Deque’s Axe Pro Beta Guided Accessibility Testing a Hit with Developers

Surpassing 6,000 beta users, Intelligent Guided Tests Fundamentally Changing How to Do Accessibility Testing

HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Deque Systems, a leading software company specializing in digital accessibility, today announced that its axe Pro beta, with its breakthrough automated and guided accessibility testing features, is generating significant developer traction with over 6,000 beta users currently on board.

Using axe Pro, users have identified more than 600,000 accessibility issues to date, 82,000 of which previously would only have been discovered manually. Typically requiring outsourced expertise, manual testing can be a very labor-intensive practice. Flagging these issues in development is a crucial step to ensure that websites and apps are accessible to all people, including those with disabilities.

Deque’s intelligent guided testing is fundamentally changing how organizations allocate testing resources, enabling developers to extend their test coverage and identify issues that may otherwise take days or weeks to discover. Users can save results, export them, test specific components on a page, and run multiple tests. There is no other solution with this combination of intelligent guided testing and automated accessibility testing in one.

Building Momentum for Accessibility in the Developer Community: With over 70 percent of the axe Pro users holding roles in development, the community has already begun to shape the future of the product. As a free beta, it has received a high level of feedback and ideas for improvement from more than 1,000 users.

The recently launched keyboard testing tool is a direct result of this community feedback. Keyboard testing is one of the more time-consuming manual testing tasks. Axe Pro’s newly added keyboard testing tool automates most of this work. Developers can easily and automatically identify missing focus indicators, missing ARIA roles and other keyboard accessibility problems.

“The new Keyboard Guided Test feature automates testing I have been doing manually for years (and saves me time). Thank you,” says John Otley, Systems Analyst & axe Pro beta user.

“Getting developers to dedicate time to accessibility testing beyond simple push-button solutions has been a challenge historically. Ninety-two percent of users reported ‘positive’ feedback with more than half of those specifying their reaction to axe Pro beta was ‘very positive,’” comments Dylan Barrell, CTO, Deque Systems. “Combined with a testing session length increase of 60 percent, these statistics show that developers are finding a lot of value in the new functionality and are accomplishing more while they’re at it.”

Deque continues to work on improvements and additions to the axe Pro beta and more guided tests and features will be added to the beta in coming weeks.

Anyone wishing to sign up for the axe Pro beta can visit this web page: https://www.deque.com/axe-pro-sign-up/.

About Deque Systems

Deque (pronounced dee-cue) is a web accessibility software and services company, and our mission is Digital Equality. We believe everyone, regardless of their ability, should have equal access to the information, services, applications, and everything else on the web.

We work with enterprise-level businesses and organizations to ensure that their sites and mobile apps are accessible. Installed in over 250,000 browsers and with over 1,000 audit projects completed, Deque is the industry standard.