10 Best Website Accessibility Testing Tools Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 20 tools reviewed.
There are many website accessibility testing tools available, so figuring out which is best for you is tough. You want to identify and resolve website accessibility barriers but need to figure out which tool is the best fit. I've got you! In this post I make things simple, leveraging my experience using dozens of different website accessibility testing software to bring you this shortlist of the best website accessibility testing tools.
What Are Website Accessibility Testing Tools?
Website accessibility testing tools are software that evaluate the accessibility of websites for individuals with disabilities. These tools assess websites against established accessibility standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), to identify and report areas where a site may not be fully accessible. They automate the process of checking various aspects of web accessibility, including visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive accessibility features.
The benefits of using website accessibility testing tools include ensuring that websites are accessible to a broader range of users, including those with disabilities. This enhances inclusivity and widens the audience reach of the website. These tools help website owners and developers comply with legal and ethical standards for accessibility, reducing the risk of non-compliance issues. By improving website accessibility, these tools contribute to a more inclusive and equitable internet, ensuring that digital content is available to all users, regardless of their abilities.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Website Accessibility Testing Tools
In this section, I’ll take you through a brief description of each website accessibility testing solution. I’ll cover each tool’s best use case, outstanding features, and pros and cons.
Tanaguru provides a set of tools and resources that are designed to enable you to perform web accessibility testing. It offers a suite of accessibility assessment features to help you make your web product accessible.
Why I picked Tanaguru: The tool offers Contrast Finder, which is designed to help you test the accessibility of colors. It lets you optimize the contrast ratio between the background color and the test color. Tanaguru Contrast Finder enables you to find the right color combination with just a few clicks.
There are web accessibility courses you can rely on to train your entire project team. This makes using the tool and complying with standards very easy. With Tanaguru, you have access to a team of experts. They are trained to provide expert guidance to your project team.
Tanaguru Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: This website accessibility testing software comes with an exceptional feature, Tanaguru Engine, that is built to help you with auditing your websites’ and apps’ web accessibility. Tanaguru Engine is an open-source solution that empowers you to meet RGAA compliance requirements. It streamlines the process of checking your accessibility level with just a few clicks.
Integrations: It allows you to integrate with your DevOps tools, such as GitHub and Jenkins.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Expert support is available
- There are accessibility testing courses
- Finding the right colors is easy
Cons:
- The UI needs to be improved
- Difficult settings for new users
accessScan, powered by accessiBe, is a free website accessibility checker. The software comes with standard features that enable you to assess your website to learn how accessible it is for people with disabilities and whether or not it’s compliant with accessibility guidelines.
Why I picked accessScan: This tool uses artificial intelligence to simulate user testing and scan web pages for accessibility issues. accessScan gives you clarity by simply telling you whether or not your website is accessible and compliant. It takes a step farther to let you know what needs to be fixed. The tool finds accessibility problems and presents them in a way that is easy to analyze and understand.
accessScan Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: accessScan uses accessiBe’s AI engines to spot and report website accessibility issues. The AI-powered technology increases reliability and helps you find errors that would be difficult to spot with a manual accessibility audit. And the tool is super fast. With a few clicks, it turns up accurate results within seconds. It’s also very secure and compliant with data security regulations. Even though no personal data is collected, whatever you do with the tool is well protected.
Integrations include WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce, Joomla, Drupal, Webflow, and BigCommerce.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- It’s very fast
- It’s available for free
- Accurate and reliable
Cons:
- More customizable workflows needed
- Not enough tutorials for beginners
Best for managing tests with next-generation accessibility analytics
This is a leading web accessibility testing platform that provides a suite of features for identifying and managing accessibility problems. ARC Platform offers the tools, knowledge, and support you need to analyze your site’s accessibility level and make it accessible to everyone.
Why I picked ARC Platform: The software comes with advanced accessibility analytics, which enables you to analyze data from several accessibility testing sources. It helps you get the insights you need to make sense of your testing activities, prioritize issues, implement remediation measures, and keep track of progress across your enterprise.
ARC Platform has collaboration capabilities that help remote team members to work effectively towards a common goal without losing track of tasks. With the seamless DevOps integrations, you can fast-track the entire software development process by making accessibility testing part of your SDLC.
ARC Platform Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include advanced monitoring and accessibility resources. The tool allows you to monitor your website’s performance and get insights through the trend-monitoring dashboards. This helps you make data-driven decisions.
