Free accessibility testing tools that every developer should have
Every tool here is free, apart from JAWS, which you can still use for 40 minutes at a time, and most take a minute to install. The checkers find what a rule can catch. The keyboard and a screen reader find the rest.
Checkers in your browser
WAVE (opens in a new tab)
Chrome, Edge and Firefox extension, or on the web
From WebAIM. Puts an icon on the page itself next to each error, alert and heading, so within seconds you see how much is wrong and where. The one I run first on any site.
Lighthouse (opens in a new tab)
Chrome, built in
Open DevTools, choose Lighthouse and run an accessibility audit. You get a score out of 100 and the rules the page fails. A good first look, but a 100 doesn’t mean the page works.
axe DevTools (opens in a new tab)
Chrome, Edge and Firefox extension, free version
Scans the page with axe-core, the same rules Lighthouse uses, and lists each issue with the element it is on and how to fix it.
Accessibility Insights for Web (opens in a new tab)
Chrome and Edge extension
From Microsoft. FastPass runs the automated checks and draws your tab order on the page. Assessment walks you through the checks a person has to do, one by one.
Contrast
WebAIM Contrast Checker (opens in a new tab)
On the web
Enter a text colour and a background colour to get the contrast ratio, and whether it passes WCAG AA and AAA for normal and large text.
Colour Contrast Analyser (opens in a new tab)
Windows and macOS app
From TPGi. Picks colours straight off the screen with an eyedropper, for text on images and colours you can’t read from the code.
Screen readers
NVDA (opens in a new tab)
Windows, free download
A free, open-source screen reader for Windows. Test with Chrome or Firefox, the way its users do.
JAWS (opens in a new tab)
Windows, paid, free for 40 minutes at a time
A commercial screen reader from Freedom Scientific. Without a licence it runs for 40 minutes; restart the computer to run it again. Test with Chrome or Edge.
VoiceOver (opens in a new tab)
Mac, iPhone and iPad, built in
Turn it on with Command-F5 on a Mac, or under Settings › Accessibility on an iPhone or iPad. Test with Safari.
TalkBack (opens in a new tab)
Android, built in
Turn it on under Settings › Accessibility, then test your site in Chrome on the phone.
In your code and builds
axe-core for Playwright, Puppeteer and WebdriverIO (opens in a new tab)
npm packages
The same rules in your end-to-end tests, so a new failure stops the build before it ships.
eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y (opens in a new tab)
React, in your editor
Flags missing alt text, unlabelled controls and clickable divs as you type. Svelte’s compiler warns about many of the same things on its own.
EaseWeb MCP server
Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code
Your coding agent gets the Learn guides as tools: what breaks for people, the fix with code, and the checks a person must do. Free, with no login.
How I do a quick check
I run WAVE first. Within seconds it tells me how bad a site is, before I spend any time on it: the error count, and an icon on the page beside each problem. I run it on the homepage, one product or service page and the main form. Then, wherever it is needed:
- Run axe DevTools on the same pages to see where each issue is and how to fix it, then fix what it flags.
- Draw the tab order with Accessibility Insights, then press Tab through the same pages yourself.
- Turn on VoiceOver, NVDA or JAWS and go through them again, listening.
- Check any text on images or video with the Colour Contrast Analyser.
What no free tool tells you
Whether the alt text is right, whether the focus order makes sense, whether an error message helps: a rule can’t judge these, and they are much of what WCAG asks.
Not sure where to start?
Starting-point review
$495
Save $252: $747 if you book each part separately
Fixed price (USD). Results within 5 business days.
You don’t need to define a scope. I pick what to test, and the full price counts toward a full audit if you book one afterwards.
Start with a reviewWhat you get
- Your homepage and two more key templates, chosen with you
- The one task your business depends on, such as checkout, booking, or contact
- A ranked list of the barriers to fix first, with the reason for each
- An estimate of the full job, and a recommended next step
This is a first look, not a conformance claim. It tells you where you stand and what to do next.