WAVE Evaluation Tool chrome extension

What is WAVE Evaluation Tool?

WAVE Evaluation Tool is a web accessibility tools extension for chrome. also, it is accessibility testing tools extension. it's a free extension , it has 400,000+ active users since released its first version, it earns an average rating of 4.11 from 135 rated user, last update is 599 days ago.

What’s new in version 3.2.3?

                WAVE is a web accessibility evaluation tool developed by WebAIM.org. It provides visual feedback about the accessibility of your web content by injecting icons and indicators into your page. No automated tool can tell you if your page is accessible, but WAVE facilitates human evaluation and educates about accessibility issues. All analysis is done entirely within the Chrome browser allowing secure valuation of intranet, local, password protected, and other sensitive web pages.

To run a WAVE report, simply click on the WAVE icon to the right of your browser address bar, or select "WAVE this page" from the context menu.

WAVE errors align with WCAG 2.1 failures. The WAVE interface facilitates human evaluation of many other aspects of accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and Section 508 compliance.

Version 3.2.3 (March 2023) includes several minor bug fixes. A previous update to test for contrast errors in hidden elements has been reverted. While this was useful for finding contrast errors in drop-down menus, tab panels, dialog windows, etc., identification of errors in hidden elements caused user confusion and, in some rare cases, false positives.

Version 3.2 (December 2022) includes over 100 bug fixes and performance enhancements. The extension no longer utilizes jQuery, resulting in faster testing and better compatibility with a variety of pages. A new Navigation Order panel is available that shows the navigation order, element roles, and accessible names (what is read by a screen reader) for all navigable elements.

Version 3.1.6 (October 2021) includes numerous bug fixes and test rule enhancements for better testing contrast (filters, background images, and other complex color definitions are better handled), document language (IANA-defined language values are now tested), empty links and buttons (better ARIA support for accessible name computations), broken ARIA references, etc., etc. Performance and accessibility has been improved.

Version 3.1.3 (November 2020) includes performance enhancements and fixes several minor bugs, including fixes for multiple alerts for some pseudo-lists and disabled controls being incorrectly flagged for contrast failures.

Version 3.1.2 (October 2020) fixes several minor bugs, including with the Structure tab sometimes incorrectly showing no structure, and improves performance and accessibility testing reliability.

Version 3.1 (September 2020) includes new accessibility tests (region, figure, possible list, select element missing label, and image with title), improved contrast checking, expanded lang attribute value checking, and numerous other bug fixes and improvements.

Version 3.0.9 (July 2020) includes numerous bug fixes, improved accessibility, and improved color contrast checking including fewer false positives and expanded contrast checking for form inputs.            

How to install WAVE Evaluation Tool?

You could download the latest version crx file or older version files and install it.

Preview of WAVE Evaluation Tool

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Reviews of wave evaluation tool:

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Jared Reid March 8th, 2023

This does not work. I was unable to highlight anything after making sure it was enabled with permissions, and trying it in both an updated Chrome and Edge browser separately. Nothing gets highlighted or saved, even on a Google search page.

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Teri Brooks January 14th, 2023

I added a bunch of similar extensions and none of them worked properly, or they only provided some info but required you to sign up to get the "full" experience. But this one is fantastic and provides all the details I need in an easy to understand layout. It finds stuff that other extensions missed, and it's quick and doesn't slow down the browser. Being able to toggle between showing the styles or hiding them is a nice touch. My only issue is that by using this extension, I give them permission to read my browser history. What on earth do they need that for? That's a bit of a concern.

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Tony Langford October 25th, 2022

It's a pretty useful tool, but there are some annoyances that make it hard to work with: 1) On the details pane you can check and uncheck the type of errors/warnings to show, we are doing our first round of testing an improvements and so want to focus on just Errors/Contrast Errors. But these settings do not persist, each page it's open extension, details tab, uncheck all these warning/aria sections.... allow these settings to persist please! 2) It's static. We have a React JS UI. The page is changing as the user uses it, the extension however only looks at the page at the point the extension loads. So you have to turn it off, wait for the page to reload, make sure its back at the new state you want it, and then turn it back on.... Just takes far too long. 3) It messes up styles, things get shifted off the page which makes it difficult to see certain problems

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