Agentic Web Accessibility Auditing: A Criterion-Specific Framework for Translating WCAG Requirements into Assessments
Web accessibility auditing requires interpreting diverse requirements and examining interface behavior. Rule-based checks and noninteractive model assessments can miss barriers requiring contextual or interactive evidence. We present an agentic framework that assigns a vision-language agent to each accessibility requirement. Guided by tailored instructions, agents inspect webpages, operate controls, and record evidence supporting their findings. We implement the framework for 40 requirements from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). To compare detection and cost, we construct a dataset of 250 page-criterion records derived from expert audits across 11 scholarly platforms. Agents recover 67 of 78 reported positive cases (86% recall), compared with 36% for axe-core, a rule-based checker, and 67% for an uncued, noninteractive vision-language model, at lower precision (56%). They recover nine of ten Keyboard and No Keyboard Trap cases missed by both baselines. Together, the framework, implementations, and dataset support automated accessibility auditing grounded in inspectable evidence.