Accessibility Issues
Introduction
AAArdvark’s issue management system is designed to make accessibility remediation simple and efficient for your team. Just run a scan to get started and uncover the issues that need attention.
You must run a scan on the site you wish to view issues for first, or this menu item will not be accessible.
Basic Concepts
There are a few important concepts to understand before diving into the Issues tab.
Issues
Accessibility issues on your site are mapped to specific WCAG Success Criteria, such as insufficient contrast or missing descriptive text. Think of an issue as a category of problem that may have multiple occurrences.
Instances
An instance is a specific example of an issue on your site. For example, a missing alt text issue may have instances on several images across multiple pages.
We use advanced pattern matching in an attempt to group like issues together. This grouping enables developers to better identify the source template for grouped instances, even if they occur on multiple pages of your site.
Issue Categories
Issues in AAArdvark are categorized into three groups to help prioritize remediation:
- Errors
These are confirmed issues detected by our automated scanner or identified through manual testing by an accessibility expert. Errors represent clear accessibility failures and should be prioritized for resolutions. - Warnings
Potential issues that require human review to confirm if they are actual problems. For example, a warning might flag text that could have insufficient contrast under certain conditions, which needs to be checked manually. - Notices
Turning on notices is optional, and notices are helpful reminders to review common elements that could cause issues. For instance, the automated scanner can check if an iframe has a title, but cannot determine if the title is accurate and descriptive. Notices prompt you to manually verify such details.
Tip: Start by addressing Errors, as they represent the most critical and actionable accessibility issues, then move on to Warnings and Notices as part of a comprehensive review.
Issue Trends and Data
Site Statistics
The Site Statistics in the dashboard provide a summary of the issues on the site. A graphic will display issues by impact, and from there, the issues can be visited.
Active Issues will be tracked as well, displaying the most common issues found on the site.
Additionally, Average Instances/Page with the most problematic pages will be presented in this view.
Count History
The Count History section in the dashboard provides a graph view of issues and issue instances over time, based on the most recent scan.
A graph for the issues can be seen, showing issues scanned over time.
Another tab with issue instances can be viewed, showing issue instances scanned over time.
Accessibility Issues for a Site
After a site scan or manual auditing, discovered issues will be listed under the Issues tab on your Site’s Dashboard.
Filtering Issues
Use the filters in the Issues tab to search, sort, and prioritize accessibility issues. Filters include severity, status, assignment, and more, helping you focus on what matters most.
Search Issues
Search for issues by entering keywords, WCAG criteria, or descriptions. For example, you can search for ‘color contrast’ or a specific success criterion like ‘1.4.3.’
Sort Issues
Sort issues by priority to focus on what needs attention first. Priority is determined by:
- Severity: How impactful the issue is for users
- Urgency: How quickly the issue should be resolved
- Instances: The number of times the issue occurs on your site
You can also sort issues by severity or chronological order.
Severity
Issues can be filtered by Severity, all of which is determined by the impact the issue has on the site users. The choices available are:
- All
- Critical
- Very High
- High
- Moderate
- Low
- Warning
Type
The Type dropdown can be used to filter issues depending on whether they were caught in an Automatic scan, or added as a manual issue. The choices available are:
- All
- Automatic
- Manual
Status
Issues can be sorted by Status, whether they are active, resolved, or not an issue. This allows users to discern what issues need resolving and are already resolved. The choices available are:
- All
- Active
- Pending
- Resolved
- Not an Issue
Assigned To
To find out which issues are assigned to certain assignees, the Assigned To filter will allow users to select which assignee they want to filter by. Issues that have been assigned to other Workspace users will appear under the filter. If they have not been assigned to anyone, they will remain under the Unassigned filter.
The choices available are:
- Anyone
- Assigned to me
- Unassigned
Success Criteria
Issues can be sorted by WCAG Success Criteria. Depending on the Success Criteria of issues captured on the site, either through automatic or manual audits, these criteria will be listed out on the dropdown to use as filters.
Pages
The Pages filter can be utilized to view the list of issues for specific pages or the overall site. You can also search pages by their slug.
This allows users to see what issues have been found on certain pages and address them individually.
Viewing Issues
For each identified issue, you’ll see the following details:
- Issue Number: The unique identifier for the issue (e.g., Issue #1).
