Accessibility Checker User Guide

1. Getting started

Accessibility Checker is built around three tools, switched from the segmented control in the navigation bar:

• Audit — run an automated axe-core scan of a web page and review every WCAG issue found.
• Contrast — measure the color contrast between any two points of a page, image, or live camera view.
• Focus Order — overlay the keyboard focus (tab) order on a page and spot problems visually. (On iPhone the segment is labelled Focus.)

First, give the app something to test. On first launch you'll be asked to choose a source; afterwards, tap the Change source button (the plus-app icon, top right) and pick:

• Web URL — enter any address to load a live website. You can also type directly into the URL bar (“Enter URL to audit”).
• Camera — take a photo to check.
• Gallery — load a screenshot or image from your photo library.
• Live — a live camera feed for checking real-world screens and materials in real time.

All three tools work on web pages. Images, photos, and the live camera are checked with the Contrast tool. The gear icon (top left) opens Settings, and the ••• menu next to the URL bar has Back, Forward, Reload, and Create Report.

2. Run an automated WCAG audit

The Audit tool runs axe-core — the same industry-standard engine used by professional accessibility teams — against the page you have loaded.

1. Load a page (enter a URL and let it finish loading).
2. Select the Audit segment. You'll see “Setting up audit…” then “Performing audit…” while the engine works.
3. Results open automatically, with the title showing the total: Results (N).

Reading the results

Issues are grouped by severity — Critical, Serious, Moderate, Minor — with the most severe first. Tap a severity to see its issue categories, then tap a category to page through each affected element. Every issue shows the target selector, the HTML involved, a plain-language summary, and a More information link that explains the rule and highlights the element on the page. A clean page says “Congrats! No issues found.”

Sharing audit results

Tap the Share button on the results screen to export:

• Audit report (PDF) — opens the automated report flow (see section 5).
• Summary (text) — a concise summary with severity counts and the top issues.
• All findings (text) — the complete per-issue listing.
• Spreadsheet (CSV) — a machine-readable export for triage in Excel, Numbers, or a script.

3. Map the keyboard focus order New

Keyboard and many screen-reader users move through a page with the Tab key. If the focus sequence jumps around illogically, the page fails WCAG 2.4.3 (Focus Order) — and until now this was awkward to test without a desktop and specialist tooling. The new Focus Order tool draws the whole sequence on top of the page.

1. Load a web page.
2. Select the Focus Order segment. The page dims while the app maps the page (“Calculating focus order”).
3. The overlay appears: numbered dots mark every keyboard-focusable element, starting at 1, and connector lines trace the exact path a keyboard user follows. The panel reports the total, e.g. “14 tab stops”.
4. Tap any numbered dot to open a detail card for that element: its role, accessible name, ARIA label, tab index, CSS selector, and underlying HTML — everything you need to file a precise bug.

What to look for

• Jumps that defy the visual layout — e.g. focus leaping from the navigation to the footer and back to the main content.
• Zero results on an interactive page — the app will tell you: “If this page has visible buttons or links, that may itself be an accessibility failure (WCAG 2.1.1).”
• Heuristic warnings — the panel flags infinite scrolling (stops further down may be missing) and sticky elements (markers may drift while scrolling).

Exporting the map

Tap the export button on the Focus Order panel and choose Full-Page Image or Full-Page PDF. The export captures the entire page — not just the visible screen — with the numbered overlay intact, ready to drop into a ticket, design review, or audit report. Use the rerun button after the page changes to scan again.

4. Check color contrast

The Contrast tool measures the contrast between any two colors on screen — in a website, a screenshot, a photo, or the live camera.

1. Load a source (web page, image, or Live camera).
2. Select the Contrast segment.
3. Drag the two pickers to the colors you want to compare — typically text and its background. Pan and pinch to zoom for pixel-precise placement.
4. Results update live: the contrast ratio (e.g. Contrast: 4.6:1) with Pass/Fail for WCAG 2.1 AA and AAA, for both normal and large text.

Fixing a failing pair

Tap the Suggestions button to see computed alternatives that would pass, grouped as AAA compliant (7:1), AA compliant (4.5:1), and AA for large text (3:1). Tap a suggestion to apply it to the picker and see it in context.

Copying colors

Tap a color swatch to copy it in the format you need:

• HTML hex — e.g. #1A56DB
• UIColor (RGBA) — ready to paste into Swift
• UIColor (HSB) — hue/saturation/brightness form

You can also edit a hex value directly to test a specific color you haven't picked from the screen.

Sharing and keeping readings

The share menu on the Contrast panel offers:

• Add to Report — keep this reading for the automated report (see section 5).
• Share as Text or Share Screenshot — send results by Mail, Messages, Notes, and more.
• Open in Browser — view the same result on accessibleresources.com to share as a link.

Live camera

Choose Change source → Live to check contrast through your camera in real time — useful for kiosks, signage, print, and other physical interfaces. Tap the freeze button to hold a frame while you position the pickers, and tap again to resume.

Checking from Safari and Photos

You don't need to leave your browser: in Safari, tap Share and choose Accessibility Checker to load the current page straight into the Contrast tool. The same works from Photos with any screenshot or image.

5. Create reports & accessibility statements

Testing is only half the job — you usually need to show your work. Accessibility Checker combines everything you've captured into one automated accessibility report, and can generate a publishable accessibility statement.

