Scan Configurations via Capabilities (Automation)

In automation there is no scan-configuration panel. The scan scope is supplied through each test's capabilities, so every test carries its own configuration and the effective rule set is derived from these values. This is the automation counterpart to the manual Scan Configurations panel.

note

Individual rules and whole rule categories can be removed from an automation scan with the accessibility.excludeRules and accessibility.excludeRuleCategories capabilities. See Rule and Category Exclusion for Mobile App Accessibility.

note

The capabilities on this page scope what a scan checks. When a scan runs is a separate choice: the lambda-accessibility-scan hook at each stable screen, or accessibility.autoScan to scan every screen the test reaches. See AutoScan for Mobile App Accessibility.

When to use this

Use these capabilities when users already run Appium against TestMu AI real devices and want each accessibility scan scoped to a specific WCAG target and set of rule groups, without opening a UI. See Native App Automation Appium (Overview) for the surrounding test setup and the lambda-accessibility-scan hook.

Prerequisites

• An Appium test project targeting TestMu AI real devices (Android or iOS).
• LT_USERNAME / LT_ACCESS_KEY available to the process.
• Accessibility enabled on the session via the accessibility master capability.

Capabilities reference

Capability	Type	Allowed values	Default (RD App Automation)
accessibility	boolean	true / false	- (master toggle, must be true to enable a11y scanning)
accessibility.wcagVersion	string	wcag2a, wcag2aa, wcag2aaa, wcag21a, wcag21aa, wcag21aaa, wcag22a, wcag22aa, wcag22aaa	wcag21aa
accessibility.bestPractice	boolean	true / false	true
accessibility.betaRules	boolean	true / false	true
accessibility.aiEnabled	boolean	true / false	false
accessibility.excludeRules	array of strings, or a comma-separated string	Rule IDs from the mobile rules catalog	none
accessibility.excludeRuleCategories	array of strings, or a comma-separated string	Category slugs, for example color-contrast	none
accessibility.autoScan	boolean	true / false	false
accessibility.intelligentScan	boolean	true / false	true (only when autoScan is true)
accessibility.intelligentScanThreshold	integer	0 to 99	95 (only when autoScan is true)

Notes:

• Defaults apply only when accessibility is true and the specific capability is omitted.
• accessibility.autoScan and its two child capabilities control when scans are triggered rather than what they check. They are summarised here for completeness and documented in full, with the trigger list, pause and resume, and the Android and iOS timing difference, in AutoScan for Mobile App Accessibility. The child capabilities are ignored when accessibility.autoScan is false.
• accessibility.aiEnabled is the same AI toggle used elsewhere in accessibility; it is reused here.
• A backend capability accessibility.needsReview also exists but is not part of the standard automation scan config (defaults off).
• accessibility.excludeRules and accessibility.excludeRuleCategories are optional. Accepted values, precedence and error handling are described in Rule and Category Exclusion for Mobile App Accessibility.

How the effective rule set is computed

The rule set for a test is derived from the WCAG version and the group toggles, using the same logic as the manual panel:

• WCAG inheritance. A higher version or level includes the lower ones. Selecting wcag21aa runs every rule whose success criterion is in WCAG 2.0 or 2.1 at level A or AA. WCAG 2.2 rules and AAA-only rules are not included until the version or level is raised.
• Group combination. Some rules carry a Best Practice, Beta, or AI tag. A rule runs only if both its WCAG criterion is in range and every tag it carries is switched on. For example, a Best Practice rule is skipped when accessibility.bestPractice is false, even if its WCAG criterion is in range.
• Exclusions. Rules named in accessibility.excludeRules, and every rule in a category named in accessibility.excludeRuleCategories, are removed after the WCAG and group filters. Exclusion only ever removes rules; it never adds a rule back. See Rule and Category Exclusion.

Example: setting capabilities

Enable accessibility, target WCAG 2.1 AA, keep Best Practice and Beta rules on, and leave AI rules off.

Verified

Capabilities (JSON)

{
  "accessibility": true,
  "accessibility.wcagVersion": "wcag21aa",
  "accessibility.bestPractice": true,
  "accessibility.betaRules": true,
  "accessibility.aiEnabled": false
}

Java

MutableCapabilities caps = new MutableCapabilities();
caps.setCapability("accessibility", true);
caps.setCapability("accessibility.wcagVersion", "wcag21aa");
caps.setCapability("accessibility.bestPractice", true);
caps.setCapability("accessibility.betaRules", true);
caps.setCapability("accessibility.aiEnabled", false);

Python

caps = {
    "accessibility": True,
    "accessibility.wcagVersion": "wcag21aa",
    "accessibility.bestPractice": True,
    "accessibility.betaRules": True,
    "accessibility.aiEnabled": False,
}

JavaScript

const capabilities = {
  "accessibility": true,
  "accessibility.wcagVersion": "wcag21aa",
  "accessibility.bestPractice": true,
  "accessibility.betaRules": true,
  "accessibility.aiEnabled": false,
};

With these capabilities in place, the scan is triggered at each stable screen:

Verified

driver.executeScript("lambda-accessibility-scan");

Only the rules in the effective set are evaluated, and the report for that build contains results for exactly those rules.

What to expect in results

• Scoped results. Each scan reports violations only for the rules in the test's effective set. Rules outside the WCAG range or behind an off group toggle do not appear and do not affect the accessibility score for that scan.
• Configuration recorded with the test. The WCAG version and group toggles are stored alongside the scan, so the team can always see how a given result was produced.
• Applied rules are visible in the report. The report header shows the applied configuration as tags (for example, WCAG 2.1 AA, Best Practices, Beta Rules), and the Applied Settings panel lists every rule that was evaluated, grouped by category and searchable, so the exact selected rules can be confirmed for any scan. Rules removed by an exclusion are shown in the same panel: an excluded category is greyed out, and an individually excluded rule is shown as Off.

The report shows the applied WCAG target and group tags, and the Applied Settings panel lists the selected rules by category:

Product boundary

This page covers configuring scans through capabilities in automation. For hand-picking individual rules and reusing last-used settings in the manual App Scanner flow, see Scan Configurations (Manual).

Related docs

• Native App Automation Appium (Overview)
• Scan Configurations (Manual)
• Appium TestNG
• Appium WebdriverIO
• Tag Support for Accessibility Scans
• Rule and Category Exclusion for Mobile App Accessibility
• AutoScan for Mobile App Accessibility