Automated Accessibility Testing

The use of software tools to programmatically check web content against accessibility guidelines such as WCAG. Tools like Axe, WAVE, Google Lighthouse, and AChecker translate accessibility rules into automated checks applied to HTML elements. While efficient for detecting syntactic issues (missing alt text, absent form labels, missing table headers) and some layout issues (color contrast ratios), automated testing consistently detects only 25-30% of accessibility barriers and cannot evaluate semantic quality — whether alt text actually describes an image, or whether a heading accurately reflects its content.