About this bot
If you found this page in your server logs, you saw a request with a
user-agent containing A11yAuditBot. This page explains what it
does and how to stop it.
What it does
It fetches a small number of public pages from a website and runs automated web-accessibility tests against them (checks for things like missing image alternative text, insufficient colour contrast, and controls that keyboard and screen-reader users cannot operate).
How it behaves
- Reads and obeys
robots.txtbefore fetching anything. If a path is disallowed, it is not fetched. - At most 5 pages per site.
- One page at a time, at least 2 seconds between pages. It renders each page in a real browser, so that page’s own stylesheets, scripts and images load alongside it, exactly as they would for any visitor. It never loads two pages at once.
- Public pages only. It does not log in, submit forms, complete a checkout, or request admin or account URLs.
- It does not attempt to bypass bot protection, rate limits, or CAPTCHAs.
A
401,403,429or503— onrobots.txtor on any page — stops the scan of that site immediately. To stop it returning later, use either method below. - No load, stress, or performance testing.
- It keeps the test findings, not copies of your pages. A finding records the element that failed, which includes a short excerpt of that element’s own markup so the problem can be located.
How to stop it
Either of these works, permanently:
- Add to your
robots.txt:User-agent: A11yAuditBotDisallow: / - Or email the address below and say so. Your domain goes on a permanent suppression list and is never scanned or contacted again. No reason needed, no reply required.
Contact
[email protected]
Gavin McCraw
2523 Avenue M, Huntsville, TX 77340