Getting Started
Introduction
AAArdvark is an all-in-one platform for accessibility testing, reporting, and monitoring. It’s built for teams that want to easily and effectively manage accessibility audits and remediation across multiple sites.
After you register for a new AAArdvark account, you’re ready to get started.
Getting Started with AAArdvark
Before you begin an automated scan or a manual audit, you’ll need to complete the following steps.
1. Adding a Site
From your dashboard, click the Add a New Site button at the top of the page. Follow along with our guide on Site Configuration to finish this step.
Adding Pages to a Site
Planning to add more than one page? A single home page is always free, but if you plan to add more pages you’ll need to upgrade your site plan.
Next, you’ll have the option to begin adding pages. We offer a few different options to get this done, either by using a sitemap or manually adding them using the page path. Check out our guide on Adding Pages for the full details on this step.
2. Running an Automated Scan
Up next you’ll need to run an Automated Scan from the Site Dashboard. This will allow AAArdvark to scan the pages that you added and sift through them to find accessibility issues that are recognizable through digital analysis.
Once the scan is complete, you’ll see the results listed on the dashboard and you can navigate to the Pages tab to see a breakdown of issues for each page. Or, you can go to the Issues tab to see a complete list of all of them too.
Our WordPress plugin is also a great way to view the latest reports and scan details.
AAArdvark automated scanning can help with digitally recognizable WCAG issues; a comprehensive list of issues requires a thorough manual audit done by an accessibility expert.
3. Begin a Manual Audit in Visual Mode
We know manual accessibility audits take time and patience, but to get started with AAArdvark it’s best to get acquainted with the Visual Mode feature so that you can jump right in whenever you’re ready.
Creating a Site Connection
Before checking out the Visual Mode feature, you must make sure to set up the official AAArdvark Chrome Extension. This enables AAArdvark to connect to your site in order to use Visual Mode and manually record issues.
Record an Issue
After successfully setting up the connection, you’re ready to record your first manual issue!
4. Inviting Users & Creating Teams
AAArdvark Workspaces can host an unlimited number of Users for your accessibility projects. Users can be anyone from clients, developers, or your co-workers.
Adding Users
Add Users to your Workspace and make sure to assign a Role that best reflects their responsibility in the project.
Create Teams
After adding Users to your Workspace, create a Team and assign your Sites and Users to it. A Team ties Users to Sites — Any site that’s associated with a Team can only be seen by Users belonging to that team.
5. Assign & View Issues
Lastly, keep track of your accessibility issues from the Issues tab within your Site Dashboard. Issues map directly to WCAG Success Criteria or widely accepted best practices, and they can come with multiple instances across pages.
The Issue Detail Page lets you assign issues to Users, view WCAG resources, leave comments, and manage the status.
And, of course, easily switch to Visual Mode to see exactly where the Issue lies on the page as a reference.
Learn about Accessibility Issue Management.
Managing Multiple Sites?
AAArdvark allows you to set up as many sites as you need, you’re only limited by the number of pages available per site. Your workspace administrator can upgrade your plan from the Plan & Billing menu if needed.
Setting up multiple sites can be useful even if your organization maintains only one website. For example, if you have a staging environment, you can set it up as a separate site to check content updates or design changes for accessibility issues before they reach production.
You can view all of our pricing plans and details here.