It provides resources for carrying out web accessibility evaluation and optimizing your web pages to meet compliance requirements. The resources include a comprehensive library of knowledge and training courses. ARC provides you with important information and techniques for solving problems.
Integrations: It lets you integrate into existing DevOps systems and processes. Zapier integration is also available. Popular integrations include Jira, Azure, GitHub, Email Notifications, Google Sheets, and Slack.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- It’s user-friendly
- Get started for free
- Seamless integrations
Cons:
- More customizable workflows needed
- New users have many features to learn
tota11y uses assistive technologies to help you get a clear view of how your website performs. It provides a set of features that help you visualize how accessible your site is to individuals with disabilities.
Why I picked tota11y: It’s a web accessibility visualization toolkit that utilizes assistive technologies to help developers spot accessibility issues and fix them in fun, interactive ways. It streamlines the accessibility testing process and makes it easy to identify common accessibility violations. The tool doesn’t stop at spotting errors, it takes a step further to suggest remediation steps with the help of plugins.
tota11y Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: tota11y’s toolbar features several plugins, which extend the capabilities of the tool. Each plugin offers its own functionality. It includes plugins that help you detect images with/without alt text, label text with contrast violations, and suggest the right color combinations. Other functionalities of tota11y plugins include suggesting fixes based on context, detecting unclear link text, labeling all ARIA landmarks on the page, and highlighting parts of the webpage to point out errors.
Integrations include plugins, such as Google Chrome Developer Tools and landmarks plugins.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Provides remediation suggestions
- Extensible with plugins
- Enables you to visualize violations
Cons:
- More tutorials needed
- UI needs to be upgraded
JAWS, Job Access With Speech, is the leading screen reader designed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. It helps visually impaired people to perform important operations on their computers and offers speech and Braille output for popular computer applications.
Why I picked JAWS: The software provides access to easy-to-use accessibility testing products for developers: JAWS Inspect and ARC. Both products provide industry-standard web accessibility capabilities you can use to ensure your website meets relevant accessibility requirements.
JAWS Inspect is a screen reader testing tool. It offers a text output of JAWS speech, which streamlines accessibility and JAWS compatibility testing. The tool enables you to identify accessibility issues in real-time so you can optimize your content accordingly. JAWS Inspect requires minimal training; you can get started without having to spend weeks trying to figure out the tool.
JAWS Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: ARC provides a continuous accessibility testing capability that enables you to properly manage and keep track of your accessibility program. It comes with exceptional features, such as advanced testing and monitoring, automated testing, program oversight, and an advanced accessibility scanner.
With accessibility analytics, you can uncover insights required to guide your testing process and keep tabs on work progress across the enterprise. ARC offers collaboration features and allows you to integrate into your existing DevOps systems and processes via the ARC API.
Integrations: You can make accessibility testing part of your SDLC by integrating the tools into your DevOps ecosystem. In addition to integrating with DevOps tools like Jenkins and Jira Work Management, ARC supports integration with Zapier, which gives you access to wider integrations.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Streamlined testing
- You can automate tests
- Easy to get started
Cons:
- More tutorials required
- Long customer service response time
SortSite Desktop, a product by PowerMapper, is a streamlined web accessibility testing tool that provides capabilities for testing your site for accessibility and usability issues. It helps check for broken links, spelling errors, web standards, SEO, WCAG compliance, and more.
Why I picked SortSite: It helps you run web accessibility testing, enabling you to check web pages for web standards and accessibility issues. The software lets you implement measures to comply with accessibility guidelines, such as WCAG. I like SortSite because it’s a one-click web testing tool. It offers a dynamic automated testing capability that helps you streamline the entire process and reduce your workload.
SortSite Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: SortSite lets you test browser compatibility, which helps you identify browser-specific code, script, and image formats. The tool allows you to assess web standards, making HTML and CSS validation simple and straightforward. With SortSite, you can run usability testing and check web parameters against Usability.gov guidelines.
Integrations: It integrates with software development tools, including Jenkins, MSBuild, and Bamboo.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Compatible with Mac and Windows
- Fast and easy testing process
- Streamline testing with automation
Cons:
- Long customer service response time
- It’s a bit expensive
Level Access is a unified software platform that empowers you to achieve and maintain digital accessibility. It provides a range of accessibility testing solutions, including automated scans, manual testing, and accessibility auditing.
Why I picked Level Access: I like this tool because it provides a unified software solution and expert support to help you achieve and maintain website accessibility. It’s an Accessibility-as-a-Service platform with various capabilities, including testing, reporting, training, and project management.
