Top Tools to Test the Accessibility of Your Website

As digital accessibility becomes a crucial part of web design, ensuring your website meets accessibility standards is essential for creating an inclusive online experience. But how do you know if your site is truly accessible?

Luckily, there are a number of tools available — both free and paid — that can help you test and improve your website's accessibility. While automated tools are valuable, nothing replaces the insight gained from working with real users who have disabilities.

In this blog, we’ll introduce you to some of the best tools for testing website accessibility and explain why using an actual disabled tester can further enhance your site's accessibility.

1. WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool)

Best for: Quick and easy accessibility checks (Free)

WAVE is a popular free tool that allows you to quickly assess the accessibility of your website. By simply entering your website’s URL, WAVE scans your site for common accessibility issues such as missing alt text, poor colour contrast, and form field labels.

WAVE highlights potential problems directly on your page, giving you a visual representation of areas that need improvement - allowing you to precisely pinpoint the problems and go and fix these issues on your site.

Key Features:

• Identifies common WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) issues

• Offers visual feedback directly on the webpage

• No registration required — immediate, on-the-spot checks

2. Lighthouse

Best for: Comprehensive testing for accessibility and SEO (Free)

Lighthouse is an open-source tool available directly within the Google Chrome browser, offering in-depth audits of your website’s performance, SEO, and accessibility. This tool automatically generates a report that identifies accessibility issues such as text readability, image alt attributes, and keyboard navigation.

Lighthouse is especially helpful for developers as it integrates seamlessly into the web development process.

Key Features:

• Provides accessibility scores alongside performance and SEO

• Offers actionable recommendations for improvement

• Ideal for developers with built-in browser access

3. axe Accessibility Checker

Best for: Development-focused accessibility checks (Free and paid options)

axe Accessibility Checker is a highly respected tool among developers, offering both a free browser extension and paid enterprise-level options. It helps identify WCAG compliance issues and gives detailed explanations of errors and solutions.

With its focus on testing during the development phase, axe is perfect for catching issues early before they affect the user experience.

Key Features:

• Fast, accurate reporting on WCAG compliance

• Integrates with development environments

• Paid version available for larger organisations needing advanced testing features

4. Screen Readers (e.g., NVDA, JAWS)

Best for: Testing with real-world assistive technologies (Free and paid)

Using a screen reader is an invaluable way to understand how users with visual impairments experience your website. Tools like NVDA (free) and JAWS (paid) allow you to navigate your site the way a person with a vision disability would.

By testing your site with screen readers, you can identify issues that automated tools might miss, such as poorly structured content, confusing navigation, or missing alt attributes.

Key Features:

• Real-world testing for users with visual impairments

• Provides insight into issues automated tools may not detect

• Crucial for ensuring a truly accessible user experience

5. Accessibility Insights

Best for: Ongoing monitoring and detailed reports (Free)

Accessibility Insights is a free tool from Microsoft designed to help web developers continuously monitor their sites for accessibility issues. It offers fast, automated tests and provides actionable solutions based on WCAG standards. The tool also offers "FastPass," which is ideal for quick checks during development.

Key Features:

• Provides detailed WCAG-based reports

• Offers FastPass for quick, automated checks

• Free and easy to use for continuous monitoring

Why You Should Work with Disabled Testers

While tools are incredibly useful for identifying accessibility issues, they can’t fully replicate the experience of real users with disabilities. Automated tools often miss subtleties in navigation, comprehension, and usability that only real-world testing can uncover.

For example, a visually impaired user testing with a screen reader can offer feedback on how intuitive your site’s structure is, while a user with motor impairments can provide insights into how easy or difficult it is to navigate using keyboard shortcuts.

By collaborating with disabled testers, you can ensure your site not only meets accessibility standards but also offers a seamless, intuitive experience for all users. Their lived experiences provide insights that automated tools cannot, helping you to create a truly inclusive and accessible website.

Conclusion

Testing the accessibility of your website is crucial to ensuring a fully inclusive user experience. While there are numerous tools available — ranging from free options like WAVE and Lighthouse to more comprehensive paid solutions — the real magic happens when you combine these tools with feedback from actual disabled users. Accessible design is not just about compliance but about creating a web that is usable and enjoyable for everyone.