We’re excited to announce the Accessibility IMpact (AIM) score and service. The AIM score provides a measure of user experience quality for users with disabilities. It combines an Automated Accessibility Score based on WAVE data, and a Manual Accessibility Impact Score based on expert manual testing. This service provides a low-cost option for obtaining the following:
- The Accessibility IMpact (AIM) score for your web site.
- Comprehensive WAVE data and scoring for your entire web site. The Automated Accessibility Score allows comparisons of your site to web pages generally, based on data from the annual WebAIM Million analysis of one million home pages.
- A Manual Accessibility Score based on expert testing of a sample of site pages. This score provides insight into the end user impact of accessibility issues, something that is difficult to obtain from automated testing alone.
- Feedback and recommendations from expert testers.
- A detailed report on the accessibility issues detected.
AIM replaces the popular WAVE Runner service. WAVE Runner provided very useful data, and AIM will provide these same data along with the AIM score, manual test feedback, and detailed report.
You can learn more about the AIM service and view a sample AIM report.
WAVE API and WAVE Testing Engine Updates
WebAIM is continually improving and refining the WAVE API and WAVE Standalone API. These tools provide an endpoint for easily collecting WAVE accessibility data on any number of site pages. The standalone API allows the software to be installed within your server architecture to support accessibility testing systems in very flexible ways.
Over the last year we have been refining the WAVE Testing Engine. Rather than an API endpoint, the engine is a JavaScript library that can easily be integrated into most CI/CD and testing pipelines and processes, such as Selenium, Puppeteer, and other headless browser test processes. This licensable library can readily test a web page within your existing testing system and generate a JavaScript object or JSON file for further analysis.
Other WAVE Updates
The WAVE suite of tools is always being refined. In recent months we have fixed numerous bugs, reduced false positives, and released a new browser extension for the Edge web browser.
We’re now underway on the next major release of WAVE which will include new and enhanced testing rules and more. Stay tuned for future updates! If you have feedback or recommendations for WAVE, please contact us.