Accessibility Score
How SitePulse measures page accessibility using the Lighthouse axe engine.
The Accessibility score is a direct pass-through of the Lighthouse Accessibility score (0–100), powered by the axe accessibility engine via Google PageSpeed Insights.
What it measures
Lighthouse Accessibility audits a curated set of WCAG 2.1 checks across four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. Key audits include:
| Area | What it checks |
|---|---|
| Images | All <img> elements have meaningful alt attributes |
| Color contrast | Text and interactive elements meet WCAG AA contrast ratio (4.5:1 normal, 3:1 large) |
| Form labels | All form inputs have associated labels |
| ARIA | ARIA attributes are used correctly; required attributes present |
| Links | Links have discernible text; no duplicate href without unique text |
| Headings | Heading levels are not skipped |
| Language | <html> element has a valid lang attribute |
| Keyboard | Interactive elements are focusable; no keyboard traps |
| Tabindex | No elements with tabindex > 0 (breaks natural tab order) |
| Zooming | Viewport meta does not disable user scaling |
Why it matters
Accessibility affects a significant portion of your audience. In the US, roughly 1 in 4 adults has some form of disability. Beyond ethical considerations, the EU's European Accessibility Act (2025) and several national regulations require public-facing websites to meet WCAG 2.1 AA.
Search engines also use accessibility signals — page structure, alt text, and semantic HTML — as part of how they understand page content.
How to interpret your score
A score of 90+ means your page passes the majority of automated WCAG 2.1 checks. Note that automated tools can detect roughly 30–40% of all WCAG violations — manual testing with screen readers is needed for comprehensive coverage.
Scores below 70 indicate structural issues (missing alt text, poor contrast, broken ARIA) that affect a large number of users.
How to improve
Most accessibility issues are HTML and CSS fixes:
- Missing alt text — add descriptive
altattributes to all content images; usealt=""for decorative images - Contrast failures — increase the lightness/darkness difference between text and background
- Missing form labels — add
<label>elements oraria-labelattributes - ARIA errors — remove incorrect ARIA roles or add required child/parent elements
The Recommendations tab in your audit lists each failing check with the specific element and a link to the WCAG documentation.
Automated vs manual accessibility
Lighthouse cannot detect all WCAG violations. A high score does not guarantee full compliance. For regulated industries, complement automated checking with manual screen-reader testing (VoiceOver, NVDA, JAWS) and keyboard-only navigation.
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