Violation Severity

A measure of how significantly an accessibility violation impacts users with disabilities, typically rated on a scale from no violation to critical barrier. In accessibility evaluation, violation severity helps prioritize remediation efforts by distinguishing between minor issues that cause inconvenience and critical barriers that completely prevent access. For example, a missing skip navigation link may be a moderate barrier, while completely absent keyboard functionality represents a critical barrier. Severity ratings complement violation rate metrics (how often violations occur) to provide a more complete picture of a website or application's accessibility status.