LocalGov Drupal Accessibility & Sustainability

Automated weekly accessibility and sustainability monitoring of UK council websites built on LocalGov Drupal.

Sites blocking the scanner (3): www.lbhf.gov.uk, www.hackney.gov.uk, blackburn.gov.uk

A firewall rule, a robots.txt rule or a network block stopped the scanner on these sites, so their results are missing or partial. The fix is on the site’s side.

www.lbhf.gov.uk: Blocked.
- Blocked by a firewall: 1 page(s) got a challenge or refusal instead of the page (HTTP 202 × 1). Identified as AWS WAF challenge (x-amzn-waf-action), Amazon CloudFront.
- Other pages answered with an error: HTTP 404 × 40.
Ask the site’s web team to let the user agent vital-scans through its firewall (what to send them).
www.hackney.gov.uk: Partly blocked.
- Blocked by a firewall: 105 page(s) got a challenge or refusal instead of the page (HTTP 403 × 104, HTTP 202 × 1). Identified as Amazon CloudFront, AWS WAF challenge (x-amzn-waf-action).
Ask the site’s web team to let the user agent vital-scans through its firewall (what to send them).
blackburn.gov.uk: Blocked.
- Unreachable: no page loaded in 1 run(s) (no connection within 10 s (often a firewall dropping traffic from this network)).
Run Actions → diagnose for this domain to see what the scanner’s network gets. A network block has to be lifted by the site’s team.

Domains ranked by accessibility score (best first). Trajectory compares the score against ~4 weeks ago. Counts are medians per page over the last 7 days, comparable across sites of any size.
Domain	Score	Trajectory	Pages audited (7d)	Median axe / page	Median Alfa / page	Trend
www.hackney.gov.uk Partly blocked	A 95	▬ stable +0	1104	1	37	Median axe violations per page over 2 weeks: 1, 1.
www.luton.gov.uk	A 95	▬ stable +0	2946	1	40	Median axe violations per page over 2 weeks: 1, 1.
go.walsall.gov.uk	F 36	▬ stable -2	2534	19	78	Median axe violations per page over 2 weeks: 19, 20.

Scores are a relative, automated signal based on axe violations per page (axe runs on every page; Alfa is sampled and reported separately). Automated testing finds only ~⅓ of barriers — use scores to compare and track direction, not as a pass/fail.

Median axe violations per page, all domains — lower is better

Median axe violations per page by domain and week
Domain	2026-W44	2026-W45
www.hackney.gov.uk	1	1
www.luton.gov.uk	1	1
go.walsall.gov.uk	19	20

Worst offenders across all domains

Highest-impact issues fleet-wide: legally required findings first, then the rest of each site's conformance target, then AAA and best-practice findings. Within each, ranked by pages affected × severity × people reached.

