axe: Accessibility Testing Tools and Software (2024)

Microsoft, Google, and development and testing teams everywhere choose axe to help make their websites, mobile apps & digital content accessible. You should too.

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Robust, efficient and accurate accessibility testing tools for all

Built on the world’s most popular accessibility testing library, axe-core. Deque’s suite of axe tools offers full coverage for your testing and compliance needs.

axe: Accessibility Testing Tools and Software (1) Get started for free with the axe DevTools browser extension

Join 275,000+ active weekly users in practicing web accessibility testing. Get instant results on your accessibility issues plus more interactive features right in your browser.

Key Features
  • Automated testing
  • Intelligent Guided Testing™
  • Save & export results

Get started for free

axe: Accessibility Testing Tools and Software (2) axe DevTools

This powerful and accurate toolkit can get you to 80% accessibility issue coverage, or more, during development.

Key Features
  • Automated testing
  • Intelligent Guided Testing
  • Linting
  • CI/CD integrations
  • Command-line interface (CLI)

Learn more

axe: Accessibility Testing Tools and Software (3) axe Auditor

Perform full-coverage, consistent Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) audits of all content and applications.

Key Features
  • Comprehensive manual testing methodology
  • Predefined issues for all content
  • Group and filter issues for easy communication

Learn more

axe: Accessibility Testing Tools and Software (4) axe Monitor

Dynamically scan, monitor and report on the accessibility status of your entire website.

Key Features
  • Web pages and PDFs
  • Scan whole sites
  • Scan behind authentication and firewalls
  • Watch your status across drill down dashboards

Learn more

Having tools that allow you to automate the scans and integrate them into your build process helps a lot because you don’t have to rely on somebody remembering to do it as part of your release process– it just happens automatically.”

axe: Accessibility Testing Tools and Software (5)

Bob Andreasen Executive Director of Software Quality Assurance, Harland Clarke

Benefits of working with axe tools

Enterprise Grade

Deque tools and services are used and trusted in the world’s largest and most secure government and enterprise organizations.

Saves Time & Resources

Axe DevTools helps your web and mobile dev teams catch accessibility errors while coding, dramatically reducing the time and cost of manual testing down the line.

Full Coverage Compliance

Axe Auditor enables functional testers with minimal accessibility knowledge to perform step-by-step manual accessibility tests, catching a wide breadth of issues that automated tools alone do not cover.

Reliable Compliance Monitoring

Axe Monitor helps ensure your website becomes compliant and remains compliant. Dynamically scan, monitor and report on the accessibility status of your site across business and development teams.

Ready for Enterprise-grade testing? Request a demo.

Request a customized demo based on your specific needs. Whether you're in need to respond to an immediate legal issue, or working your way toward zero accessibility errors on your website and/or mobile app, our team will tailor a demonstration to meet your near-term and long-term demands.

Enterprise Demo Sign up

axe: Accessibility Testing Tools and Software (6)

Run your first website accessibility test now with these free tools

axe DevTools for Chrome

axe: Accessibility Testing Tools and Software (7)

Install free Chrome extension

axe DevTools for Firefox

axe: Accessibility Testing Tools and Software (8)

Install free Firefox extension

axe DevTools for Edge

axe: Accessibility Testing Tools and Software (9)

Install free Edge extension

DIY Accessibility Testing with the axe-core API

Build accessibility testing into your automated testing environment with our open source axe rules libraries. Available for…

Helpful Resources

Axe-con Sessions

Watch on-demand sessions from the world’s largest digital accessibility conference to help further your accessibility efforts.

Register Now

Product Documentation

View product documentation for all of Deque’s axe accessibility testing tools.

Read More

A11y for Developers

Browse our collection of resources to aide in your accessible development efforts, without impacting your velocity.

Read More

Deque University

Explore training and on-demand reference materials for every level and every area of expertise in digital accessibility.

Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions

Often referred to as digital accessibility testing tools, they exist to surface usability barriers for people with disabilities so that they can be fixed. There are a range of tools which help accomplish this. Some are automated or semi-automated and can test for specific barriers and others a wide array. It’s important to select a tool that avoids creating false positives, which wastes valuable development time.

There are 3 types of accessibility testing. 1) Automated- like when a rules engine like axe-core, scans, or analyzes a web page against accessibility standards, such as WCAG. 2) Semi-automated- sometimes referred to as guided testing, like the Intelligent Guided Testing (IGTs) in axe DevTools which rely on question and answer prompts. 3) Manual- when an accessibility expert uses assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and lived experiences to catch complex accessibility barriers that automation is unable to reliably detect.

Web accessibility testing tools that are build on axe-core are the best in the world. The axe Linter for VS Code is a popular free static code analysis tool used by over 20,000 developers. The free axe DevTools browser extension is available in Chrome, Firefox and Edge and is used by hundreds of thousands of people around the globe to catch accessibility errors.

Another popular free tool is Google Lighthouse, which is also powered by axe-core.

Apple and Google provide limited support for accessibility testing of mobile applications with their tools: Accessibility Inspector built into Xcode and Google Scanner on the Play Store. While these tools are free, they won’t capture the same issues and coverage may not align with WCAG’s guidelines.

Deque offers native mobile accessibility testing with axe DevTools Mobile for iOS and Android. Learn more about iOS or Android mobile accessibility testing tools.

axe: Accessibility Testing Tools and Software (2024)
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