Web Severity Scoring

Severity Scoring Formula

Page Score = 100 - (sum of weighted findings)

Weights: Critical (high confidence, both sources): -15 points Critical (high confidence, single source): -10 points Critical (medium confidence): -7 points Critical (low confidence): -3 points Serious (high confidence): -7 points Serious (medium confidence): -5 points Serious (low confidence): -2 points Moderate (high confidence): -3 points Moderate (medium confidence): -2 points Moderate (low confidence): -1 point Minor: -1 point

Floor: 0 (minimum score)

Score Grades

Score Grade Meaning

90-100 A Excellent - minor or no issues, meets WCAG AA

75-89 B Good - some issues, mostly meets WCAG AA

50-74 C Needs Work - multiple issues, partial WCAG AA compliance

25-49 D Poor - significant accessibility barriers

0-24 F Failing - critical barriers, likely unusable with AT

Confidence Levels

Level Weight When to Use

High 100% Confirmed by axe-core + agent, or definitively structural (missing alt, no labels, no lang)

Medium 70% Found by one source, likely issue (heading edge cases, questionable ARIA, possible keyboard traps)

Low 30% Possible issue, needs human review (alt text quality, reading order, context-dependent link text)

Source Correlation

Issues found by both axe-core AND agent review are automatically upgraded to high confidence regardless of individual confidence ratings.

Scorecard Format

Single Page

Accessibility Score

Multi-Page

Accessibility Scorecard

Cross-Page Pattern Classification

Pattern Type Definition Remediation ROI

Systemic Same issue on every audited page Highest - usually layout/nav, fix once

Template Same issue on pages sharing a component High - fix the shared component

Page-specific Unique to one page Normal - fix individually

Remediation Tracking

Change Classification

Status Definition

Fixed Issue was in previous report but no longer present

New Issue not in previous report, appears now

Persistent Issue remains from previous report

Regressed Issue was previously fixed but has returned

Progress Metrics

• Issue reduction: (fixed / previous_total) * 100

• Score change: current_score - previous_score

• Pages improved: count of pages with higher scores than previous audit

• Trend: improving (score up 5+), stable (within 5), declining (score down 5+)

Issue Severity Categories

Critical

• No keyboard access to essential functionality

• Missing form labels on required fields

• Images conveying critical information have no alt text

• Color is the sole means of conveying information

• Keyboard traps with no escape

Serious

• Missing skip navigation

• Poor heading hierarchy (skipped levels)

• Focus not visible on interactive elements

• Form errors not programmatically associated

• Missing ARIA on custom widgets

Moderate

• Redundant ARIA on semantic elements

• Suboptimal heading structure (multiple H1s)

• Missing autocomplete on identity fields

• Links to new tabs without warning

• Missing table captions

Minor

• Redundant title attributes

• Suboptimal button text

• Missing landmark roles where semantic elements exist

• Decorative images with non-empty alt text