In addition to the training program that lets you educate your team, the Level Access Platform also provides expert support, which helps you resolve technical or regulatory challenges and provides code-level guidance. This is one of the best Accessibility-as-a-Service tools for website accessibility and ADA compliance.
Level Access Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features include accessibility auditing, project management, and governance and reporting. The tool allows you to run a comprehensive audit, which uncovers results from automated scanning and manual evaluations. With the project management capability, you can organize, prioritize, and streamline accessibility testing work with easy-to-use smart features.
The governance and reporting feature gives you complete visibility into your accessibility work, enabling you to keep track of accessibility status, view detailed test results, and manage a portfolio of assets.
Integrations include Jira, Azure DevOps, Cucumber, Jest, Mocha, Cypress.io, Protractor, and Webdriver.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Complete visibility
- Streamlined testing processes
- On-demand training courses available
Cons:
- Filtering critical defects is a bit difficult
- Hard to navigate for beginners due to the many options
DYNO Mapper empowers you to implement website accessibility evaluation of any public or private website. This automated accessibility testing tool lets you test against local and international accessibility guidelines.
Why I picked DYNO Mapper: I selected this tool because it allows you to check for accessibility issues with respect to local and international guidelines, including BITV 1.0 (Level 2), Section 508, WCAG 2.0, Stanca Act, WCAG 2.1, and WCAG 1.0. There is a scheduling feature that enables you to monitor for accessibility issues with minimal human involvement.
You can set up automatic testing and reporting on a monthly basis. DYNO Mapper has a monitoring interface that lets you view your Accessibility Score and keep tabs on your improvements.
DYNO Mapper Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: The tool offers a visualization feature, which allows you to view the test live in a browser. Issues are displayed and categorized as Known, Likely, and Potential. The tool lets you run tests as many times as you want. It doesn’t place a limit on the number of tests you can run per domain within a month. DYNO Mapper provides test reports, which are saved online for seamless access.
The tool sends notifications of accessibility problems to your email. The notifications feature is designed to keep you in the know about your website’s accessibility status with respect to Known, Likely, and Potential issues.
Integrations include Jira, Google Analytics, WordPress, and more.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Get notified when things change
- Run unlimited tests
- Evaluate compliance with many guidelines
Cons:
- More customizations needed
- Pricing is on the high side
Pope Tech, powered by WAVE, is a web accessibility and reporting software. With the tool, you can quickly scan your website to get an accessibility report you need to optimize it to meet accessibility standards.
Why I picked Pope Tech: It lets you scan your website automatically to reveal accessibility errors and uncover the insights you need to improve your accessibility level. Test results are categorized in an easy-to-understand way. The tool presents accessibility data with explanations in plain English. The test report comes with a good description of what each issue entails, an evaluation of its impact, and suggestions on how to fix the issues.
Pope Tech Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: Pope Tech is built on the WAVE Engine, making it a fast and accurate website accessibility testing tool. In addition to automated scanning, the tool allows you to run unlimited rescans at no extra cost. Pope Tech allows you to rank accessibility issues and prioritize problems based on severity. It provides everything you need to track your progress and keep tabs on accessibility gains.
Other exceptional features are an enterprise dashboard, embedded WAVE documentation, customizable website crawling, and flexible reporting.
Integrations: The tool allows you to integrate with other third-party software solutions, such as Asana, Jira, and Email. Pope Tech integrates with Microsoft products, including Microsoft Excel, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Word.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Accessibility courses are available
- It’s cost-effective
- Flexible and customizable
Cons:
- More responsive customer support required
- Limited customizations
ACTF aDesigner is built to enable you to test the accessibility and usability of web pages for people who are blind or who have low vision.
Why I picked ACTF aDesigner: aDesigner helps you create web pages that are accessible and usable for people who are blind or visually challenged. aDesigner enables you to check your web pages’ compliance with accessibility guidelines. After analyzing web pages, the tool creates a report that outlines the issues that would decrease the accessibility and usability of your product.
The tool helps you understand your website’s accessibility level and provides the information you need to effect changes to address accessibility issues.
ACTF aDesigner Standout Features and Integrations
Standout features: ACTF aDesigner tests webpages for users who are blind or who have low vision. Consequently, the tool has two types of visualization: the low vision tab and the blind tab. In the low vision mode, aDesigner helps you improve accessibility and usability for individuals who are visually challenged (weak eyesight, color vision deficiencies, cataracts, etc.). In the blind tab, the tool helps you test and optimize pages for blind users.
