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Web Accessibility (a11y) Tutorial• 6 min read

Accessibility Auditing: Automated Scanners & Screen Readers

Lighthouse, axe-core, WAVE, and manual testing with NVDA and VoiceOver

Ensuring accessibility requires combining automated linters (catching ~30-40% of issues) with manual keyboard walkthroughs and screen reader testing.

The Modern A11y Testing Toolkit

Automated Linters: Lighthouse, axe DevTools, and WAVE catch contrast failures, missing alt tags, and duplicate IDs in seconds.

Manual Keyboard Testing: Unplug your mouse and verify you can reach every button, form field, and modal using only Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, Space, and Arrow keys.

Screen Reader Testing: Test on real assistive software—VoiceOver (built into macOS and iOS), NVDA (free on Windows), or TalkBack (Android).

Pro Tip

Automated testing tools catch at most 40% of accessibility issues. Manual keyboard testing is mandatory to verify focus order and trap prevention.

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Test Yourself With Exercise

+15 XP

Approximately what percentage of accessibility issues can automated scanning tools like Lighthouse or axe catch?