♿ ADA Website Compliance Checker

Scan any website for ADA/WCAG accessibility violations in seconds. Get every violation with severity, element-level details, fix recommendations, and a compliance score — all powered by axe-core (Deque's industry-standard engine, 90+ rules).

📋 Table of Contents

• What is this?
• How to use
• Input
• Output
• JSON output example
• How much does it cost?
• Use cases
• Integrations
• Is it legal?
• Troubleshooting
• FAQ
• Tech stack
• Feedback & issues

🤔 What is this?

ADA Website Compliance Checker is an Apify Actor that automatically tests websites against WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards. It detects violations (missing alt text, poor color contrast, keyboard navigation issues, ARIA errors, etc.) using axe-core — the same engine trusted by Microsoft, Google, and Deque. You get a structured compliance report with severity levels, CSS selectors for every broken element, and direct links to remediation guides.

Perfect for: agencies auditing client sites, developers pre-checking before launch, legal teams assessing lawsuit risk, and anyone who needs ADA compliance verification at scale.

🚀 How to use

Step 1: Add your URLs

In the Apify Console, enter one or more starting URLs you want to scan. You can scan a single page or enable multi-page crawling.

Step 2: Configure options (optional)

• Max pages — How many pages to crawl per starting URL (default: 1, max: 50)
• WCAG levels — Which conformance levels to test (A, AA, AAA)
• Screenshot — Capture page screenshots during scan
• Wait for selector — CSS selector to wait for before scanning (for SPAs)

Step 3: Run the Actor

Click Start. The Actor launches a headless Chromium browser, loads each page, runs axe-core, and pushes results to the dataset.

Step 4: Export results

• Dataset — Download as JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML from the Output tab
• Key-value store — Final aggregated output in OUTPUT key
• Screenshots — If enabled, saved as PNG files in key-value store

Quick start (API)

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://example.com" },
    { "url": "https://yoursite.com/pricing" }
  ],
  "maxPages": 5,
  "screenshot": false
}

📥 Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
startUrls	array	required	URLs to scan. Format: [{ "url": "https://..." }]
maxPages	integer	1	Max pages per starting URL (1–50). Follows internal links.
wcagLevels	array	["AA"]	WCAG conformance levels: "A", "AA", "AAA"
timeout	integer	30000	Page load timeout in milliseconds
screenshot	boolean	false	Capture page screenshots during scan
waitForSelector	string	—	CSS selector to wait for before scanning (for SPA content)

📤 Output

Per-page results (dataset)

Each scanned page is pushed as a dataset item:

Field	Type	Description
url	string	Page URL scanned
pageTitle	string	HTML <title> of the page
scanDate	string	ISO 8601 timestamp
summary	object	Violation counts by severity, compliance score, grade, lawsuit risk
violations	array	Each violation with ruleId, description, impact, tags, help, helpUrl, affected nodes
passes	array	Rules that passed
incomplete	array	Checks requiring manual review

Final output (key-value store)

Field	Type	Description
totalPages	integer	Total pages scanned
totalViolations	integer	Aggregate violation count
overallScore	integer	Average compliance score (0–100)
overallGrade	string	Overall letter grade (A–F)
overallRisk	string	Overall lawsuit risk (Low/Medium/High/Critical)
results	array	Per-page results

📄 JSON output example

Here's real output from scanning example.com:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "pageTitle": "Example Domain",
  "scanDate": "2026-07-04T02:15:33.841Z",
  "summary": {
    "totalViolations": 0,
    "critical": 0,
    "serious": 0,
    "moderate": 0,
    "minor": 0,
    "passes": 12,
    "incomplete": 0,
    "complianceScore": 100,
    "grade": "A",
    "lawsuitRisk": "Low"
  },
  "violations": [],
  "passes": [
    { "ruleId": "color-contrast", "description": "Ensures the contrast between foreground and background colors meets WCAG 2 AA contrast ratio thresholds" },
    { "ruleId": "image-alt", "description": "Ensures <img> elements have alternate text or a role of none or presentation" }
  ],
  "incomplete": []
}

And here's output from a site with violations (redacted for brevity):

{
  "url": "https://example-broken-site.com",
  "pageTitle": "ACME Corp — Home",
  "scanDate": "2026-07-04T02:20:15.123Z",
  "summary": {
    "totalViolations": 4,
    "critical": 1,
    "serious": 2,
    "moderate": 1,
    "minor": 0,
    "passes": 8,
    "incomplete": 2,
    "complianceScore": 62,
    "grade": "D",
    "lawsuitRisk": "High"
  },
  "violations": [
    {
      "ruleId": "html-has-lang",
      "description": "Ensures every HTML document has a lang attribute",
      "impact": "serious",
      "tags": ["cat.language", "wcag2a", "wcag311", "ACT", "TTv5", "TT6.a"],
      "help": "The <html> element must have a lang attribute",
      "helpUrl": "https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/html-has-lang",
      "nodes": [
        {
          "target": ["html"],
          "html": "<html>",
          "failureSummary": "Fix any of the following:\n  The <html> element does not have a lang attribute"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "ruleId": "image-alt",
      "description": "Ensures <img> elements have alternate text or a role of none or presentation",
      "impact": "critical",
      "tags": ["cat.text-alternatives", "wcag2a", "wcag111", "section508", "section508.22.a", "TTv5", "TT7.a"],
      "help": "Images must have alternate text",
      "helpUrl": "https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/image-alt",
      "nodes": [
        {
          "target": ["img.hero-logo"],
          "html": "<img src=\"/logo.png\" class=\"hero-logo\">",
          "failureSummary": "Fix any of the following:\n  Element does not have an alt attribute"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "ruleId": "color-contrast",
      "description": "Ensures the contrast between foreground and background colors meets WCAG 2 AA contrast ratio thresholds",
      "impact": "serious",
      "tags": ["cat.color", "wcag2aa", "wcag143", "ACT", "TTv5", "TT8.c"],
      "help": "Elements must meet minimum color contrast ratio thresholds",
      "helpUrl": "https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/color-contrast",
      "nodes": [
        {
          "target": [".cta-button"],
          "html": "<a href=\"/contact\" class=\"cta-button\">Contact Us</a>",
          "failureSummary": "Fix any of the following:\n  Element has insufficient color contrast of 2.8:1 (foreground: #999999, background: #f5f5f5, font-size: 14pt, font-weight: normal). Expected contrast ratio of 4.5:1"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "ruleId": "label",
      "description": "Ensures every form element has a label",
      "impact": "moderate",
      "tags": ["cat.forms", "wcag2a", "wcag332", "wcag412", "section508", "section508.22.n", "ACT", "TTv5", "TT5.c"],
      "help": "Form elements must have labels",
      "helpUrl": "https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/label",
      "nodes": [
        {
          "target": ["#newsletter-email"],
          "html": "<input type=\"email\" id=\"newsletter-email\" placeholder=\"Email\">",
          "failureSummary": "Fix any of the following:\n  Form element does not have an explicit label\n  Form element does not have an implicit label"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

