Adience reveals wide differences in automated WCAG detection across accessibility tools
TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — AudioEye, Inc. (Nasdaq: AEYE) (“AudioEye” or the “Company”), an industry-leading digital accessibility company, today announced the results of a study conducted by Adience, a B2B market research agency, showing that AudioEye’s automated accessibility technology detects 89–253% more Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) issues than competitive products.
“The number of websites and apps has increased by 40-60% year over year due to the explosion in coding tools,” said David Moradi, CEO of AudioEye. “However, LLMs use automated detection from those included in this study, which shows substantially lower detection rates than AudioEye. As a result, digital accessibility on the internet is not improving and may even be getting worse, which is driving a record number of digital accessibility lawsuits.”
“We have years of data across hundreds of thousands of sites and billions of unique visits, which comes from our automation and custom fixes. We are leveraging this data set to scale our detection capabilities, which uniquely positions us to utilize cutting-edge agentic tooling to provide context to models that no other company has access to,” Moradi added.
Independent Testing Reveals Wide Gaps in Automated Detection
Adience evaluated five leading automated accessibility tools by scanning, measuring, and validating accessibility issues mapped to WCAG Levels A, AA, and AAA.
Key findings include:
- At WCAG AA, the level most commonly referenced in regulations, several tools returned no findings across multiple sites, even though AudioEye detected valid issues on the same pages.
- AudioEye was the only tool to consistently identify issues at all WCAG levels (A, AA, and AAA) across every website included in the analysis.
- At WCAG Level A, AudioEye detected 509% more valid accessibility issues than the lowest-performing tool and 68% more than the next-closest tool.
- At WCAG Level AA, AudioEye detected 380% more valid accessibility issues than the lowest-performing tool that returned any results and 41% more than the next-closest tool.
“Each tool was tested under identical conditions,” said Chris Wells, Managing Director at Adience. “The results show wide variation in what automated accessibility tools detect, even when analyzing the same pages.”
Automation is the Foundation for Industry-Leading Protection
Automated testing enables organizations to identify accessibility issues at scale, but its value depends on how effectively it can detect them. Broader automated coverage gives teams clearer visibility into compliance gaps early, while more complex, contextual barriers still require human evaluation.
AudioEye combines industry-leading automated WCAG detection with expert human testing, custom fixes, and continuous monitoring to deliver comprehensive accessibility protection. By expanding automated coverage, including support for WCAG 2.2, AudioEye helps surface more issues upfront and allows accessibility experts to focus on the highest-impact barriers automation alone cannot resolve.
To learn more and download the report, visit https://www.audioeye.com/guides/3rd-party-research-report/.
Methodology
The research evaluated how five widely used accessibility platforms detect accessibility issues through automation. Using a controlled, repeatable methodology, the study compared automated detection across the same webpages and WCAG conformance levels, the internationally recognized standards for digital accessibility compliance. The findings show substantial variation across tools in both the number of issues identified and the WCAG success criteria covered.
About AudioEye
AudioEye exists to ensure the digital future we build is accessible. The gold standard for digital accessibility, AudioEye’s comprehensive solution combines industry-leading AI automation technology with expert fixes informed by the disability community. This powerful combination delivers industry-leading protection, ensuring businesses of all sizes – including over 131,000 customers such as Samsung, Calvin Klein, and Samsonite – meet and exceed compliance standards. With 25 US patents, AudioEye’s solution includes 24/7 accessibility monitoring, automated WCAG issue testing and fixes, expert testing, developer tools, and legal protection, empowering organizations to confidently create accessible digital experiences for all.
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Sierra Thomas
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SOURCE AudioEye, Inc.
