Questions an accessibility API should answer plainly.
What the scan can decide, what still needs a person, and how the result behaves inside a production workflow.
One asynchronous lifecycle, normalized findings, explicit coverage, and unresolved human checks.
Product boundaries
Does AccessPreflight certify accessibility or legal compliance?
No. It runs selected technical checks, reports their coverage, and routes the questions that still need a person. A complete assessment also considers full services, user journeys, applicable law, assistive technology, and human evaluation.
Does no_detected_failures mean the asset is accessible?
No. It means the enabled machine checks found no failures in the conditions they evaluated. Reduced coverage and outstanding manual requirements remain visible.
Does it replace an accessibility specialist?
No. It moves repeatable checks earlier so specialists can focus on judgment, complex content, assistive-technology testing, and real user experience.
Does it automatically remediate PDF or DOCX files?
No. AccessPreflight returns evidence and source-aware repair guidance. Automated document remediation and a visual remediation editor are outside the current scope.
Inputs and workflows
Which inputs use the same API?
Public URLs, supplied or uploaded HTML, PDF, and DOCX share the asynchronous lifecycle and normalized finding model. Each format keeps appropriate evidence locators.
Can a scan block a release or upload?
Your workflow can apply a project quality gate to allow, warn, or block. The API returns the findings and decision inputs; your system owns the publishing action.
Can we gate only new issues?
Yes. A scan can compare with a pinned baseline so a quality gate can distinguish new, recurring, and resolved findings.
How do we receive completion events?
Poll the scan resource or consume a signed webhook. Idempotency keys make create-scan retries safe.
Profiles, evidence, and data
Why are profiles versioned?
A result should remain interpretable after a standard, mapping, or rule changes. The selected profile and its resolved version stay attached to the evidence.
Are legal profiles compliance decisions?
No. EU, Slovenian, US, and UK legal profiles are technical mappings and customer-declared context aids. Applicability, exceptions, organizational scope, and complete conformity still require qualified review.
What happens to uploaded source files?
Projects control source retention. The product design uses a 24-hour default after completion or failure, with shorter and zero-retention modes available where entitled. Reports and hashes remain separate from raw source content.
What can an evidence export contain?
The model includes the result, profile and rule versions, source hash, scan time, locators, coverage, repair guidance, and unresolved manual checks. Export availability depends on the configured product plan.
Bring the unresolved question to the workflow.
Try the API with a real asset, or book a demo around the publishing path you need to change.
Automated preflight is not an accessibility certification or legal determination.