Bobby

Bobby was one of the earliest and most widely used automated web accessibility testing tools, developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) and later acquired by Watchfire (subsequently IBM). Launched in the mid-1990s, Bobby checked web pages against WCAG 1.0 checkpoints and Section 508 standards, reporting machine-testable violations. It became synonymous with automated accessibility evaluation during the early 2000s, with many organizations relying on Bobby compliance as a proxy for accessibility. Bobby was retired in 2005, but its legacy shaped the development of subsequent tools and highlighted both the value and limitations of automated accessibility testing.