The 8 Best Automated Accessibility Testing Tools for Websites

Great copy and sharp design don’t prove that your website is accessible. It’s things like colour contrast, missing alt text, and poor keyboard navigation that can prevent people from accessing your site, especially those with diverse requirments.

This is the job automated accessibility auditing tools do. They scan your site, spot what’s broken, and give your team a head start on remediation before the problems turn into a legal issue. If you’re stuck selecting between tools, we’ve got eight tools that are worth a look.

Why Does a Website Need To Be Accessible?

People can reach your website in way more ways than you might have expected. The tools they use, like screen readers, keyboards instead of a mouse, and magnification software, demand to work well with your pages, or you risk removing a huge part of your audience without ever knowing it. That can be a costly mistake, as reaching fewer people can affect revenue directly.

Then there’s the law. In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 stops disabled people from being discriminated against when they access services, either online or in person. In the US, the Americans with Disabilities Act offers similar protections for people with diverse needs.

What Are The Top Automated Accessibility Auditing Tools?

Many accessibility checkers exist. Finding the one that fits how your team actually works is the tough part. Each tool below catches common WCAG issues, tracks your site over time, and helps you decide what to fix first.

1. Recite Me 

If you’re handling a large website, starting with a tool like Recite Me is perfect. It crawls your entire website, looking for web pages, images, links, and PDF files that have to be checked against WCAG 2.2 success criteria. 

But don’t be fooled into thinking this tool only detects WCAG violations. Every error gets put into a priority list, fixes get tracked in real time, and AI features support speed up the process with auto fixes like image alt text creation and code-ready suggestions. There’s even a browser extension, which is great for reviewing the accessibility of new pages before you really publish them.

Pros

• Full-site WCAG 2.2 scanning
• Checks PDFs and images
• Prioritises accessibility issues
• AI-assisted fixes

Cons

• More features than smaller websites may need
• Paid features require a subscription

2. WAVE by WebAIM

WAVE is considered one of the most powerful free accessibility testing tools for your website. It shows you where issues live on each of your web pages by using icons and markers to highlight errors. All of the major WCAG failures can be picked up with this check too; also, contrast issues, headings, landmarks, and ARIA details are included. You get to see everything wrong with the page at a single glance.

Like Recite Me, a browser extension is also available, letting you reach pages the public can’t, including private portals, password-protected pages, and locally stored information. Of course, there’s an obvious drawback to WAVE: it deals with one page at a time, which means it falls insufficient for large-scale compliance.

Pros

• Easy visual reporting
• Free online checker
• Browser extension available if needed
• Useful for manual evaluation

Cons

• Limited full-website monitoring
• Does not find every WCAG issue

3. DubBot

Most tools have no issue highlighting accessibility errors, but DubBot goes one step further, telling you how bad the problems are. That’s because it checks your site against WCAG 2.2 level A, AA, and AAA, then ranks every problem by severity. This gives you the information you need to make a prioritised workflow for developers.

As you click into each problem, you’ll find details about where it lies on your website, what’s gone wrong, and how to fix it. DubBot also allows you to build tasks right inside the platform, so nothing gets lost in a spreadsheet nobody checks again.

Pros

• Checks against WCAG 2.1 and 2.2
• PDF accessibility monitoring
• The ability to prioritise issues
• Certified specialist support

Cons

• Better suited to larger websites
• More than you need for a quick check

4. IBM Equal Access Accessibility Checker

Never want to leave your code editor? This one’s built for that. IBM Equal Access works inside your developer tools, so you can check pages and trace issues back to specific elements without changing windows. To add to this, the tool also hooks into your CI/CD pipelines and works with Selenium, Puppeteer, Playwright, and Cypress. And since it’s open source, the core checker is completely free to utilize.

But like most developer-focused tools, they need a very specific knowledge set. So if you don’t have an army of website developers ready to fix accessibility problems, this testing tool might not be the best option.

Pros

• Free and open source
• Works inside browser DevTools
• Supports WCAG 2.2
• Fits into development workflows

Cons

• More developer-focused
• Less suited to non-technical teams

5. Dyno Mapper

If your SEO and content tools already live in one dashboard, Dyno Mapper can save you from bolting on another one. It tests public and private sites against all conformance levels of WCAG 2.2, sorting results into known, likely, and potential problems. This means you know what’s confirmed and what still has to be checked.

Every test can run on its own schedule too, alerting your team when something shifts, and scoring improvements over time. Reports can be exported too, which become habitual when a client or colleague asks for the numbers.

Pros

• Tests public and private pages
• All levels of WCAG 2.2
• Scheduled automated checks
• SEO and content tools included

Cons

• Wider platform may be unnecessary for smaller sites
• Accessibility is not its only focus

6. axe DevTools

Axe DevTools is another open-source accessibility testing tool, and this one is developed by Deque. It speaks specifically to developers who want a quick and easy way to find WCAG compliance problems as they build websites. The tool is free to use initially, but a paid version can be utilized with deeper diagnostic tools and guided testing.

Worth calling out: you can test one component or section on its own, without scanning the entire page. Building a new form or nav menu? Check it in isolation before it goes live on the site.

Pros

• Strong developer features
• WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2
• Component-level testing
• Guided testing available

Cons

• Advanced features are paid
• Primarily aimed at more technical teams

7. AccessibilityChecker.com

AccessibilityChecker.com provides a deep scan of your website’s homepage for free against WCAG 2.2 level A, AA, and AAA. But that’s just the start. You can easily upgrade to a paid version of the tool. This will give you access to a detailed list of accessibility testing tools and comes with AI-powered autofixes, code-ready recommendations, and plenty more.

Testing is not done after the first scan either. You can set automated scans to run on a schedule, which is great for detecting new compliance problems, especially after major website overhauls.

Pros

• Easy to use
• WCAG 2.2 testing
• Produces actionable recommendations
• Extra accessibility resources if required

Cons

• Less suited to complex testing
• Automated testing has limitations

8. Google Lighthouse

Lighthouse is Google’s free website accessibility tool, but goes beyond just checking accessibility. It also looks at SEO, website performance, and various other required practices in one single scan. Under the hood, its accessibility checks use axe-core from Deque, catching issues with your website forms, headings, links, and many more.

You won’t even need an account to use the tool, and everything is in simple English, so you won’t need to waste time pumping up your team. It can also be run from Chrome DevTools, PageSpeed Insights, the command line, or as a Node module.

Pros

• Free and widely available
• Accessibility and SEO checks together
• Easy to run in Chrome
• Useful for quick checks

Cons

• Limited automated coverage
• No full-site accessibility monitoring

Start Making Your Website Accessible Today

The best website accessibility testing tool for you probably relies on your site’s size and how deep you want to dig. Recite Me does a brilliant job of meeting compliance requirements on large webpages for enterprise clients. 

DubBot manages ongoing monitoring well, while axe DevTools and IBM Equal Access suit development teams. Even WAVE and Lighthouse have their own place, especially for fast and free checks.

No matter which you choose, automated testing has a ceiling. Let it catch what it’s built to catch, fix those problems, then bring in manual testing for the rest.

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