMARY` record in the key-value store lists every page.

### Pricing

Pay per event, no subscription:

- **Page** (page loaded and audited): **$0.006** → $6 per 1,000 pages.
- Actor start: $0.00005.

Errors are free. The run stops at your maximum charge per run and never bills past it.

### Honest limits

- **Automated testing finds roughly a third to a half of WCAG issues.** Many criteria (meaningful alt text, keyboard flows, captions, reading order) need a human. Use this for monitoring, triage and regression checks, not as a legal conformance certificate.
- "Needs review" items are cases axe cannot decide automatically; they are listed, not counted as violations.
- Pages behind a login, cookie walls that block content, and sites that block automated browsers are reported as errors, not bypassed.
- Only the initial page state is audited (no clicks, menus or form steps).
- The crawl follows plain links on the same origin (no sitemap parsing yet) and skips files, login, cart and checkout URLs.

### Use cases

- Agencies and freelancers: quick accessibility pre-audits for prospects and clients.
- European Accessibility Act (in force since June 2025), ADA, Section 508 and RGAA monitoring across many sites.
- CI / scheduled regression checks of key templates after releases.
- Lead generation for accessibility services: find sites with critical issues.

### Related Actors

- [Website Change Monitor](https://apify.com/ostrata/website-change-monitor): get what changed on any page since the last run.
- [Wayback Machine API](https://apify.com/ostrata/wayback-machine-api): snapshots, archived URLs and historical changes of any site.
- [EU Company Verification (KYB)](https://apify.com/ostrata/eu-company-check): verify companies from a name, SIREN/SIRET, VAT number or LEI.
- [Website to Company (Impressum & Mentions Légales)](https://apify.com/ostrata/website-company-check): find and verify the legal entity behind a website.
- [France Company List (SIRENE)](https://apify.com/ostrata/france-company-list): French B2B company lists from the official register.
- [All-ATS Jobs API](https://apify.com/ostrata/ats-jobs-api): normalized jobs from Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workable, SmartRecruiters and Recruitee.
- [AI Brand Visibility Tracker](https://apify.com/ostrata/ai-search-visibility): whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini mention and cite your brand.

Built on axe-core © Deque Systems (MPL-2.0). Not affiliated with Deque or W3C.

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

One page URL per line. With 'Max pages per site' above 1, the Actor also follows same-site links from these pages.

## `standard` (type: `string`):

Which axe-core rule tags to run.

## `includeBestPractices` (type: `boolean`):

Adds axe best-practice rules (not WCAG requirements), e.g. landmarks, heading order.

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

1 = audit only the URLs you list. Higher = also crawl same-site links (breadth-first) up to this many pages per site.

## `device` (type: `string`):

Viewport used for the audit.

## `maxNodesPerRule` (type: `integer`):

Sample of failing elements (CSS selector, HTML, fix summary) per violated rule. Counts are always complete.

## `waitAfterLoadMs` (type: `integer`):

Lets client-side apps finish rendering before the audit.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Pages of the same site are always audited one after another.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.w3.org/WAI/demos/bad/before/home.html",
    "https://example.com/"
  ],
  "standard": "wcag21aa",
  "includeBestPractices": false,
  "maxPagesPerSite": 1,
  "device": "desktop",
  "maxNodesPerRule": 5,
  "waitAfterLoadMs": 1500,
  "maxConcurrency": 3
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Dataset items.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Counts and per-page status.

# 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 = {
    "urls": [
        "https://www.w3.org/WAI/demos/bad/before/home.html",
        "https://example.com/"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ostrata/accessibility-checker").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 = { "urls": [
        "https://www.w3.org/WAI/demos/bad/before/home.html",
        "https://example.com/",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ostrata/accessibility-checker").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 '{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.w3.org/WAI/demos/bad/before/home.html",
    "https://example.com/"
  ]
}' |
apify call ostrata/accessibility-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/J3R9me0gGTIasoS1S/builds/SVZYzTelFL5HiwCk1/openapi.json