WAVE is enough to check one page for WCAG errors by hand. On its own it is not enough to prepare a whole site for the European Accessibility Act (EAA), because the law asks for more than a list of errors on one page.

WAVE does its own job well. The sections below cover what that job is and where it ends.

What does WAVE do well?

WAVE shows accessibility and WCAG errors on the page you are looking at, and leaves the judgement to you. WAVE describes itself as a tool that “facilitates human evaluation of web content” (wave.webaim.org).

Browser extensions exist for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. WebAIM states that the extension “runs entirely within your web browser” and sends no information to the WAVE server. It can check password-protected pages, which an outside scanner cannot reach (WAVE extension page). That makes it a good fit for a login area, a checkout step or a page a developer has just changed.

Where does WAVE stop?

The WAVE online tool and the browser extension check one page at a time. The WAVE API takes the URL of one page per request; WebAIM offers it for collecting test data on many pages, which you script yourself. For site-wide monitoring and reporting over time, the WAVE site points to Pope Tech, an enterprise system based on WAVE (wave.webaim.org).

WebAIM is plain about the limits of any automated check. Its help page says WAVE cannot tell you whether your content is accessible, that no automated tool can check every guideline, and that a page with no errors reported is not thereby accessible (WAVE help). We agree, and our own report says the same.

Does Inkluso find more than WAVE?

We do not claim to. Inkluso runs axe-core and WAVE runs WebAIM’s own testing logic; both are automated checks, and we have not compared their results. Automated testing catches roughly 30 to 40 percent of WCAG success criteria, not 30 to 40 percent of a site’s failures. The rest needs a human, whichever tool you start with.

A grade of 100 in an Inkluso report means nothing automated was found. It does not mean the site is accessible.

What does the EAA ask that a page checker does not cover?

The EAA asks providers of services in scope, such as e-commerce services to consumers, to publish information on how their service meets the accessibility requirements, and it is enforced through national law. Micro-enterprises providing services are exempt (Art. 4(5)). Directive (EU) 2019/882 has applied since 28 June 2025. Article 13(2) requires the information in Annex V, made public in written and oral format, including an explanation of how the service meets the requirements.

Each country transposes the Directive: the BFSG in Germany, the BaFG in Austria, zákon č. 424/2023 Sb. in Czechia, the ustawa z 26 kwietnia 2024 in Poland and zákon č. 351/2022 Z. z. in Slovakia. Start with the act of each country where you offer your service to consumers, not with the language of your site. A shop selling to consumers in Austria looks at the BaFG, a shop selling to consumers in Germany looks at the BFSG, and a shop selling in both checks both. Where your company is based can matter too; for a cross-border case, ask a lawyer which acts bind you.

WAVE’s pages describe checks against WCAG and the US Section 508 guidelines. The WAVE pages listed in the sources say nothing about a mapping to EN 301 549 clauses or to a European national act, and nothing about drafting an accessibility statement. An SME owner has to deliver those parts, and a page checker leaves them open.

What does Inkluso add around the checker?

  • A crawl of up to 100 pages in one audit, and re-scans on a monitoring plan or as a separate fix-verification re-scan.
  • For every finding: the WCAG criterion, the EN 301 549 clause and the paragraph of the national act you select for the report.
  • A draft accessibility statement, to review before you publish it.
  • A PDF with a timestamp, the engine version and a SHA-256 hash, with the automated findings kept apart from the checks that need a person.
  • A fix block per rule, written for the person who has to act on it.

None of this makes a site accessible. It gives you dated, visible findings. An Inkluso report is a dated record of an automated scan, not a certification and not legal advice.

When is WAVE the right tool?

Use WAVE when you want a manual second look at one page: a login area, a form, a page that has just been rebuilt. Use it to confirm that a fix worked. You can run it next to any other check.

Use a whole-site audit when you need to know what is wrong across the shop, in which order to fix it, and what to say in the statement.

FAQ

Is WAVE enough for the European Accessibility Act?

WAVE is enough to check one page for WCAG errors by hand. It does not on its own cover a whole site, the national law that applies to you, or the accessibility information (often called an accessibility statement) that the EAA asks service providers in scope to publish.

Does WAVE check my whole website?

The WAVE online tool and the extension check one page at a time. The WAVE API takes one URL per request and can be scripted across many pages. For site-wide monitoring and reporting, WebAIM points to Pope Tech, a system based on WAVE.

Does Inkluso find issues that WAVE misses?

We do not claim that. Both are automated checks. Automated testing catches roughly 30 to 40 percent of WCAG success criteria, and the rest needs a human.

What does Inkluso add to a WAVE check?

A crawl of up to 100 pages, re-scans on a monitoring plan, a mapping from each finding to the WCAG criterion, the EN 301 549 clause and the national paragraph, a draft accessibility statement, and a dated PDF report.

Sources

See where your site stands

The free scan tests the homepage against WCAG 2.1 AA with axe-core and shows the first findings with the matching reference. No signup, no card.

Run the free checkDraft an accessibility statement

Related: WCAG compliance levels: 2.1 AA, 2.2 AA and how to check · What to use instead of an accessibility overlay

Orientation, not legal advice. An Inkluso report is a dated record of an automated scan, not a certification. Automated testing catches roughly 30 to 40 percent of WCAG success criteria. The rest needs a human.