WAVE Evaluation Tool

Evaluate web accessibility within your browser.

What is WAVE Evaluation Tool?

WAVE Evaluation Tool is a popular Chrome extension by WebAIM. This extension has 489,376 weekly active users, a good user rating of 4.10, and is most similar to axe DevTools - Web Accessibility Testing and EqualWeb Accessibility Checker. The latest version, 3.2.3.8, was updated 5 days ago.

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Stats

Stats date:

By: WebAIM

View on Chrome Web Store

Users: 489,376 ▼ -6,216

Rating: 4.10 (134)

Version: 3.2.3.8 (Last updated: 2023-06-01)

Creation date: 2020-04-20

Manifest version: 2

Permissions:

http://*/*
https://*/*
file:///*
<all_urls>
tabs
contextMenus

Size: 345.09K

Email: Click to see

URLs: Website ,Privacy policy

Risk impact: High risk impact

Risk likelihood: Very low risk likelihood

Other platforms

WAVE Accessibility Extension (v3.2.2.0)

41 18,843

Not available on Edge

ChromeStats Rank

# 701 ▲ 63

Other rankings

#225 in Accessibility ▼ 10

#5 in bug fixes keyword ▲ 2

#17 in performance keyword

#20 in tool keyword ▲ 8

#22 in version keyword ▼ 1

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Summary

WAVE is a web accessibility evaluation tool developed by WebAIM.org. It provides visual feedback about the accessibility of your web content by injecting icons and indicators into your page. No automated tool can tell you if your page is accessible, but WAVE facilitates human evaluation and educates about accessibility issues. All analysis is done entirely within the Chrome browser allowing secure valuation of intranet, local, password protected, and other sensitive web pages.

To run a WAVE report, simply click on the WAVE icon to the right of your browser address bar, or select "WAVE this page" from the context menu.

WAVE errors align with WCAG 2.1 failures. The WAVE interface facilitates human evaluation of many other aspects of accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and Section 508 compliance.

Version 3.2.3.8 (June 2023) includes numerous accessibility test enhancements, several minor bug fixes, and simplification of the contrast checking tools. Users are informed that WAVE results may be manipulated on pages that utilize UserWay or accessiBe overlays.

Version 3.2.3 (March 2023) includes several minor bug fixes. A previous update to test for contrast errors in hidden elements has been reverted. While this was useful for finding contrast errors in drop-down menus, tab panels, dialog windows, etc., identification of errors in hidden elements caused user confusion and, in some rare cases, false positives.

Version 3.2 (December 2022) includes over 100 bug fixes and performance enhancements. The extension no longer utilizes jQuery, resulting in faster testing and better compatibility with a variety of pages. A new Navigation Order panel is available that shows the navigation order, element roles, and accessible names (what is read by a screen reader) for all navigable elements.

Version 3.1.6 (October 2021) includes numerous bug fixes and test rule enhancements for better testing contrast (filters, background images, and other complex color definitions are better handled), document language (IANA-defined language values are now tested), empty links and buttons (better ARIA support for accessible name computations), broken ARIA references, etc., etc. Performance and accessibility has been improved.

Version 3.1.3 (November 2020) includes performance enhancements and fixes several minor bugs, including fixes for multiple alerts for some pseudo-lists and disabled controls being incorrectly flagged for contrast failures.

User reviews

User reviews summary

These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Chrome Web Store does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.

Pros

Useful tool for assessing web accessibility
Provides detailed and easy to understand results
Finds accessibility issues that other extensions miss
Can be used for local testing
Free to use

Cons

UI can be confusing or clunky
Can have false positives or miss some issues
May slow down browser performance
No way to output error reports
Does not persist settings between pages

Most mentioned

Useful tool for accessibility testing
UI can be confusing
Can have false positives
Works well for local testing
Free to use
Can be slow
No way to output error reports
Settings do not persist
Finds accessibility issues that other extensions miss
Detailed and easy to understand results

View all user reviews

Safety

Risk impact

WAVE Evaluation Tool requires a number of risky permissions that can potentially harm your browser and steal your data. Exercise caution when installing this extension. Review carefully before installing. We recommend that you only install WAVE Evaluation Tool if you trust the publisher.

Risk impact measures the level of extra permissions an extension has access to. A low risk impact extension cannot do much harms, whereas a high risk impact extension can do a lot of damage like stealing your password, bypass your security settings, and access your personal data. High risk impact extensions are not necessarily malicious. However, if they do turn malicious, they can be very harmful.

Risk likelihood

WAVE Evaluation Tool has earned a good reputation and can be trusted.

Risk likelihood measures the probability that a Chrome extension may turn malicious. This is determined by the publisher and the Chrome extension reputation on Chrome Web Store, the amount of time the Chrome extension has been around, and other signals about the Chrome extension. Our algorithms are not perfect, and are subject to change as we discover new ways to detect malicious extensions. We recommend that you always exercise caution when installing a Chrome extension, especially ones with higher risk impact and/or higher risk likelihood.

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