Southern New Hampshire University

WAVE - Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool

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Quick Overview

What is WAVE, and how do I use it?

WAVE is a suite of tools to help you make your web content more accessible. WAVE cannot tell you if your web content is accessible. Only a human can determine true accessibility. But WAVE can help you, as a human, evaluate the accessibility of your web content.

WAVE is easy to use: 

View the Introduction to WAVE video on YouTube (00:11:20 minutes) and visit the WAVE HELP page at WAVE Help.

What is PopeTech, and how do I use it?

Pope Tech is a paid subscription that runs a WAVE scan every week around 1 am on Monday and emails the results to a list of people. Another feature that needs to be done manually is a crawl that adds new pages and removes old ones from the scan. Pope Tech can only find about 30% of accessibility-related issues. The priority of fixes that Pope Tech flags would be errors in color contrast, errors in alerts, and, finally, features. You will be responsible for running your WAVE scans.

If you have a PopeTech subscription and account, you can follow the steps below:

  1. Check your email for any changes (the weekly report sent out on Mondays)
    • You can see changes underneath the number with an up or down arrow.
    • If there are any changes, or not what you were expecting, navigate to PopeTech
  1. Log-in to PopeTech.
  1. You may need to select “ScreenSteps” from the website drop-down located on the top left.
  2. Then select “Update".
Drop down menu of "websites" with the "Screensteps" option boxed in and the "update" button boxed in.
  1. Once updated, the types (errors, contrast, alerts, etc.) will be grouped on the left-hand side of the screen in the “Result Types” widget.
Overview area of selected sites with the "details" double right arrow button boxed in.
  1. If you select a type, you can see the issues being flagged.
The overview area of found issues.
  1. Select the double arrows under details to see where that issue is being flagged at within your web content.
Amount of certain issues with the "details" double arrow button boxed in.

8. You can then select any of the options to see the issue

  1. Page: Go to the page with the issue
  2. Code: See the code for the page with the issue
  3. Dismiss: Dismiss the issue (if it is wrong)
  4. Inspect: A pop-up of the page will appear
  5. WAVE: Go to the page with WAVE already ran
The different options to see issues.

9. Address the issue

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Next Article Brightspace Accessibility Checker

Accessibility and Assistive Technology

Need More Help? 2
Overviews of Accessibility Settings (Windows and Mac) 2
Employee-Facing Support and Services 3
Web Accessibility and Testing 7
Accessibility Best Practices for Content Creation 11
Text-to-Speech Tools 12
Voice and Speech Recognition Software 6
Color and Contrast 8
Keyboard Accessibility 2
Alternative Text 10
Accessible and Inclusive Environments (Virtual or In-person) 15
Accessible Spreadsheets, Tables, and Charts 10
Accessible Audio, Images, and Video 14
Page Structure 3
Magnification and Vision Software 3
Hyperlinks 6
Reading Tools 16
Writing Tools 5
Math Tools 6
Logical Reading Order 2
Tasks and Organization 8
Older Operating Systems 6
Creating Accessible Job Aids in Screensteps 8
Creating Accessible Content in Venngage 1

Other Resources

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