Testing Tools
Automated results support investigation; they leave conditions requiring judgment and manual testing.
Overview
Use WAVE to locate elements and inspect explanations and markup. Use Chrome’s built-in Lighthouse to inspect automated audits on the same page and state. Interpret the result before choosing a correction.
Why It Matters
Different coverage and reporting can produce different findings. Agreement between tools still leaves untested conditions; tools can also share underlying rules.
What to Look For
- Automated finding: a condition software can evaluate directly.
- Needs human review: a prompt to inspect context or exercise judgment.
- Manual test: interaction, perception, or task context that must be evaluated directly.
- WAVE: follow icon → element → explanation → markup. An Alert is not necessarily a failure; a Feature is not a pass.
- Lighthouse: inspect findings and manual checks beyond the automated score.
Standards & Guidance
- A Lighthouse score of 100 is not a WCAG conformance determination.
- Alt text purpose, keyboard behavior, helpful error recovery, and cognitive burden require more than presence checks.