What WAVE Web Accessibility measures
WAVE checks your page against WCAG success criteria and sorts what it finds into errors, contrast errors, alerts and features. Errors are definite failures. Alerts are things that need a human to judge, like a link whose text does not describe where it goes.
How to read your result
Work through errors and contrast errors first and leave alerts for later, because alerts include plenty of false positives. Contrast errors are the most common finding on the web and the easiest to fix. Missing alt text on a decorative image is different from missing alt text on a logo or a product photo, and WAVE cannot tell them apart, so you have to decide which images carry meaning.
What to change first
Fix contrast first. Light grey body text on white is the single most common accessibility failure on business websites, and darkening the text colour is a one line change that clears a whole batch of errors.
Common questions
- Does passing WAVE mean my site is ADA compliant?
- No. Automated tools catch roughly a third of accessibility problems. Keyboard navigation, screen reader flow and sensible focus order still need a person to check.
- What is the difference between an error and an alert?
- An error is a definite failure against WCAG. An alert is something that is often a problem but sometimes fine, so it needs your judgement.
- How do I fix a contrast error?
- Darken the text or lighten the background until the ratio reaches 4.5 to 1 for normal text, or 3 to 1 for large text.
Run this alongside every other test in Website Accessibility Checkers, or start from the full list of website testing tools.