WAVE Evaluation Tool

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 2.2 failures. The WAVE interface facilitates human evaluation of many other aspects of accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and Section 508 compliance.

Version 3.2.5.3 (February 2024) fixes numerous minor bugs and adds testing refinements. Some hidden inputs are no longer incorrectly flagged as not labeled.

Version 3.2.4.4 (October 2023) fixes a few minor bugs with testing hidden content and with the sidebar contrast tools.

Version 3.2.3.9 (June 2023) removes the warning message on UserWay pages due to them removing code that changes page content when the WAVE extension is activated.

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.