Understand and View Issues
Introduction
AAArdvark makes it easy to see what’s going wrong across your site. This guide walks you through how issues are grouped and how to read site-level data.
Whether you’re looking for contrast problems, missing alt text, or anything in between, this is where you start to learn the basics on how to understand issues.
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 row on the dashboard gives you a quick summary of where the site stands, in three cards:
- Issues by impact – a breakdown of open issues by severity, so you can see how much Critical versus Low-impact work is outstanding at a glance. Click through to jump to the filtered issue list.
- Issues over time – a sparkline showing how your open issue count has trended over the last 90 days (or however much scan history exists so far, on a newer site).
- Active Issues – your most common issue types on the site, shown with their instance counts.
For a deeper look at how a site’s score and issue counts have moved over a longer period, click View Trend Report under the Issues over time card, or see the Trend Report guide.
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.
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: The WCAG failure title describing the accessibility issue (e.g., “Elements must meet minimum color contrast ratio thresholds”).
- Assignee: If the issue is assigned, the team member’s name is shown; if not, an “Assign This Issue” link is shown instead.
- Comment: The total number of comments added on this issue.
- Reopened: A “Reopened” badge appears when an instance that was previously marked fixed is detected again in a later scan.
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
- Notice
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 dismissed. This allows users to discern what issues need resolving and are already resolved. The choices available are:
- All
- Active
- Pending
- Resolved
- Dismissed
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 in 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.
Issue Details
Click an issue in the Issues List to open the detail view. This includes:
- Status: The badge at the top of the page shows the issue’s current status – Active, Pending, Resolved, or Dismissed. The dropdown next to it doesn’t offer all four directly; it gives two manual actions, Resolve and Dismiss (Active and Pending are computed automatically based on instance status).
- Description: Shown right under the issue title, along with when it was detected (or who reported it, for manual issues) and how many instances/pages it affects. A short paragraph explains what the failure is and why it matters.
- Assign This Issue: Assigns the issue to a team member.
- Instances: A list of all places this issue occurs on your site, plus a compact summary showing the total instance count and how many are currently active. Click Show full breakdown to expand this into a donut chart with a status-by-status count (e.g., how many are Active vs. Fixed).
- Issue activity: An expandable log of status changes on this issue.
- Comments: Notes or discussion from your team.
- Details about this issue: Below the summary, a separate panel showing the WCAG success criterion this issue maps to (e.g., “WCAG 2.4.4 · Operable · Level A”), with three tabs for deeper guidance: What it means (a fuller plain-language explanation than the description above), How to fix this (recommended solutions), and Code Example (incorrect vs. correct code snippets for the failure).
Use the Previous Issue and Next Issue arrow buttons at the top of the page to navigate between the Issue Detail pages. These arrows always walk the same list you came from – your active filters, search, and sort order included – so if you open an issue from the Needs confirmation or Review fixes screen, Next and Previous move you through that queue instead of the full Issues list.
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.
If the Issues List Is Empty
The Issues tab won’t just show a blank page when there’s nothing to see – it tells you why, with the right next step for each case:
- No scan yet. The site hasn’t been scanned, so there’s nothing to show. Run your first automated scan to get started.
- All clear. Your most recent scan found no issues. Nice work.
- Everything’s fixed or dismissed. Every issue on the site has been resolved. You can view what’s been dismissed if you want to double check anything.
- Fixes awaiting a verification scan. You’ve marked instances fixed, but AAArdvark hasn’t re-scanned yet to confirm. Run a scan to verify.
- Filters are hiding everything. Your current filters don’t match any issues. Clear them to see the full list.
- Issues are waiting on manual confirmation. All the issues here need a human to confirm whether they’re real – that’s a different screen. Head to Needs confirmation to review them. (This is the case if you click into a severity count on your Site Dashboard and land on what looks like an empty Issues list – those issues are real, they’re just waiting on manual review rather than sitting in the main list.)
- Genuinely zero issues found, for sites with nothing recorded at all.
If the automated scan shows a Clean Scan, running a manual audit is still recommended.
If all the issues recorded during the Manual Audit are also resolved, your Site Dashboard’s Accessibility Testing Workflow box turns “In Good Standing”: the Scan, Review, and Test steps all show a green checkmark (“Nothing to review,” “All pages tested”), and the status box itself reads “No action needed right now – no open issues to work right now. AAArdvark keeps scanning in the background, so check back after the next scan.”
Issue Instances
An issue is a type of accessibility problem (like missing alt text). An instance is each place where the problem shows up on your site. For example, if three images are missing alt text, that’s one issue with three instances. Instances help you see how widespread an issue is and where to fix it.
Issue instances can be filtered in two ways:
- By review status, via tabs at the top of the Instances panel
- By the pages they appear on, via the Search & filter panel
Filtering by Review Status
The tabs across the top of the Instances panel differ by issue type. Issues the scanner can confirm on its own show Active / Awaiting scan / Dismissed / Fixed / Comments tabs. Issues that need a human to confirm whether they’re real show Needs confirmation / Dismissed / Comments instead – these instances need to be checked to confirm if any action or fixes are needed. (This used to be called “Needs Manual Review” – the label is now “Needs confirmation,” matching the dedicated Needs confirmation screen.)
Filtering by Pages
Open Search & filter above the Instances list to filter by page, in addition to searching instances by keyword. This 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.
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.
Instance URL
Click the URL under ‘Seen On’ to open the linked page in a new tab or switch to Visual Mode for issue viewing.
Viewing Instances on Pages
When an instance recurs on more than one page, a ‹ 1/N › stepper appears next to “also found on N more” so you can step through the code context for each page one at a time – this appears whenever an instance spans more than a single page, not just past a ten-page threshold.
Ready to Fix and Manage Issues?
Now that you know how to view and understand issues, it’s time to take action. Head over to the Fix and Manage Issues guide to learn how to assign issues, review instances, update statuses, and track your team’s progress as you resolve accessibility problems across your site.