There are many free tools that can help you get started evaluating the accessibility of a website or application. There are also really good free assistive technologies that support people with disabilities and are valuable tools for manually testing digital assets. Use this page as a resource to find and understand some of those tools. We’re here to help and have great conversations, so if you have any thoughts or questions, let us know. We’re happy to talk.

Single Page Scanners

Automation can scan a website and web-based applications for accessibility issues and failures to the WCAG guidelines. They don’t, however, replace manual testing. Scanning tools can generally find about 30 to 40 percent of the failures to the WCAG guidelines. You, however, will see some claims of 70 percent. When you see this, read carefully. They’re saying that they can catch up to 70 percent of the issues on the average website, which is true, but it is a very different measurement than the percentage of WCAG Success Criteria. All automated scanners will catch about the same number and type of errors.

Most single-page scanners are free, as are the ones you will see listed here. Tools that crawl an entire site typically have a cost associated with them. They are often worth it because monitoring through automation is the backbone of a good, ongoing accessibility program.

Wave Browser Extensions

The Wave Browser Extensions allow you to evaluate web content for accessibility issues directly from the browser. The Wave Browser Extension uses the proprietary Wave ruleset.

It works on several browsers:

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Edge

It also has add-ons available.

WAVE has been recently updated. You can now dynamically retest a page without refreshing the page. The WAVE sidebar interface has been improved for better efficiency by combining the summary and details panels, filtering WAVE results to relevant icons for each WAVE sidebar tab, and adding a control to hide the sidebar. The AIM Score for each page is also available now.

Axe DevTools

Axe DevTools offers free browser extensions for:

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Edge

They allow you to scan directly from the browser and use the open-source AXE ruleset.

ARC Toolkit

ARC Toolkit is a slick single-page scanner that sits in the browser’s dev tools. It uses Vispero’s proprietary ARC Rule set and comes with several tools that help further inspect the page.

Lighthouse

Lighthouse has a website and an accessibility scanner that sits in Chrome’s developer tools. Developed by Google, it runs on the AXE ruleset.

Accessibility Insights

Microsoft’s Accessibility Insights is a great tool that blends single-page automated testing with guided manual testing. It uses the AXE rule set and is a great way to get started with manual accessibility testing.

Assistive Technology

Assistive technologies (AT) are any technology that helps users with disabilities use their computers and smartphones and access digital content. When most people think of ATs, they often think first of Screen Readers, which help people with vision disabilities hear content that they cannot see. One misconception about screen readers is that they’re only used by people who are blind. Many other people use screen readers as well.

Any technology that helps someone is an AT. There is Zoom technology for folks with low vision and browser extensions that help people who are neurodivergent, to name a few. Here are a few of our favorites.  If you know of some we should add to the list, please let us know.

NVDA

NVDA stands for Non-Visual Desktop Access. It is a free, open-source screen reader used by many people who are blind. It is also widely used in testing websites and applications for usability and failures to accessibility guidelines like the WCAG guidelines.

Helperbird

Helperbird is a robust browser extension that can be useful to anyone. It helps with reading and writing and generally consuming content on the web. If you are neurodivergent, for example, if you have dyslexia, it can be super helpful. The free version is very robust. The paid version is very reasonable. Everyone should check it out!