- Severity Level: The criticality of the issue, such as Critical, Very High, High, Warning, etc.
- Detection Status: Was the issue found through automated scans or created manually?
- Instance: The number of occurrences of this issue across the site during the audit.
- Date: The scan date when the issue was identified.
- Description: A short overview of the issue.
- Assignee: The name of the team member responsible for resolving the issue. If unassigned, it will display “Unassigned.”
- Comment: The total number of comments added on this issue.
Issue Details
Click an issue in the Issues List to open the detail view. This includes:
- Description: A clear explanation of the issue.
- Recommendations: Suggested solutions and examples.
- Instances: A list of all places this issue occurs on your site.
- Comments: Notes or discussions from your team.
- Status: Whether the issue is Active, Resolved, or Not an Issue.
Use the Previous Issue and Next Issue arrow buttons at the top of the page to navigate between the Issue Detail pages.
Issue Description Feedback
To leave feedback on an Issue Description, click Yes if you found it helpful, or No if you didn’t, under the “Was this helpful?” section.
If you choose No, a comment box will appear so you can share any suggestions for improvement. Our support team will receive and review your feedback.
Issue Instances
Issue instances can be filtered by pages so it is easier to go through and check by page(s), and is especially useful if there are a lot of issue instances active on a site across numerous pages. One page, several pages, or all pages can be selected and displayed.
You can filter issue instances by page, making it easier to review them one page at a time, especially helpful when a site has a lot of active issues across multiple pages. You can choose to view one page, several pages, or all pages at once.
Assigning Issues
Assign issues to team members to streamline your workflow.
- Open the issue detail view.
- Click Change Assignee.
- Select a user from the list and click Update to save. Assigned issues will appear under the user’s name in the Assigned To filter.
Issue Status
The current status is visible in the top right and is one of Active, Resolved (pending scan or review), Resolved, or Not an Issue. Clicking on the issue will display a drop-down that will update the issue status.
- Active: At least one instance of the issue was seen in the most recent scan and is not ignored.
- Resolved (pending scan or review): A user has Resolved the issue, but it is pending confirmation on the next scan or manual review.
- Resolved: The most recent scan saw zero instances of the issue.
- Not an Issue: The issue has been flagged to be ignored, and will not be set to Active if instances are seen in a scan.
- Delete: If the issue was manually recorded by a user, the issue can be deleted by an Administrator, Project Manager, or Accessibility Tester.
Resolving Issues
You can also set the status of an entire issue to fixed by choosing Resolve in the status drop-down on the top right of the issue page.
If any instances of these issues are seen in a subsequent scan, the issue will be reopened for you to take another look.
Reviewing Issue Instances
To better scroll through the instances, you have the following options.
Collapsible Instances
By default, all the instances are in expanded view. You can either collapse all instances together via the “Collapse All” option or use the collapse option on individual instances to collapse or expand an instance.
Needs Manual Review
When the automated scanner detects issue instances that require human review (e.g., overlapping elements or ambiguous context), it flags them as Needs Manual Review.
In this case, a manual review of the Instance Details should be done to confirm whether the automated scanner’s detection is accurate.
Open Visual Mode
You can click the URL under Seen On on the instance detail to view the issue on your site’s page in Visual Mode.
Marking Instances as Fixed
Once you have resolved an instance, you can click the Mark as Fixed button to mark it as fixed. The fix will be confirmed during the next site scan or through manual review.
If an instance marked as fixed is seen in a subsequent scan, it will be labeled as Reopened for you to take another look. When all instances are confirmed Fixed or marked as Not an Issue, the issue will be automatically set as resolved.
Multi-Select Instances
You also have the option to multi-select instances and mark them as Fixed or Not an Issue.
Viewing Instances on Pages
Instances can also be seen in a group of pages, allowing the ability to see where the issue appears with ease. Pagination is included if there are more than ten pages that the issue appears on.
Commenting on Issues or Instances
Collaborate with your team by adding comments to issues or instances.
- Click the Comments tab in the issue detail view.
- Type your comment and use @mentions to tag team members. Only members of the relevant team can be tagged in comments.
The team member that is tagged will receive a notification and email if it’s enabled for them.
False Positives
Automated scans aren’t perfect and may flag ambiguous situations as issues. If you determine an issue is a false positive after manual review, mark it as Not an Issue to remove it from the active list.
