Accessibility tools and testing

Accessibility tools

Part of
Accessibility tools and testing collection
Last reviewed
13 August 2026

Find tools to help you identify accessibility barriers and test your products and services.

Testing with tools is only part of accessibility testing

Automated and manual tools can help you identify potential barriers, but they cannot identify every issue.

[Testing by different access needs] explains potential barriers people may experience and how you can test for them. Where possible, test your service with people who have different access needs to understand the barriers they may experience.

Start with these tools

These tools are a good starting point for identifying common accessibility barriers. You can use them without specialist accessibility knowledge. Automated tools work best when used collectively, so use all 3 together where possible.

You could use:

  • ARC Toolkit - automated accessibility checks to identify common WCAG issues
  • axe DevTools - automated accessibility checks to identify common WCAG issues
  • WAVE Evaluation - visual accessibility evaluation to help identify issues in page content, structure and layout

Other tools and checks

Use these tools and checks to investigate specific accessibility barriers and carry out manual checks. Some require you to review or test your content yourself.

Consider what you know about your users and the barriers they may experience, and choose the checks that are relevant to your product or service.

You could use:

  • Accessibility Insights - automated and guided manual checks to identify accessibility issues, with tools to help you investigate and verify them.
  • Blur - simulate blurred vision to check whether content remains visible
  • Contrast checker - check if text and other visual information have sufficient colour contrast
  • HeadingsMap - check the structure and hierarchy of headings
  • Lists - check the structure and accessibility of lists
  • Resize text - check whether content remains usable when text is resized
  • Target size - check whether interactive elements are large enough and spaced appropriately
  • Text spacing - check how content works when text spacing is increased

Specialist testing

Some accessibility testing requires specialist knowledge or assistive technology. You could use:

  • screen readers - such as NVDA, JAWS or VoiceOver (Apple's built-in screen reader for macOS and iOS) to understand how people who use screen readers access and navigate your content

Understand test results

Accessibility testing tools can help identify potential barriers, but they cannot assess every aspect of accessibility. Some results may need manual review. An automated test can pass even when your service still has accessibility barriers.

Learn how to understand text results [LINK] for guidance including identifying false positives and avoiding false assurance.