Top 20 issues across all active domains.
Domain	Issue	Requirement	Severity	Pages
go.walsall.gov.uk	Buttons must have discernible text (WCAG 4.1.2)	Legally required WCAG 4.1.2 (2.0, Level A)	Critical	968
go.walsall.gov.uk	Certain ARIA roles must contain particular children (WCAG 1.3.1)	Legally required WCAG 1.3.1 (2.0, Level A)	Critical	968
go.walsall.gov.uk	Certain ARIA roles must be contained by particular parents (WCAG 1.3.1)	Legally required WCAG 1.3.1 (2.0, Level A)	Critical	968
go.walsall.gov.uk	<ul> and <ol> must only directly contain <li>, <script> or <template> elements (WCAG 1.3.1)	Legally required WCAG 1.3.1 (2.0, Level A)	Critical	968
go.walsall.gov.uk	Elements must meet minimum color contrast ratio thresholds (WCAG 1.4.3)	Legally required WCAG 1.4.3 (2.0, Level AA)	Critical	968
www.hackney.gov.uk	ARIA input fields must have an accessible name (WCAG 4.1.2)	Legally required WCAG 4.1.2 (2.0, Level A)	Critical	856
go.walsall.gov.uk	Form field has accessible name (WCAG 4.1.2)	Legally required WCAG 4.1.2 (2.0, Level A)	Moderate	490
www.luton.gov.uk	Scrollable element is keyboard accessible (WCAG 2.1.1)	Legally required WCAG 2.1.1 (2.0, Level A)	Moderate	485
go.walsall.gov.uk	Element has its required owned elements (WCAG 1.3.1)	Legally required WCAG 1.3.1 (2.0, Level A)	Moderate	490
go.walsall.gov.uk	Element in required WAI-ARIA context role (WCAG 1.3.1)	Legally required WCAG 1.3.1 (2.0, Level A)	Moderate	490
go.walsall.gov.uk	Text has minimum contrast (WCAG 1.4.3)	Legally required WCAG 1.4.3 (2.0, Level AA)	Moderate	490
www.hackney.gov.uk	Form field has accessible name (WCAG 4.1.2)	Legally required WCAG 4.1.2 (2.0, Level A)	Moderate	432
go.walsall.gov.uk	Elements must only use permitted ARIA attributes (WCAG 4.1.2)	Legally required WCAG 4.1.2 (2.0, Level A)	Serious	217
www.hackney.gov.uk	Frames must have an accessible name (WCAG 4.1.2)	Legally required WCAG 4.1.2 (2.0, Level A)	Serious	21
go.walsall.gov.uk	ARIA attributes must conform to valid values (WCAG 4.1.2)	Legally required WCAG 4.1.2 (2.0, Level A)	Critical	15
www.hackney.gov.uk	Links must have discernible text (WCAG 2.4.4)	Legally required WCAG 2.4.4 (2.0, Level A)	Serious	2
www.hackney.gov.uk	Required ARIA attributes must be provided (WCAG 4.1.2)	Legally required WCAG 4.1.2 (2.0, Level A)	Critical	1
www.hackney.gov.uk	Images must have alternative text (WCAG 1.1.1)	Legally required WCAG 1.1.1 (2.0, Level A)	Critical	1
www.hackney.gov.uk	ARIA hidden element must not be focusable or contain focusable elements (WCAG 4.1.2)	Legally required WCAG 4.1.2 (2.0, Level A)	Serious	1
www.hackney.gov.uk	<ul> and <ol> must only directly contain <li>, <script> or <template> elements (WCAG 1.3.1)	Legally required WCAG 1.3.1 (2.0, Level A)	Serious	1

Cross-technology issues

Accessibility findings that recur with the same technology across multiple sites — the strongest signal that a barrier lives in a shared CMS, theme, or widget rather than in one site's content. Ranked by lift × number of sites affected. Association, not proof of cause: confirm before attributing.

Top 25 technology ↔ finding associations spanning ≥2 sites.
Technology	Finding	Lift	Sites	Pages
Google Ads	Paragraph line height is at least 1.5 (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
Google Ads	Page starts with a level 1 heading (alfa)	1.00×	3	100
Google Ads	Target size is at least 44×44 CSS pixels (Enhanced) (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
Google Ads Conversion Tracking	Paragraph line height is at least 1.5 (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
Google Ads Conversion Tracking	Page starts with a level 1 heading (alfa)	1.00×	3	100
Google Ads Conversion Tracking	Target size is at least 44×44 CSS pixels (Enhanced) (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
Google Analytics	Paragraph line height is at least 1.5 (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
Google Analytics	Page starts with a level 1 heading (alfa)	1.00×	3	100
Google Analytics	Target size is at least 44×44 CSS pixels (Enhanced) (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
Drupal	Paragraph line height is at least 1.5 (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
Drupal	Page starts with a level 1 heading (alfa)	1.00×	3	100
Drupal	Target size is at least 44×44 CSS pixels (Enhanced) (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
jQuery	Paragraph line height is at least 1.5 (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
jQuery	Page starts with a level 1 heading (alfa)	1.00×	3	100
jQuery	Target size is at least 44×44 CSS pixels (Enhanced) (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
PHP	Paragraph line height is at least 1.5 (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
PHP	Page starts with a level 1 heading (alfa)	1.00×	3	100
PHP	Target size is at least 44×44 CSS pixels (Enhanced) (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
HSTS	Paragraph line height is at least 1.5 (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
HSTS	Page starts with a level 1 heading (alfa)	1.00×	3	100
HSTS	Target size is at least 44×44 CSS pixels (Enhanced) (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
Google Tag Manager	Paragraph line height is at least 1.5 (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
Google Tag Manager	Page starts with a level 1 heading (alfa)	1.00×	3	100
Google Tag Manager	Target size is at least 44×44 CSS pixels (Enhanced) (alfa)	1.00×	3	129
Microsoft Advertising	Text is included in a landmark (alfa)	1.48×	2	87

Common Lighthouse recommendations

Non-accessibility issues Google Lighthouse flagged on multiple sites' sampled pages — performance, best-practices, SEO, and AI-readiness. Recurring across independent government sites usually points at a shared platform, theme, or CDN, where one coordinated fix helps everyone. Ranked by number of sites affected. Accessibility audits are omitted (they overlap with axe-core).

