CWAC

Open source

What the maker publishes

Audit types

Available audits include axe-core checks, element and title checks, focus indicators, language readability, reflow, and screenshots. source

Audit types

Available audits include axe-core accessibility checks, element and focus indicator checks, English readability, 320px reflow, screenshots, and page titles. source

Configuration

A scan requires a JSON configuration file and a CSV file of base URLs; the URL CSV must include organisation, url, and sector columns. source

Crawling

CWAC can crawl pages to discover additional URLs up to a configured maximum, while respecting robots.txt and server signals. source

Crawling

It can crawl pages to discover additional pages up to a configured maximum and respects robots.txt and server signals while crawling. source

Deployment

The maker recommends running CWAC with Docker. source

Extensibility

CWAC supports audit plugins, and users can add plugins by implementing them and enabling them in the configuration. source

Extensible audits

CWAC supports audit plugins that can be enabled and configured, and the documentation describes adding new plugins. source

Government use

The tool can monitor New Zealand Government websites against minimum accessibility standards and guidelines, including WCAG 2.2 Level AA. source

Intended use

CWAC can monitor New Zealand Government websites against minimum accessibility standards and guidelines. source

License

The repository identifies CWAC as licensed under GPL-3.0. source

License

The repository lists CWAC under the GPL-3.0 license. source

Maker

CWAC is designed and developed by the Web Standards team at Te Pūnaha Matihiko, the Government Digital Delivery Agency of New Zealand. source

Maker

CWAC is designed and developed by the Web Standards team at Te Pūnaha Matihiko, the Government Digital Delivery Agency of the New Zealand Government. source

Platform limitation

The documentation warns that running without Docker or on operating systems other than Linux can cause some audits to fail; the Reflow audit cannot run on macOS with the stated Chrome version. source

Platform limitation

The maker notes that on macOS the current Chrome for Testing version has a 500px minimum screen width, preventing the Reflow audit from running on that OS. source

Purpose

CWAC automatically scans hundreds of websites for accessibility issues and saves findings to CSV files. source

Purpose

CWAC automatically scans many websites for accessibility issues and saves findings to a CSV file. source

Results

Scan outputs include CSV audit findings, logs, configuration, and screenshots when generated. source

Results

Scan outputs include CSV audit findings and may include screenshots, scan logs, and the configuration used. source

Run method

The project recommends running CWAC with Docker using the bin/run script. source

Scan scope

site source

Security reporting

The maintainers request private reporting of security issues by email and describe a coordinated disclosure approach. source

Security reporting

The security policy asks reporters to contact [email protected] privately and describes a coordinated disclosure approach. source

Checked against the maker's pages on 12 Oct 2026.