💰 How much does it cost?

$2 per website scan. No subscription, no monthly fees. Pay only when results are returned.

Cost examples

Use case	Pages	Cost
Single page audit	1 page	$2
Full website scan (10 pages)	10 pages	$2 (counted as 1 starting URL, 10 sub-pages crawled)
Agency portfolio check (5 clients × 1 page)	5 URLs	$10
Bulk compliance audit (50 URLs)	50 URLs	$100
Monthly monitoring (1 site × 12 months)	12 scans	$24/year

Note: maxPages crawls sub-pages within one starting URL — the $2 charge is per starting URL, not per sub-page. Scanning 1 URL with maxPages: 50 costs $2, not $100.

🎯 Use cases

• ADA compliance audits — Scan client websites before/after remediation to measure improvement
• Lead generation — Scan prospects' sites, identify violations, pitch remediation services
• Pre-launch checks — Catch accessibility issues before deploying to production
• Risk assessment — Evaluate lawsuit exposure before demand letters arrive
• Ongoing monitoring — Schedule recurring runs to catch accessibility regressions
• Agency bulk checks — Scan portfolios of 50+ client sites in one run
• Legal compliance — Document WCAG conformance efforts for ADA, Section 508, EAA compliance

🔗 Integrations

AI agents (MCP)

This Actor works with the Apify MCP server (https://mcp.apify.com). AI agents like Claude, ChatGPT, and LlamaIndex can discover, configure, and run this Actor autonomously.

# LangChain + Apify integration
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("upstanding_biobot/ada-wcag-compliance-scan").call(run_input={
    "startUrls": [{"url": "https://example.com"}]
})
dataset = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items()

Automation platforms

• Zapier — Trigger on new scan results → send to Google Sheets, Slack, email
• Make (Integromat) — Chain with other Apify Actors for full SEO audit pipelines
• n8n — Self-hosted automation workflows
• Custom webhooks — Use Apify webhooks to trigger downstream processing on completion

Chain with remediation report

Feed scan results directly into our companion Actor — ADA Website Fix-It Report — to generate developer-ready remediation reports with code snippets, cost estimates, and fix timelines.

// Scanner output → Report Actor input
{
  "scanResult": <scanner_dataset_items>
}

⚖️ Is it legal?

Yes. This Actor performs automated accessibility scans using axe-core, an open-source testing engine developed by Deque Systems — the same tool used by accessibility auditors and compliance consultants worldwide.

• What it does: Loads public web pages in a browser, runs axe-core WCAG rules, reports violations
• What it doesn't do: It does not modify, hack, or breach any website. It simply visits public pages and tests them
• ADA / WCAG context: Automated accessibility testing is a recognized best practice for WCAG conformance. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the global standard referenced in ADA compliance litigation
• Not legal advice: Automated testing detects ~30-40% of WCAG violations. Manual testing is recommended for full compliance audits. This tool does not constitute legal advice or guarantee legal compliance

🔧 Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Timeout error	Page took too long to load	Increase timeout (default 30s). For heavy SPAs, set waitForSelector to wait for specific content
0 violations + low score	Page didn't fully render before scan	Set waitForSelector to a key content element. For React/Vue/Angular apps, wait for main content selector
Empty results	URL unreachable or redirected	Verify URL is accessible in a regular browser. Check for redirects, auth walls, or geographic blocks
Memory error on large crawls	Too many pages with screenshots	Disable screenshot for bulk crawls. Reduce maxPages
SPA returns partial results	Single-page app content not loaded	Use waitForSelector targeting the app's root content element (e.g., #app, #root, .main-content)
Sub-pages not found	No internal links on start page	Check that the starting URL has <a href> links to sub-pages. JavaScript-rendered nav may need waitForSelector

❓ FAQ

🛠️ Tech stack

• axe-core — Deque's WCAG testing engine (90+ rules, industry standard)
• Playwright — Headless Chromium browser automation
• TypeScript — Type-safe Actor code
• Apify SDK — Platform integration, dataset, key-value store

💬 Feedback & issues

Found a bug? Have a feature request? Want a custom integration?

• Apify Console — Use the Issues tab on this Actor's page
• Review — Leave a rating/review on the Actor's Store page
• Direct — We monitor all feedback through the Apify platform

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This Actor is not affiliated with Deque Systems. axe-core is an open-source project licensed under MPL 2.0.