Top 25 Lighthouse recommendations spanning ≥2 sites.
Recommendation	Category	Sites	Pages	Est. saving
Reduce unused JavaScript	Performance	3	251	140.0 MB · 499.4s
Render-blocking requests	Performance	3	251	540.5s
Reduce JavaScript execution time	Performance	3	251	425.9s
Minimize main-thread work	Performance	3	251	382.3s
First Contentful Paint	Performance	3	251	—
Largest Contentful Paint	Performance	3	251	—
Total Blocking Time	Performance	3	251	—
Max Potential First Input Delay	Performance	3	251	—
Time to Interactive	Performance	3	251	—
Uses third-party cookies	Best Practices	3	251	—
Issues were logged in the `Issues` panel in Chrome Devtools	Best Practices	3	251	—
WebMCP tools registered	Agentic (AI-readiness)	3	251	—
WebMCP form coverage	Agentic (AI-readiness)	3	251	—
WebMCP schemas are valid	Agentic (AI-readiness)	3	251	—
llms.txt follows recommendations	Agentic (AI-readiness)	3	251	—
`ai-catalog.json` schema is valid	Agentic (AI-readiness)	3	251	—
Network dependency tree	Performance	3	251	—
Accessibility tree is not well-formed	Agentic (AI-readiness)	3	250	—
Reduce unused CSS	Performance	3	248	10.7 MB · 61.6s
Use efficient cache lifetimes	Performance	3	235	196.8s
Speed Index	Performance	3	229	—
Browser errors were logged to the console	Best Practices	3	221	—
Page prevented back/forward cache restoration	Performance	3	138	—
Cumulative Layout Shift	Agentic (AI-readiness)	3	116	—
Layout shift culprits	Performance	3	116	—

Recurring patterns across domains

The same underlying rule failing on multiple independent sites — the strongest signal of a shared CMS template, design-system component, or widget bug rather than a one-off content issue. Ranked by fix leverage: sites affected × severity × pages, not raw count.

Top 17 patterns spanning ≥2 sites.
Pattern	Severity	Likely source	Sites	Pages
All page content should be contained by landmarks	Serious	template	2	1948
Target size is at least 44×44 CSS pixels (Enhanced)	Moderate	template	3	1409
Paragraph line height is at least 1.5	Moderate	template	3	1407
<ul> and <ol> must only directly contain <li>, <script> or <template> elements	Critical	template	2	969
Elements must meet minimum color contrast ratio thresholds	Critical	template	2	969
Page starts with a level 1 heading	Moderate	template	3	1124
Text has enhanced contrast	Moderate	template	3	925
Text is included in a landmark	Moderate	template	2	975
First focusable element is link to main content	Moderate	template	2	975
ARIA role should be appropriate for the element	Moderate	template	2	969
Form field has accessible name	Moderate	template	2	922
aria attribute is permitted for element role	Moderate	template	2	558
Text has minimum contrast	Moderate	template	2	491
Paragraph font size uses a relative unit	Moderate	template	2	491
There is content between headings	Moderate	content	2	434
Heading levels should only increase by one	Moderate	template	2	428
Headings are structured hierarchically	Moderate	template	2	216

Tools

URL error lookup — paste a URL or URL fragment and export all accessibility findings for that page as JSON, CSV, or JIRA-ready Markdown.

Why this exists

Continuous measurement beats one-off audits. This ledger tracks whether each site is getting more accessible and lighter over time, using axe-core and Alfa (the open source engine behind Siteimprove) for accessibility, and page weight with Sustainable Web Design CO₂ estimates for sustainability. Everything here is open: the scanner, the data, and the reports.

This data is also available beyond the web page: a read-only JSON API (no auth, no server), a machine-discovery API catalog, and for coding agents an llms.txt guide plus a local MCP server.