Building a report

1. Run the tools you want evidence from: an audit, contrast checks (use Add to Report to keep readings), and a Focus Order scan.
2. Choose Create Report — from the ••• menu next to the URL bar, or the report button on iPad and Mac.
3. In the Report Builder, set the subject (what the report covers) and switch on the tools to include: Audit (AxeCore), Colour contrast, and Focus order. The builder shows a running tally of what's included, and you can curate individual kept contrast readings.
4. Tap Preview & Export, add your organisation name and contact email or page, and export the PDF.

What the report contains

A multi-page PDF framed as an automated self-assessment against WCAG 2.1 AA / EN 301 549 — the harmonised standard referenced by the European Accessibility Act. It includes a cover with a headline verdict and severity breakdown, the full findings with selectors and references, a colour-contrast appendix with evidence crops, and the focus-order map.

Crucially, it also includes an honest “What this scan covers — and what it can't” section: which of the 50 WCAG 2.1 A/AA success criteria were checked automatically, which need human review (as a ready-made manual checklist), and which sit beyond any automated page scan. Automated testing gives you a fast baseline — it is not a conformance certification, and the report says so plainly.

Publishing an accessibility statement

From the report preview, choose Open Accessibility Statement. The app generates a self-assessed statement from your results — conformance status, known limitations, feedback contact, and assessment method — in your choice of 17 languages, independent of the app's language. You can copy it as text, download it as HTML for your own site, print it, or share it as a hosted link. See a live example statement.

6. iPad & Mac: floating card and shortcuts New

This update redesigns the app for big screens. On iPad and Mac, the page you're testing runs full-bleed, and results live in a floating card instead of a fixed bottom panel.

• Move it anywhere: drag the card by its header to any corner — wherever it doesn't cover the part of the page you're inspecting. With VoiceOver, use the card's custom actions (Move to top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right).
• Collapse it: tap the chevron in the card header to shrink it to a title bar while you browse, and tap again to bring the results back.
• Keep scrolling: page content always scrolls clear of the card, so nothing is permanently hidden.

Keyboard shortcuts

With a hardware keyboard on iPad (hold ⌘ to see the shortcut HUD) or from the menu bar on Mac:

Device emulation

On iPad and Mac you can preview how a page responds at different sizes: Emulate Device → Phone, Tablet, or Desktop (in the Mac menu bar, or with the shortcuts above) renders the page at that device's width and presents it with the matching Safari user agent — so you can audit the mobile experience of a site from your Mac, or the desktop experience from your iPad.

7. Settings

Open Settings with the gear icon (or ⌘,). Highlights:

• Change homepage — set the page the app opens with.
• App Language — the app ships in 18 languages; this jumps to the iOS per-app language setting.
• App Icon — choose between High Contrast, Liquid Glass, and Accessibility icon styles.
• Show APCA™ Lc (WCAG 3.0) — add APCA values to contrast results (see section 4).
• Axe-core Version and Audit Findings — control the audit engine and whether “needs review” items are included.
• Focus Order — overlay appearance, interaction, and scope options (see section 3).
• WCAG Cards — a built-in quick reference to the guidelines.
• Help and Replay welcome tour — replay the in-app introduction any time.
• Restore purchases — recover a subscription on a new device.
• Account — optionally Sign in with Apple to sync your report details (organisation name and contact) across devices. Sign-in is never required, nothing you audit is attached to your account, and you can delete the account — and its data — from the same screen.

8. Free features and paid plans

Accessibility Checker is free to download, and browsing pages and reviewing your existing results is always free. Two subscription tiers unlock the full workflow, and every subscription starts with a 7-day free trial:

• Checker — unlimited audits, contrast checks, and focus scans; AAA and APCA checks alongside AA; watermarked report previews.
• Checker Pro — everything in Checker, plus full unwatermarked WCAG reports, publishable accessibility statements, and clean exports without attribution stamps.
• Checker Pro Lifetime — a one-time purchase instead of a subscription, with everything in Checker Pro.

Current pricing is shown in the app. Subscriptions can be cancelled anytime in Settings, and Restore purchases brings an existing plan to a new device.

9. Frequently asked questions

Is my data private?

Yes. Audits, contrast checks, and focus scans all run on your device — the sites, images, and colors you check are never uploaded. Even the shareable accessibility-statement link carries its content in the link itself rather than on a server. See the privacy policy for details.

Does a clean automated audit make me EAA compliant?

No — and be wary of any tool that says otherwise. Automated checks give you a fast, repeatable baseline for EAA readiness against the WCAG criteria behind EN 301 549, but full conformance always requires manual testing. The app's report tells you exactly which criteria were checked automatically and which still need human review.

Which audit engine does the app use?

The industry-standard axe-core engine, bundled with the app so it works with no setup. You can pick the axe-core version in Settings if you need to match the version your team uses elsewhere.

Why does my exported focus map only show part of the page?

Some pages prevent full-page capture; the app will tell you when it exported the visible area only. Pages with infinite scrolling can also add stops as you scroll — the panel warns you when it detects this. Scroll further and rerun the scan to capture more.

Where do I get help or suggest a feature?

Use Send feedback in Settings, or email info@accessibleresources.com — we read everything.