This tool allows you to scan your application for accessibility issues from your currently existing scripting system.
If you prefer to install silently, open a command prompt as administrator, change to the directory containing the file (typically your downloads folder), and execute the MSI file directly with the /quiet flag. Be sure to use the appropriate version number:
msiexec.exe /i AxeWindowsCLI-X.Y.Z.msi /quiet
You invoke the scanner by running AxeWindowsCLI.exe. By default, this tool gets installed to c:\Program Files (x86)\AxeWindowsCLI\<version>\AxeWindowsCLI.exe, although you can install it into other locations if you wish.
If you run the tool without parameters, you'll be presented with the help screen. An example follows:
AxeWindowsCLI 2.3.1
Copyright c 2020
--processid Process Id
--processname Process Name
--outputdirectory Output directory
--scanid Scan ID
--scanrootwindowhandle The HWND of the window to scan.
--verbosity Verbosity level (Quiet/Default/Verbose)
--showthirdpartynotices Display Third Party Notices (opens file in browser
without executing scan). If specified, all other
options will be ignored.
--delayinseconds How many seconds to delay before triggering the
scan. Valid range is 0 to 60 seconds, with a
default of 0.
--customuia The path to a configuration file specifying custom
UI Automation attributes
--alwayssavetestfile If specified, always save the test file. By
default, the test file is saved only if errors are
found.
--testallchromiumcontent If specified, causes Chromium HTML content to be
scanned. Chromium HTML content is ignored without
this flag. This is intended primarily for browser
development teams and is discouraged for other
scenarios.
To scan an application, you need to specify the application's process via either the --processId or --processName parameters
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| processId | Identifies the process ID of the application to be scanned. Must be specified as an integer value |
| processName | Identifies the name of the process to be scanned. Requires that the process to scan be the only process of that name currently running on the system. |
| outputDirectory | Identifies the folder where output files will be created. If not specified, this will default to .\AxeWindowsOutputFiles (relative to the current working directory) |
| scanId | Identifies the specific ID of the scan. This allows you to preassign a name to the given scan (and output file). If omitted, an dynamic name in the format AxeWindows_YY-MM-DD_hh-mm-ss.fffffff will be used. |
| scanRootWindowHandle | The HWND of the UIA element whose subtree should be scanned. If omitted, the root's children/grandchildren with matching processId will be scanned. |
| verbosity | Identifies the level of detail you want in the output. Valid values are quiet (minimal output), default (typical output), or verbose (maximum output). |
| showThirdPartyNotices | If specified, displays the third party notices for components used by AxeWindowsCLI. This information is also available in the thirdpartynotices.html file that is installed with AxeWindowsCLI. |
| delayInSeconds | Optionally inserts a delay before triggering the scan. This allows transient controls (menus, drop-down-lists, etc.) to be scanned. |
| customUia | Optionally provides a path to a custom UIA configuration file. By default, only system-defined UIA properties will be included in the scan. |
| alwayssavetestfile | Optionally causes the test file to always be saved. By default, the test file is saved only if errors are found. |
| testAllChromiumContent | Optionally causes Chromium HTML content to be scanned. Chromium HTML content is ignored without this flag. This is intended primarily for browser development teams and is discouraged for other scenarios. |
A summary of scan results will be displayed after the scan is run. In addition, an .a11ytest file will be generated if 1 or more errors were detected or if the alwayssavetestfile option was specified. The location of this file will be reported in the tool output (see the documentation of the --outputDirectory and --scanId parameters for ways to alter the name or location of the output file). This file can then be opened with Accessibility Insights for Windows, which is freely available at http://accessibilityinsights.io. If you scan an application with multiple top-level windows, an .a11ytest file will be generated for each top-level window, even if no errors are detected.
A detailed description of scan results will also be displayed if you specify verbose output (see the verbosity parameter).
AxeWindowsCLI requires the presence of version 3.0 (or greater) of the .NET Core runtime. You can download the framework from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core. This error should go away after installing an appropriate runtime of the .NET Core.
This can occur if you are trying to scan a process that is running in an elevated context. To get around it, try running your process non-elevated, or try launching the scan from an elevated process.