Check Accessibility, HTML, CSS, Broken Links & Spelling

Application changes made in the last year

For all application changes in the last 3 years see the extended change log.
For changes to our browser extension see the extension change log.

6th January 2024 - v17.4.0

• Support for WCAG 2.2, which is now the default
• Changes to WCAG 2.1 mean that the Do 4.1.1 option and SC 4.1.1 tests have been removed
• The next major release (v18.0, due May 2024) will see some deprecated items removed:
  • The Embedded version
  • The old (pre-17.0) report format
  • Also note that our extensions will now only work with v17.1.0 or later
• Report improvements:
  • Complete removal of JQuery for performance
  • Automatic support for dark mode
  • Image improvements
  • When blocked, the Test and Basic versions now write the results to a temporary folder
• Support for macOS Sonoma
• Accessibility test updates and improvements
• Tests updated in line with official specifications:
  • HTML5 Living Standard updated to 24 December 2023
  • WCAG 2.2 updated to 05 October 2023
  • WCAG 2.1 updated to 21 September 2023
  • ARIA in HTML updated to 21 December 2023
  • HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0 updated to 04 December 2023
  • Core Accessibility API Mappings 1.2 updated to 02 November 2023
  • CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3 updated to 19 December 2023
  • CSS Images Module Level 3 updated to 18 December 2023
  • CSS Values and Units Module Level 4 updated to 18 December 2023
  • CSS Text Module Level 4 updated to 20 October 2023
  • CSS Paged Media Module Level 3 updated to 14 September 2023
  • CSS View Transitions Module Level 1 updated to 5 September 2023
  • CSS Text Module Level 3 updated to 3 September 2023
• Bug Fixes:
  • When spelling mistakes were corrected, the results were not dynamically updated
  • style attributes with functions within functions caused false E703 (mismatched parentheses) errors

2nd September 2023 - v17.3.0

• The 32-bit Windows Pro version is now only available for download on demand. This is the last release that will support 32-bit Windows.
• Accessibility test updates and improvements
• Tests updated in line with official specifications:
  • HTML5 Living Standard updated to 29 August 2023
  • ARIA in HTML updated to 27 August 2023
  • HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0 updated to 25 August 2023
  • Core Accessibility API Mappings 1.2 updated to 25 August 2023
  • WCAG 2.2 (PR) updated to 20 July 2023
  • WAI-ARIA 1.2 updated to 06 June 2023
  • CSS View Transitions Module Level 1 updated to 3 August 2023
  • CSS Anchor Positioning updated to 29 June 2023
  • Scroll-driven Animations updated to 6 June 2023
  • CSS Animations Level 2 updated to 2 June 2023
  • CSS Containment Module Level 3 updated to 18 August 2022
• Bug Fixes:
  • Further CSS @media fixes with nested parentheses
  • Issue E9603 was only reported on the first <iframe> on a page with this problem
  • The <script> type attribute did not allow the full range of valid values

