github/accessibility-scanner

What it does

The AI‑powered Accessibility Scanner is a GitHub Action that runs automated accessibility checks on web pages (or any URLs you point it at). It uses AI‑driven tools – notably GitHub Copilot – to turn each finding into a GitHub issue and, when Copilot is enabled, to suggest a pull‑request fix that a human can review before merging.

Why it matters

• Catch WCAG problems early – the scanner runs on every workflow you trigger, so accessibility regressions are spotted before code lands in production.
• Turn findings into work items automatically – each violation becomes a tracked issue, optionally grouped by rule or URL, so teams never lose sight of a problem.
• Leverage AI for quick fixes – with Copilot the action can draft a PR that addresses the issue, cutting the manual effort required to remediate common problems.
• Fits into existing CI/CD – it’s just another step in a GitHub Actions workflow, requiring only a PAT with write permissions.

How to use it

1. Add a workflow file in .github/workflows/ (e.g., a11y‑scan.yml).
2. Provide the URLs you want scanned (or a JSON url_configs with selectors to wait for/exclude).
3. Supply a fine‑grained personal access token (GH_TOKEN) that can create issues, PRs and write to the repo.
4. Configure optional settings – enable screenshots, group issues, choose which scan engines (axe, accesslint, or custom plugins), or run a dry‑run to preview results.
5. Run the workflow manually or on a schedule/PR trigger. The action will:
   • Launch Playwright, run the selected scanners, collect findings.
   • File GitHub issues for each finding (or grouped per your group_by choice).
   • If Copilot is enabled, assign the issue to Copilot so it can open a PR with a suggested fix.
   • Respect a wontfix label to keep closed issues from reopening.

Who should consider it

• Product and front‑end teams that want automated accessibility regression testing.
• Open‑source maintainers looking to surface accessibility bugs to contributors.
• Organizations using GitHub Copilot and wanting to extend its assistance to accessibility remediation.
• Any repo with GitHub Actions where you can add a small workflow and a PAT.

Limitations & caveats

• The scanner is in public preview – features may change and it does not guarantee fully accessible code.
• AI‑generated fixes are suggestions only; they must be reviewed before merging.
• It relies on GitHub Copilot for automatic PR creation – without Copilot you still get issues but no auto‑fixes.
• Scans are performed in a headless Playwright environment; pages that need complex authentication may need the auth_context input.
• The action creates a gh-cache branch for screenshots and cached results; that branch will appear in the repo.

Quick start checklist

• ✅ Enable GitHub Actions and Issues in the target repo.
• ✅ Create a fine‑grained PAT with actions, contents, issues, pull‑requests, and metadata scopes.
• ✅ Add the PAT as a secret named GH_TOKEN.
• ✅ Add a workflow file with the required repository, token, and cache_key inputs.
• ✅ (Optional) Enable GitHub Copilot and add custom .github/copilot‑instructions.md for better fix suggestions.

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All details are taken directly from the repository’s README.