Access Astrolabe

Understand what screen readers say and why.

Accessibility Debugging for Developers --------------------------------------------------------------- Access Astrolabe is a free, open-source Chrome extension that helps developers and testers inspect, understand, and debug accessibility behavior directly in the browser. Modern browsers expose a tremendous amount of accessibility information, but it's spread across multiple tools and often difficult to interpret. Developers can find themselves switching between Chrome DevTools, the accessibility tree, and screen readers just to understand why something is announced the way it is. Access Astrolabe brings the screen reader announcement, browser-computed accessibility information, source markup, and accessible name computation together in a single view, making it much easier to understand not just what happened, but why—all without leaving your current context. Whether you're implementing a new component, fixing an accessibility bug, performing quick accessibility smoke tests, or learning how assistive technologies interpret a page, Access Astrolabe shortens the feedback loop between code changes and understanding accessibility behavior. Features -------------- - Accessibility Inspector: Inspect the browser-computed accessibility information for any element, including roles, accessible names, descriptions, states, values, ARIA attributes, and the underlying HTML that produced them. Right-click any element to inspect it immediately without hunting through browser accessibility panels. - Accessible Name Trace: Understand why an element is announced the way it is. Trace accessible name computation step by step, inspect every potential naming source, and see which values contributed, which were overridden, and how the final result was resolved. - Screen Reader Simulation: Navigate pages using familiar screen reader-style commands to quickly smoke test headings, landmarks, regions, links, buttons, form controls, tables, lists, list items, graphics, and more. Review simulated announcements as you move through the page, validate navigation flows, and inspect complete announcement history. - Focus Modes: Reduce visual distractions while testing. Mask Mode minimizes visual influence so you can concentrate on accessibility output, while Peek Mode restores just enough context to understand where focus is moving. These modes support both accessibility debugging and learning how screen readers navigate interfaces. Built For ------------- • Front-end developers • QA engineers • Accessibility specialists • Digital agencies • Students and developers learning accessibility What Access Astrolabe Is ------------------------------------------ - An accessibility debugging tool - An accessibility smoke testing tool - An accessibility inspector for Chrome - A browser extension for understanding accessibility behavior - A fast way to inspect what assistive technologies receive during development What Access Astrolabe Is Not ------------------------------------------------ - A replacement for real screen readers - A WCAG compliance checker or certification tool - An automated accessibility auditing solution - A guarantee of accessibility conformance Access Astrolabe complements automated accessibility testing, WCAG evaluation, and real assistive technology testing by making accessibility behavior easier to inspect, understand, and debug while you're still building. Access Astrolabe parses DOM structure and ARIA attributes 100% locally on your machine to display accessibility metrics in the side panel. No webpage text, DOM content, or user activity is ever stored, logged, or transmitted off your device. Accessible by Design ------------------------------------------------ ### Accessible by Design Access Astrolabe's extension interface is designed to meet to WCAG 2.2 requirements and to work effectively with modern screen readers. Because Chrome extension side panels operate separately from the web page being inspected, some live updates cannot be announced across both contexts. This is an inherent browser limitation rather than a limitation of Access Astrolabe itself.