Frequently asked questions

Straight answers about what Access Shift's scanner and runtime remediation widget do, where automation stops, and how setup, data handling, and billing work. Access Shift is an accessibility automation tool, not a legal certification — no automated tool can guarantee conformance with any accessibility law on its own, so we recommend pairing it with periodic source-level audits and manual testing by people who use assistive technologies.

How does Access Shift help with legal compliance?
Access Shift automates many of the technical web-content fixes behind WCAG 2.2 AA — the baseline every modern accessibility law cites (ADA, EAA, Section 508, AODA, ACA) — which reduces your risk exposure and remediation cost, and gives you auditor-ready evidence of ongoing effort. To be clear and honest: legal compliance is determined by courts and regulators, not by any tool, so no tool alone constitutes compliance. Access Shift works best alongside source-level audits, manual testing by people who use assistive technologies, and advice from qualified counsel — we recommend pairing the widget with periodic third-party audits.
Will it slow down my site?
Your site stays fast — the script is loaded asynchronously, never blocks render, and uses a debounced MutationObserver with a circuit breaker so single-page apps don't loop. Every fix is wrapped in try/catch, so even a malformed page can never crash because of the widget.
What if a fix breaks my design?
Style changes save the original via data-accessai-original-style. Calling window.__accessai_revert() rolls every change back. We're also conservative by default — the widget refuses to promote ambiguous interactive elements (e.g. cards or tabs styled with cursor:pointer) to avoid breaking layouts.
Which frameworks and platforms do you support?
Anywhere you can drop a <script> tag — React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Squarespace, and plain HTML. The widget operates on the live DOM so it's framework-agnostic.
How does scanning work?
We crawl your site (sitemap discovery with link-extraction fallback), run headless Chromium with axe-core plus AI heuristics on each page, and persist per-page scores, verdicts, and issue evidence. Scans run on a schedule and on demand via the API.
Do you store any of our visitors' data?
The widget runs entirely in the browser. It does not ship visitor data anywhere. Scanner runs are server-side against the public URLs you authorize. We're SOC 2 aligned and offer DPAs on the Custom plan.
How long does setup take?
Most teams have the script installed in under five minutes: paste one <script> tag into your site or tag manager, point a scan at your domain, and the dashboard starts populating immediately. (Five minutes is install time, not compliance time — see the question above.)
Can we self-host or run the widget behind a CDN?
Yes. The widget is a single static JS file you can serve from your own CDN, edge worker, or asset pipeline — handy for strict CSPs. Custom-plan customers can also pin a specific widget version for change-control.
Can we cancel or change plans anytime?
Yes. Plans are month-to-month with no annual lock-in (Custom-plan contracts are negotiable). Upgrade, downgrade, or cancel from the billing page — your data and scan history stay accessible for 30 days after cancellation.
How does the widget fit into a complete accessibility program?
The widget handles the technical web-content criteria automatically, on every page load — freeing your team to focus on the work that genuinely needs human judgement at the source: meaningful sequence in long-form content, video captions/audio descriptions, complex cognition aids, and non-web channels (kiosks, hardware) covered by EN 301 549 chapters 6/7. Pair it with periodic source-level audits to cover those areas and you have a complete program.
What do the scan verdict labels mean?
Each scan gets one of three verdicts based on what the automated checks found: "Critical issues open" means at least one critical accessibility failure needs fixing; "Warnings only" means no critical failures but warning-level issues remain; "No automated failures detected" means the automated checks passed on the pages scanned. We chose these labels deliberately so they always tell you exactly what was verified — automated scans cover an important part of WCAG, and manual testing and periodic audits cover the rest. A clean verdict means the automated checks passed; it isn't a declaration of legal compliance, which is why we recommend pairing scans with human review.
Do you offer a VPAT or accessibility conformance report?
Yes. Every scan produces per-page WCAG evidence that can be exported as a conformance report (WCAG-EM style) suitable for VPAT 2.5 / RFP responses. The Custom plan includes a reviewed VPAT prepared with our compliance specialist.

Still have a question? Contact our team or read our Accessibility Statement for the full detail on coverage and limits.