6th May 2023 - v17.2.0

• Accessibility testing validated as consistent with all approved and many proposed ACT Rules
• WCAG 2.2 (CR) and WCAG 2.0 can now be selected for accessibility testing. Note that selecting WCAG 2.2 does not invoke any extra tests at this time.
• New option to test for SC 4.1.1 when running WCAG 2.2 tests for parity with WCAG 2.1
• Now accepts and performs testing on Custom Elements
• With Validate DOM: Any open Shadow DOM is now attached to the DOM for testing
• Nested <iframe> srcdocs are now validated
• Several new accessibility tests and improvements to existing tests added
• Updated list of User Agents. To apply the updates use the R button on the Edit Agents dialog
• Tests updated in line with official specifications:
  • HTML5 Living Standard updated to 28 April 2023
  • HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0 updated to 03 May 2023
  • WAI-ARIA 1.2 updated to 28 March 2023
  • ARIA in HTML updated to 24 March 2023
  • WCAG 2.2 (CR) updated to 25 January 2023
  • CSS Box Model Module Level 3 updated to 6 April 2023
  • CSS Values and Units Module Level 4 updated to 6 April 2023
  • CSS Positioned Layout Module Level 3 updated to 3 April 2023
  • CSS Inline Layout Module Level 3 updated to 1 April 2023
  • CSS Display Module Level 3 updated to 30 March 2023
  • CSS Text Module Level 4 updated to 29 March 2023
  • CSS Overflow Module Level 3 updated to 29 March 2023
  • CSS Overflow Module Level 4 updated to 21 March 2023
  • CSS Animations Level 1 updated to 2 March 2023
  • CSS Box Alignment Module Level 3 updated to 17 February 2023
  • CSS Images Module Level 4 updated to 17 February 2023
  • CSS Speech Module Level 1 updated to 14 February 2023
  • CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3 updated to 14 February 2023
  • CSS Text Module Level 3 updated to 13 February 2023
  • CSS Easing Functions Level 1 updated to 13 February 2023
• Bug Fixes:
  • Application could fail with <iframe> srcdoc containing <meta> with content attribute
  • Application could fail with absolute paths to missing files in the Start page
  • CSS @media with nested parentheses were not dealt with properly
  • Issue E6882 was miscategorised as a WCAG21 error instead of a HTML error
  • Using a CI version with an incompatible browser extension would try to display a dialog linking to the Pro version download, even on headless systems
  • In some error situations the CI version would fail to stop
  • In certain cases the CI version would cache the previous values of options

7th January 2023 - v17.1.0

• Issues options reorganised and new options added:
  • The Error type can now be ignored
  • New Except these option
  • New option to Ignore -tv- markup
• New API compatible option for CI users
• The contents of <iframe> srcdoc are now validated
• Improvements to reports including:
  • When available the Page report now includes the "Referer"
  • More links from issues to the reference have been added
• UI updates to the application including:
  • New macOS-like, light and dark themes
  • Auto-selection of separate themes when the O/S is light or dark
  • The Heritage themes have now been removed
• Support for macOS Ventura
• Support for Manifest v3 extensions, out later in 2023
• Accessibility test updates and improvements, with several new tests added
• Tests updated in line with official specifications:
  • HTML5 Living Standard updated to 26 December 2022
  • HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0 updated to 12 December 2022
  • Core Accessibility API Mappings 1.2 updated to 22 November 2022
  • ARIA in HTML updated to 21 December 2022
  • CSS Text Module Level 4 updated to 31 December 2022
  • CSS Ruby Annotation Layout Module Level 1 updated to 31 December 2022
  • CSS Overflow Module Level 4 updated to 31 December 2022
  • CSS Overflow Module Level 3 updated to 31 December 2022
  • CSS Pseudo-Elements Module Level 4 updated to 30 December 2022
  • CSS Values and Units Module Level 3 updated to 01 December 2022
  • CSS View Transitions Module Level 1 updated to 24 November 2022
  • CSS Display Module Level 3 updated to 18 November 2022
  • CSS Shapes Module Level 1 updated to 15 November 2022
  • CSS Inline Layout Module Level 3 updated to 14 November 2022
  • Selectors Level 4 updated to 11 November 2022
  • CSS Box Model Module Level 4 updated to 03 November 2022
  • CSS Box Model Module Level 3 updated to 03 November 2022
  • CSS Color Module Level 4 updated to 1 November 2022
  • CSS Containment Module Level 1 updated to 25 October 2022
  • CSS Values and Units Module Level 4 updated to 19 October 2022
  • CSS Containment Module Level 2 updated to 17 September 2022
  • CSS Positioned Layout Module Level 3 updated to 1 September 2022
• Bug Fixes:
  • For Test, Basic and Pro (without CSS validation), some CSS attributes that hide elements were not being applied
  • Potential for false negatives with id matching for usemap,list, and headers attributes
  • Potential for false positives for <li> and <tr> when parent had presentation role
  • <iframe> allowed content within the start/end tags
  • sandbox was not allowed to have an empty value
  • aria-relevant didn't accept the value all
  • Linux tray icon never displayed the menu