Other features include accessibility checking for OpenDocument Format (ODF) files, GUI accessibility checking, and accessibility checking of web pages containing Flash content.
Integrations: It allows you to integrate with website development tools.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Detailed accessibility testing reports
- Comprehensive documentation
- Comprehensive accessibility testing
Cons:
- Steep learning curve
- The product website is difficult to navigate
The 10 Best Website Accessibility Testing Tools Summary
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Tanaguru | Free to use | Website |
| accessScan | Free to use | Website |
| ARC Platform by TPGi | From $29/user/month | Website |
| Tota11y | Free to use | Website |
| JAWS | Pricing upon request | Website |
| SortSite | From $149/user | Website |
| Level Access | Pricing upon request | Website |
| DYNO Mapper | From $64/user/month | Website |
| Pope Tech | Pricing upon request | Website |
| ACTF aDesigner | Free to use | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Options
Here are a few good options that didn’t make the best mobile automation testing tools list:
- Evinced
Best for automatically finding and tracking accessibility issues
- A11y Color Contrast Accessibility Validator
Best for testing for color contrast
- Siteimprove
Best for getting web and content performance insights
- CSS & HTML Validator
Best for validating HTML
- WAVE
Best for testing accessibility directly within your web browser using WAVE, Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browser extensions
- HTML_CodeSniffer
Best for checking compliance with WCAG and the U.S. section 508 legislation
- Rocket Validator
Best for identifying accessibility and HTML issues
- TGPi
Best for achieving ADA compliance and WCAG conformance
- AChecker
Best for monitoring ADA, AODA, and EQA compliance
- Accessibility Checker by CKSource
Best for checking the accessibility level of content created in CKEditor 4
Selection Criteria For Website Accessibility Testing Tools
Here’s a summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best website accessibility testing tools for this article:
Core Functionality
I considered the following core functionalities:
- Ability to check for compliance with local and international guidelines
- Accessibility testing of web-based content for individuals who are blind
- Accessibility testing for people with low vision
- Automated testing
- Color contrast evaluation
Key Features
Some major features I considered while researching this article:
- Reporting: This feature gives you access to a well-organized, breakdown of test results.
- Website scanning: A capability that accessibility testing tools use to search your website for accessibility violations.
- Color contrast finder: It helps evaluate your site for color contrast violations. This feature is used to assess color combinations to ensure they meet the standard contrast ratio.
- Notifications: This feature notifies you, testers, or stakeholders when changes happen on your website. How you get notified depends on the settings and channels available.
Usability
Some website accessibility testing tools are great but they have poor UIs, which make them notoriously hard to learn and use. To enable your team to get started without delays, I selected solutions with outstanding user interfaces that are intuitive and easy to learn.
Software Integrations
Moving from one tool to another when running tests is time-consuming and can lead to fatigue. Being able to integrate your toolset with the website accessibility testing software helps to increase testing velocity and enables your team members to collaborate productively.
Pricing
I considered affordability, flexibility, and transparency. All the tools on this list offer flexible, friendly pricing. Carefully evaluate each software to find the one that suits your needs and budget.
People Also Ask
Some interesting questions people are asking about website accessibility testing tools are outlined and answered below.
What are the benefits of website accessibility testing tools?
The benefits of web accessibility evaluation tools include:
- Improving user experience
- Increasing accessibility for blind customers
- Boosting customer base and market share
- Increasing accessibility for visually challenged customers
- Helping web developers comply with guidelines
Who uses website accessibility testing tools?
Website developers and QA professionals use web accessibility testing frameworks. Developers use them to ensure they publish compliant content, while testers use the tools to validate webpages to ensure they are accessible to everyone.
What are the 2 types of accessibility testing?
The two major types of accessibility testing are automated testing and manual testing. During manual testing, testers manually check the website for accessibility violations. On the other hand, automated testing involves the use of automation technologies to run tests.
Other Testing Software
If you want to learn more about software testing, check out the following reviews.
- Best Test Management Tools for Jira
- Best Test Management Tools
- Best Free Test Management Tools
- Best Open-Source Test Management Tools
Select The Best Website Accessibility Testing Tool For Your Team
Making your site accessible to everyone will help you increase your customer base and give you access to new markets. There are strict web content accessibility guidelines that mandate companies to create websites that are accessible and usable for individuals with disabilities. To meet compliance requirements easily, check out the tools I’ve recommended to find the software that suits your project and team.
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