[1/5]
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[8/5]
Firewall claims:
• “Your website is remediated before it reaches the browser.”
• “The user receives mathematically compliant HTML. Fully accessible…”Webcraft claims:
• “…instantly ensuring compliance…”
• “Our full remediation engine processes all 86 WCAG 2.2 criteria…”
• “Certified accessibility experts review the results to ensure legal defensibility.”
• “Our engine patches them at the edge, ensuring compliance and integrity.”
• “…enforcing Section 508 compliance…”[9/5]
Tired: #overlay companies lying about using ‘AI’ for WCAG remediation (accessiBe’s FTC fine, my UserWay tests, etc.).
Wired: ‘AI’ companies lying about not being overlays (sans opt-out).
No accessibility knowledge needed to evaluate these. Basic HTML and reading skills uncovered this.
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[8/5]
Firewall claims:
• “Your website is remediated before it reaches the browser.”
• “The user receives mathematically compliant HTML. Fully accessible…”Webcraft claims:
• “…instantly ensuring compliance…”
• “Our full remediation engine processes all 86 WCAG 2.2 criteria…”
• “Certified accessibility experts review the results to ensure legal defensibility.”
• “Our engine patches them at the edge, ensuring compliance and integrity.”
• “…enforcing Section 508 compliance…”@aardrian ..."mathematically compliant HTML"? WTF is that...
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@aardrian ..."mathematically compliant HTML"? WTF is that...
@joedolson Well, it’s just, like… numbers and, sums of elements and… like… how it all adds up to, um, compliance.
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@joedolson Well, it’s just, like… numbers and, sums of elements and… like… how it all adds up to, um, compliance.
@aardrian Thank you for the sincere and thorough explanation...
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[2/5]
When I visited the ‘remediated’ version of the firewall product in two browsers, I got a different number of auto-fixed items.
Maybe you’ll get a different count?
https://vpatcode-worker.webcraft-stephanie-fenton.workers.dev/proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Faccessibilityfirewall.com%2FPointing a tool at the vendor’s site is often a good test.
@aardrian I got 5 auto-fixes in the in app browser of Ivory and 3 in Safari directly, which is odd considering the in app browser is just a webview with the safari engine.
Seems a bit… random?
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[1/5]
I heard about https://AccessibilityFirewall.com/, promising “No code changes. No overlay. No JavaScript.” It uses “edge” in the same way the Overlay Community Group does.
Red flag emoji.
So I ran it through its own “Live Remediation Engine”:
https://webcraft.inc/#audit-sectionHmmm…
@aardrian I've tried with ryanair.com, it's funny because it says "95 %" and the "fixed" version is a completely blank page. Great fix!
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@aardrian I got 5 auto-fixes in the in app browser of Ivory and 3 in Safari directly, which is odd considering the in app browser is just a webview with the safari engine.
Seems a bit… random?
@Stephanie Yep, feels random and from an arbitrary and opaque set of rules.
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@aardrian I've tried with ryanair.com, it's funny because it says "95 %" and the "fixed" version is a completely blank page. Great fix!
@tinitun Having flown Ryanair, that seems to fit.
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[9/5]
Tired: #overlay companies lying about using ‘AI’ for WCAG remediation (accessiBe’s FTC fine, my UserWay tests, etc.).
Wired: ‘AI’ companies lying about not being overlays (sans opt-out).
No accessibility knowledge needed to evaluate these. Basic HTML and reading skills uncovered this.
[10/5]
First post in thread, I found Accessibility Firewall gave itself a 73% ‘score’.
Ashlee checked under 20 minutes later and it jumped to 78%:
https://bsky.app/profile/ashleemboyer.com/post/3mkt2ehq24k24Kevin a couple hours later and it was 83%:
https://bsky.app/profile/kevinpowell.co/post/3mktc6hyqgs2eEither they’re live-fixing or the scores are bunk.
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[10/5]
First post in thread, I found Accessibility Firewall gave itself a 73% ‘score’.
Ashlee checked under 20 minutes later and it jumped to 78%:
https://bsky.app/profile/ashleemboyer.com/post/3mkt2ehq24k24Kevin a couple hours later and it was 83%:
https://bsky.app/profile/kevinpowell.co/post/3mktc6hyqgs2eEither they’re live-fixing or the scores are bunk.
[11/5]
Using Vercel, Ashlee found the Accessibility Firewall introduced *more* errors:
https://bsky.app/profile/ashleemboyer.com/post/3mkvg3kfjq22gCurious, I checked.
When faced with the simplest error (a disclosure widget), its solution was to remove it — and site navigation for all mobile / narrow viewport users.
Cool.
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[11/5]
Using Vercel, Ashlee found the Accessibility Firewall introduced *more* errors:
https://bsky.app/profile/ashleemboyer.com/post/3mkvg3kfjq22gCurious, I checked.
When faced with the simplest error (a disclosure widget), its solution was to remove it — and site navigation for all mobile / narrow viewport users.
Cool.
[12/5]
Accessibility Firewall ‘fixed’ one of the 133 issues axe DevTools identified on Vercel’s home page. By adding a useless `aria-label` to the logo link.
Meanwhile, it introduced more WCAG issues, while also removing subnav, login, sign in, “Ask AI”, etc.
Impressive.
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[12/5]
Accessibility Firewall ‘fixed’ one of the 133 issues axe DevTools identified on Vercel’s home page. By adding a useless `aria-label` to the logo link.
Meanwhile, it introduced more WCAG issues, while also removing subnav, login, sign in, “Ask AI”, etc.
Impressive.
[13/13]
At least with overlays, I have some agency. I can turn them off, block the script. I can see what was made worse.
With Accessibility Firewall, it seems I cannot (based on its marketing). Cannot stop it, cannot see what changed, cannot undo it.
Overlay claims with worse outcomes.
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[5/5]
So the numbers feel made up, the remediation feels sketchy, the language feels off, and I feel this might be less than advertised.
But at least the Terms & Privacy policies are brief enough and offer sufficient recourse to make me walk away.
• https://webcraft.inc/terms
• https://webcraft.inc/privacy
@aardrian ha, ha, ha. They don’t have a lawyer.
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