nih.gov: Accessibility — week 2026-W28

Automated Accessibility Conformance Report (OpenACR): Download ACR. Machine-readable; compatible with GSA OpenACR tooling. Automated tools find ~⅓ of real barriers — supplement with manual AT testing.

Training priorities

Top WCAG success criteria by pages affected this week. Use these to focus team training on the highest-impact issues.

SC	Criterion	Pages	Rules	Notes
1.4.1	Use of Color	1	1

Next 10 actions

Clusters are fingerprinted by normalized selector path + rule id + snippet shape. Rank score = (severity weight × pages affected) / distinct components for the rule. This supersedes the template threshold heuristic while still surfacing it as a validation signal.

Top 10 clustered component fixes for this week.
Cluster	Severity	Pages	Who it affects	How to fix	Evidence	Decision
Links must be distinguishable without relying on color · unattributed component Fix one place, resolve ~1 finding(s) on 1 page(s). XPath / selector: `.usa-identifier__identity-disclaimer > a[href$="hhs.gov/"]` `<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/" class="ext" data-extlink="" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer" title="(opens in a new window)">Department of Health and Human Services</a>`	Serious	1	Without color perception, Limited vision	See remediation guidance: https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/4.12/link-in-text-block?application=axeAPI	pages (CSV)	Decision Assigned to Notes
All page content should be contained by landmarks · unattributed component Fix one place, resolve ~1 finding(s) on 1 page(s). XPath / selector: `#system-breadcrumb` `<h2 id="system-breadcrumb" class="visually-hidden">Breadcrumb</h2>`	Moderate	1	Requires manual testing.	Wrap all page content in landmarks (header, nav, main, footer) so users can navigate by region.	pages (CSV)	Decision Assigned to Notes

Bug reports

1 issue type(s) are shown by default out of 2 total. Prioritized by severity, key pages, WCAG level, and prevalence; use the toggle to show everything.

Overall severity mix: 1 serious, 1 moderate. By WCAG category: 1 WCAG 2.0 A, 1 Best Practice. Ordered by severity, key-page impact, WCAG level, and prevalence. Following accessibility bug-reporting best practices. Download: Markdown · JSON (full archive) · JSON (AI diagnostic) · CSV (all findings) · Priority pages CSV · Priority pages JSON.

Automated testing does not establish full WCAG conformance. Findings in the verification lane require manual testing before they are treated as confirmed failures.

Default view shows 1 prioritized issue type(s); 1 more are available if you switch to "Show everything".

Findings needing review

These findings need manual verification before they can be treated as confirmed failures. Obligation remains visible for each finding.

Serious axe link-in-text-block WCAG 2.0 A Links must be distinguishable without relying on color (WCAG 1.4.1) 1/103 pages · 1 instances Likely content

Bug ID: VS-0c2b9fe8
Pattern ID: VS-8ade3360
Combined ID: VS-0c2b9fe8 (pattern VS-8ade3360) — use this format in JIRA/spreadsheets to filter by instance or pattern
WCAG category: WCAG 2.0 A
Obligation: required
Handling: review
WCAG SC: 1.4.1 Use of Color (Level A, WCAG 2.0)
Rule: axe-core — Links must be distinguishable without relying on color [link-in-text-block]
Example URL: https://nih.gov/about-nih/nih-almanac/robert-q-marston-md
XPath / selector: .usa-identifier__identity-disclaimer > a[href$="hhs.gov/"]
History: first seen 2026-W25, last seen 2026-W28 (4 wk)

HTML snippet — use this to validate the finding without re-running the tool

<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/" class="ext" data-extlink="" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer" title="(opens in a new window)">Department of Health and Human Services</a>

Description

Links must be distinguishable without relying on color. Detected by axe-core rule link-in-text-block on 1 of 103 scanned pages (1 instances).

Steps to reproduce

Open https://nih.gov/about-nih/nih-almanac/robert-q-marston-md.
Locate the element: .usa-identifier__identity-disclaimer > a[href$="hhs.gov/"]
Confirm the axe-core finding for rule link-in-text-block against WCAG 1.4.1 Use of Color.

Impact

Affects Without color perception (4.5%), Limited vision (2.4%).

Without color perception — 4.5% of population
Limited vision — 2.4% of population

Affected pages

/about-nih/nih-almanac/robert-q-marston-md

Testing environment

Automated: axe-core, headless Chromium (Playwright). Manual AT verification: Not captured by automated scan — requires manual testing.

Suggested fix

See remediation guidance: https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/4.12/link-in-text-block?application=axeAPI

Triage status Notes

Moderate axe region Best Practice All page content should be contained by landmarks (WCAG criterion undetermined) 1/103 pages · 1 instances Likely content

Bug ID: VS-d29a5bdf
Pattern ID: VS-f18df681
Combined ID: VS-d29a5bdf (pattern VS-f18df681) — use this format in JIRA/spreadsheets to filter by instance or pattern
WCAG category: Best Practice
Obligation: advisory
Handling: review
WCAG SC: Best Practice — not a WCAG requirement
Rule: axe-core — All page content should be contained by landmarks [region]
Example URL: https://nih.gov/about-nih/nih-almanac/robert-q-marston-md
XPath / selector: #system-breadcrumb
History: first seen 2026-W25, last seen 2026-W28 (4 wk)

HTML snippet — use this to validate the finding without re-running the tool

<h2 id="system-breadcrumb" class="visually-hidden">Breadcrumb</h2>

Description

All page content should be contained by landmarks. Detected by axe-core rule region on 1 of 103 scanned pages (1 instances).

Steps to reproduce

Open https://nih.gov/about-nih/nih-almanac/robert-q-marston-md.
Locate the element: #system-breadcrumb
Confirm the axe-core finding for rule region.

Impact

Not captured by automated scan — requires manual testing.

Affected pages

/about-nih/nih-almanac/robert-q-marston-md

Testing environment

Automated: axe-core, headless Chromium (Playwright). Manual AT verification: Not captured by automated scan — requires manual testing.

Suggested fix

How to fix: Wrap all page content in landmarks (header, nav, main, footer) so users can navigate by region.

Drupal tip: Use Drupal's region system (header, navigation, main, sidebar, footer) and map each to an HTML5 landmark element in your theme's page.html.twig.

See remediation guidance: https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/4.12/region?application=axeAPI

Triage status Notes

Deque axe-core findings

Rule-level axe-core summary (2 rule type(s))

Each failing rule links out to the axe-core documentation. For full element-level detail including HTML snippets and XPaths, see the bug reports above.

axe-core rules failing in 2026-W28, by pages affected
Rule	Impact	Pages affected	Instances	Example pages	All affected
Links must be distinguishable without relying on color [link-in-text-block]	serious	1	1	/about-nih/nih-almanac/robert-q-marston-md	all 1 pages (CSV)
All page content should be contained by landmarks [region]	moderate	1	1	/about-nih/nih-almanac/robert-q-marston-md	all 1 pages (CSV)

Siteimprove Alfa findings

Rule-level Alfa summary (0 rule type(s))

Rule-level summary from Siteimprove Alfa (W3C ACT-based). Findings that overlap with axe-core on the same WCAG success criterion are noted as possible duplicates in the bug reports above.

No Alfa findings this week.

Unique accessibility issues (axe + Alfa consolidated)

axe and Alfa both implement W3C ACT rules, so the same issue is often caught by both. These are deduplicated by ACT rule and page, so a shared finding counts once.

Unique issues (rule × page): 2
Caught by both engines: 0 highest confidence
axe only: 2
Alfa only: 0

No issues were flagged by both engines on the same pages this week.