Top 14 Free Accessibility Tools to Test Accessibility Issues

While there are numerous tools to do the job just right, here are a few of our top favourites to get you started:

Also known as Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool, it is an easy to use website accessibility checker that is in use by most developers for quite a few years now. WAVE is a robust website accessibility checker that goes beyond just streamlining your audit process. It educates users about the accessibility issues to consider. Either enter your URL in the dedicated field on their website or download the browser extension.

Google Lighthouse is one of the Top Automated Accessibility Testing Tools out there. The great thing about it is that its web accessibility evaluation tools are open-sourced, automated, handy (Chrome built-in) and super easy to use without asking you to sign up! In the end, simply drag a report onto the online report viewer that it provides you with and you have your complete evaluation done!
This accessibility testing tool is also part of a whole suite of checks that you can run using Chrome Developer Tools.

Accessible Metrics is a Complete Online Web Accessibility Testing Tool that thoroughly scans your whole website and reveals potential issues that possibly prevent users from accessing your site. It shows you where these problems exist and gives you actionable solutions with its intuitive explanations. It simultaneously tests for performance metrics while uncovering accessibility errors and alerts you of any broken links on your website and where to find and fix them.

Cynthia Says is a free portal created by HiSoftware. Meant for educational purposes, its online test helps users identify web accessibility compliance errors in their website/web portal validating one page at a time. It helps identify your content’s mistakes related to Section 508 standards and/or WCAG compliance with feedback provided in an easily understandable format. The entire purpose is to inform the community on what constitutes accessible web design and accessible content.

Web Accessibility by Level Access starts off with a free test that determines if your website closely complies with the guidelines for Web Content Accessibility according to (WCAG) 2.1 standards. The way to use it is also pretty simple. Submit your URL for Testing, once it performs an automated check, you will receive a report that has scores you on overall compliance, accessibility barriers (violations) and how best to overcome those violations.

Axe is a free, secure and popular tool showcasing a well-developed library of open-source rules for accessibility testing. It helps developers perform automated accessibility testing smoothly, highlighting aspects to improve on your website’s UI. Get started instantly by adding it as an extension to your browser. You also get to custom-tune it to your specific accessibility testing needs.

Tenon is another popular web accessibility testing tool, famous for being flexible, rigorous and accurate. It helps you run a preventive type of accessibility check on your website to detect critical issues before turning into significant usability obstacles. The program uses API to quickly integrate into your already existing toolset and create reports of evaluation results. Apart from that, it systematically verifies single web pages, groups of web pages or websites (those password-protected/ restricted).

SortSite is a popular tool among Federal agencies, Fortune 100 Corporations, and other independent consultancies. The one-click testing tool can be used as a desktop application for Window/Mac but is also available as a web app. It checks your web page for accessibility, compatibility, privacy, usability and search engine optimization. Once done, you’ll receive reports of evaluation results.

AInspector Sidebar is a web accessibility evaluation tool that applies the WCAG Guidelines’ rules to the current page’s live DOM and each page you load into the browser’s content area. Once installed, you can selectively load into the sidebar panel of any Firefox browser tab. Post that it automatically displays evaluation results whenever you visit a new page in that tab. It is available as a Firefox Add-on.

Total Validator was launched in 2005 and is used by some of the world’s top sites and multiple government organizations. It ensures that your website is coded correctly—tests it against across twenty HTML standards, including the latest HTML specifications. Other popular functions are their high-performance broken link checker and their language-detecting spell checker that ensures your website reads professionally.

They aim to improve the Web for everyone through publishing a range of free and open-source tools for accessible tooling and automation. To do this, Pa11y provide a command-line interface that loads web pages and highlights any accessibility issues it finds and a web dashboard which automatically tests web pages for accessibility issues daily. Their graphs help you track improvements and regressions over time. Also useful for non-developers to see how your sites perform.

FAE evaluates a web page for accessibility by keeping in mind the Web Accessibility Standards guidelines. The evaluation results are then broken into five categories: Navigation and Orientation, Text Equivalents, Scripting, Styling and HTML Standards. Each category’s performance is judged as a percentage, uniquely divided between Pass, Warm & Fail – this enables you to focus on the specific problem areas.

TAW is an automatic online tool to analyze the accessibility of websites developed by CTIC Centro Tecnólogico. It was created using WCAG 2.0-2.1 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as a technical reference. TAW marks the accessibility violations that it discovers by providing an interpreted version of the website and recommendations on how to resolve them. It is available online, as a desktop application as well as a Firefox add-on.

Webnauts is the brainchild of a professional group of SEO, accessibility and usability consultants dedicated to providing the tools necessary to make web sites available & accessible to the largest possible audience. Their web site accessibility testing & consulting services provides a detailed analysis of your existing Web site and its current information structure. It explains the strengths and weaknesses of your site, describing how best to make your information available for the average user, as well as for those with disabilities.

Conclusion

Apart from making sure that your web application is suitable for people with disabilities, it is also essential to make sure your website delivers exceptionally in terms of UI & UX. Get in touch with our expert team at Anblik to get web accessibility services using our Open Source platform! Contact us for Web Accessibility Services or call us today at (+91) 9831076758 for a free consultation. We will answer all your website accessibility questions and discuss your requirements with no pressure or obligation to you.