How the scan works
The free scan is a quick, automated look at two public pages of a store. Here's exactly what it does.
What it checks
The scan opens the store's home page and one product page in a real browser, the way a shopper's computer would. It then runs the open-source axe-core tests for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, levels A and AA, and turns the results into plain English.
To find a product page, it follows the first product link on the home page. On Shopify stores it can also use Shopify's public product list.
What it doesn't do
- It doesn't sign in, add anything to a cart, fill in forms or place orders.
- It doesn't download images, videos or fonts, which keeps each visit light.
- It doesn't keep copies of your pages. Results go back to the person who ran the scan, and our logs keep only the store's address, the time and the number of issues found.
What automated tests can't tell you
Automated tests find some accessibility problems, not all of them, and they can raise the odd false alarm. They can't tell whether an image description is accurate, whether a menu works with a keyboard alone, or what a screen reader actually announces. A full audit adds those checks, done by hand.
How to recognize our visits
The scan identifies itself in its browser user agent with OpenAisleScan/1.0 and a link to this page. Each scan loads two pages. We sometimes scan a store ourselves before writing to its owner about an audit, and we never scan the same store more than a few times.
Asking us not to scan your store
Email connor@openaisle.io with your store's address and we'll add it to our do-not-scan list, usually within one working day.