axe-core audit screenshots as a release artifact

The claim that usually goes unsubstantiated

"WCAG 2.1 AA compliant" appears on countless plugin descriptions. Under direct inspection the label often turns out to be an aspiration: no one has actually run a tool across the admin or storefront pages recently. For an agency required to deliver an accessibility assessment for a public-sector client, an unsubstantiated claim is more harmful than helpful.

What was set up for the Shopware Plugin Suite

For all seven plugin families in the suite, a fixed audit structure was introduced: docs/audits/<date>/. That folder carries, per release:

• An axe-core JSON output — raw scan results from the toolchain, not a hand-written summary.
• Screenshots — visual confirmation of what was scanned: admin overview, configuration form, storefront block. One image per scan area.
• A short README — context: which pages, which browser, which axe version, which findings were and were not addressed.

The live axe-core run happens headless against a local Shopware instance with the plugin installed. Screenshots are walked through and updated before commit — no leftover images from a previous release.

Why this is worth more than a checkbox

A "WCAG compliant" checkbox on a plugin description says: "we claim it works". An audit folder says: "here is what the tool sees, here are the pages, here are the findings, here is the version trail". That is a fundamentally different signal to an evaluator. For agencies that have to deliver an audit to a client — often in public-sector or healthcare contexts — a screenshot-backed report is a half-audit saved. The plugin author has already done part of the work.

What the screenshots actually show

The audits dated 27 April 2026 for the Shopware Plugin Suite show 0 violations on the prioritised scan areas, a handful of best-practice notes, and a transparent comment about a previously identified WCAG A failure that was fixed in the same release. No hidden story, no "we have not looked yet" pages. An evaluator with 20 minutes can see what was scanned and what was not.

Maintained through the release flow

The difference between a one-off audit and an audit culture lies in the release flow. The Shopware Plugin Suite policy is that every new release gets a new audit folder, dated on the release day. What that quietly enforces: accessibility regressions surface immediately because the scan runs again, and not months later when a customer reports them. Evidence is not a standalone artefact but a ritual — alongside CHANGELOG entries and JUnit reports.