Turn accessibility evidence into a quality indicator
QERIS converts repeatable technical observations into a structured institutional result that can be interpreted across pages and assessment cycles.
About QERIS
A quality index for observable digital accessibility
QERIS (Quality Evaluation & Rating for Inclusive Systems) is an automated digital accessibility rating system for public and institutional websites. It converts reproducible technical evidence into structured results that can be compared across institutions and assessment cycles.
Measure observable accessibility quality
The index focuses on accessibility characteristics that can be assessed reliably on public web interfaces, while keeping human-dependent judgments outside the automated claim.
Designed for international expansion
The framework is versioned, locale-aware and designed to support consistent multi-page assessment across institutions and jurisdictions.
Who QERIS supports
Disability groups supported by QERIS
QERIS measures automatically detectable barriers in public web interfaces that can affect people with visual, motor, auditory and cognitive disabilities.
Visual disabilities
Screen-reader related structure, alternative text, contrast, headings and page organization are among the machine-detectable signals that can affect blind and low-vision users.
Motor disabilities
Keyboard access, focus behavior and interactive controls are measured where they can be evaluated reliably without requiring a mouse or pointer device.
Cognitive disabilities & learning difficulties
Some aspects of structure, headings, labels, declared language and content organization can reveal relevant barriers, while many cognitive-accessibility questions still require human judgment.
Auditory disabilities
Selected machine-detectable evidence related to alternatives or structures associated with audio and video content can be assessed, while complete media accessibility may require expert review.
Strongest automated coverageAutomated coverage is currently strongest for many barriers affecting visual and motor access, because a larger share of those barriers can be detected reliably through automated web inspection.
Automation boundaryQERIS measures automatically detectable accessibility barriers. It does not claim to reproduce or fully evaluate the complete lived experience of every disability group.
Engine evolution
From page testing to institutional quality measurement
QERIS Scanner has evolved through four engineering generations. The progression has focused less on adding raw checks and more on improving how evidence is selected, interpreted and aggregated into an institutional result.
Prove automated assessment
The first generation established that public web pages could be assessed automatically and combined standard accessibility checks with QERIS-specific deterministic evidence. It also showed that raw element counts alone were not a balanced basis for institutional scoring.
Measure rules, not repetition
Scoring moved away from allowing repeated instances of one issue to dominate the result. The outcome of each rule became more important than the number of elements on which the same failure appeared.
Add severity and evidence sufficiency
The model introduced clearer treatment of severity, coverage sufficiency, incomplete and inapplicable evidence, while expanding interactive checks and language- and script-sensitive measurement.
Validate the sample before scoring
QERIS now assesses a defined multi-page institutional sample, validates the final page destinations, prevents the same resolved page from inflating coverage, and aggregates institution-level evidence only after page-set integrity is checked.
What V4 changes in practiceThe main advance is not simply a larger rule set. V4 controls sample identity before aggregation, distinguishes genuine pages from duplicate final destinations, preserves redirect context, and forms the institutional result only from eligible evidence.
Public value
What a QERIS assessment communicates
A QERIS result combines a concise institutional quality signal with enough context to understand the evidence, scope and confidence behind it.
Quality score and gradeA normalized institutional result derived from eligible automated evidence under the active QERIS framework.
Core-standard profileA structured view across the five core standards, with language and writing-system checks included in Comprehension & Language.
Measurement confidenceA separate indicator describing evidence completeness and the reliability of the planned automated assessment.
Versioned assessment contextThe assessed sample, framework version and measurement context remain attached to the result for traceability.
See the measurement workflow
Follow the path from a defined public sample to a validated institutional result.