Development teams are at the front lines of digital accessibility. Through the skills they bring, the tools they use, and the processes they embrace, we’re able to advance our goal of transforming digital accessibility from optional to essential.
Success in this mission means embedding digital accessibility directly into the tools developers use every day. It’s essential that they’re equipped to succeed.
When development teams install comprehensive accessibility testing tools, they expect thorough coverage. The right tools deliver this coverage—with accurate results.
Unfortunately, with other vendors, this isn’t always what happens. Far too often, what developers get instead are hundreds of flagged “violations” that aren’t actually accessibility issues at all. These false alarms cause teams to lose confidence in automated testing altogether.
That’s precisely why Deque took the groundbreaking step of open-sourcing axe-core and setting new standards for digital accessibility testing with a zero-false-positive promise. We knew that trying to improve digital accessibility while allowing high rates of false positives was a fool’s game—inefficient, ineffective, inadequate.
Today, our commitment to zero false positives still grounds our approach, and it’s why we remain the leader in what has become a crowded market populated by many vendors that continue to repeat the mistakes of the past.
A historic shift toward efficient accessibility testing
In 2015, digital accessibility testing was focused on trying to catch a wide variety of potential issues. At face value, it made some sense. Look for more, find more. The problem was the high false positive rates. Developers were having to validate every single issue to determine whether it was, in fact, an actual issue. The time cost alone was brutal, not to mention the blows to morale and motivation. Nothing kills momentum like inefficiency.
So we came out with our zero-false-positive promise because we wanted to stop wasting developer time.
It was a profound lesson for the industry to learn, and it changed everything. The approach succeeded well beyond expectations, getting adopted into open-source tools such as Google Lighthouse and Microsoft Accessibility Insights. Axe-core itself recently surpassed 3 billion downloads.
With that track record, you’d think everyone would have learned the lesson. Unfortunately, not everyone has.
Part of the problem is that, in the past few years, many new tool vendors have entered the market that lack this historical context. Instead of building on valuable lessons from the leading innovators, they’re turning back the clock to a far less efficient time, shipping rulesets that generate long lists of false positives and overwhelm developers with noise and slow progress.
Instead of continuing to rewrite the rules of what’s possible, they’re making accessibility feel impossible. But nothing could be further from the truth!
Even as the European Accessibility Act (EAA) is redefining the global legal landscape, AI and automation are rewriting the rules of what’s technologically possible. Today, we have the tools to create a world where digital accessibility is simply how we build. But these tools must be trustworthy.
False positives erode developer trust in accessibility programs
At first glance, tools that cast a wide net may seem like a good idea. But in actual practice, what happens when developers continue to encounter false positives and suspicious failures? They lose patience. Even worse, they lose trust. Eventually, they just turn the accessibility tool off.
That loss of trust can be devastating, because trust once lost is very hard—if not impossible—to regain. And the business ramifications are profound.
Before you know it, you’re not shipping accessible products anymore. And, not only are you not finding and fixing existing accessibility issues, you’re creating new ones.
Fortunately, there’s a better way—one grounded in trust and accuracy.
When you’re evaluating digital accessibility tools, put accuracy above all else. Look beyond surface metrics like rule counts—accuracy is more important than quantity. Does the tool minimize false positives while catching real issues? A tool correctly identifying 50 genuine barriers beats one reporting 100 issues where half are false alarms.
You’re paying double for false positives
Let’s take a moment to acknowledge the financial impact of false positives. The equation is clear—false positives cost you. You’re basically adding in an entire cost layer that is totally unnecessary. First, you pay to find issues. That’s expected. But then, if you’re using “wide net” tools that deliver high rates of false positives, you pay to validate the issues you’ve already paid to find. And then you have to pay to fix the actual issues!
By eliminating false positives, you no longer have to spend time and money on excess validation. You simply find the real issues, and you fix them. Time-efficient. Cost-efficient.
And the costs don’t stop there. Inefficiency inside your organization quickly compounds with external pressures. With scrutiny intensifying every day, organizations cannot afford to fall behind on digital accessibility. The legal, reputational, and financial risks are too great.
Beware inexperienced vendors and overhyped claims
Today, in 2025, digital accessibility continues to demand innovation. And while, on the surface, our industry may seem to be overflowing with it, it’s essential to distinguish between genuine innovation and superficial, market-driven quick-fixes that don’t actually work. An inexperienced, VC-backed startup may be able to put up a convincing argument initially, but the truth always comes out.
At Deque, we’ve been mission-driven from the start, and our commitment is unwavering. This is why we’ve approached AI with a zero-false-positive focus, and it’s why our priority is enabling teams to achieve real progress. When you’re choosing your digital accessibility partner, it’s crucial that you seriously question the motivations of new entrants, particularly when they’re making overhyped claims backed more by funding than by experience.
Choosing the right partner for digital accessibility
Just as the most effective tools catch real issues, integrate smoothly into workflows, and build confidence through transparency, the right partner prioritizes accuracy, efficiency, and integrity.
Ultimately, the issue of false positives is about trust. Either you can trust your tools to give you accurate results, or you can’t. The same can be said for your digital accessibility partner. Either you can trust them to help you get and stay accessible, or you can’t.
Our goal is to create a world where any team, anywhere, can build accessible experiences effortlessly. Our AI innovations are essential for maintaining our commitment to zero false positives while continuing to accelerate and expand detection capabilities.
In digital accessibility, a legacy of excellence matters. I’m proud that Deque has been the trusted leader for decades. But even more than that, I’m excited for Deque to lead the way as we embark on the next great chapter of this powerful journey to a more accessible world.