A11y Studio

Accessibility DevTools: axe WCAG 2.2 scan, structure reveal, vision/zoom simulations, and an audit worksheet. Local, no tracking.

A11y Studio is an accessibility DevTools panel for the web. It scans pages against WCAG with axe-core, reveals how the page is built for assistive technology, simulates low-vision and OS conditions, and gives you a manual audit worksheet — all locally in your browser. It’s honest by design. Automated testing catches only part of WCAG, so A11y Studio is clear about what it knows: confirmed violations vs. things a person needs to review, axe’s own impact words only on axe’s findings, and previews that are labelled as previews — never a conformance claim. WHAT’S INSIDE • Scan — Automated findings from axe-core (WCAG 2.2). Each finding is sorted into Violations (confirmed failures), Needs review (a person must confirm), and Best practice — with the success criterion, who it affects, and a suggested fix. A count of findings, never a score. • Quick Info — Point at any element to see its role, accessible name, and an approximate screen-reader announcement. • Reveal — A structure browser: outline landmarks, headings, links, buttons, forms, lists, tables, focus order, screen-reader text, and live regions on the page. Our reconstruction of the a11y tree — not a live screen reader. • Tools — Simulations and previews (not conformance claims): a contrast checker and eyedropper, low-vision and colour-vision simulations, OS media-preference emulation (reduced motion, contrast, forced colours, light/dark), text-spacing, reflow/overflow checks at narrow widths, page zoom, and a screen-reader preview that walks the page and speaks an approximate announcement. • Audit — A manual WCAG 2.2 worksheet. Automated results pre-fill as a starting point; you author the conformance verdict and remarks, then export a VPAT/ACR draft. A completed worksheet is a record of your review — not a conformance certificate. Marked In progress in the Beta UI. • Guides — In-panel screen-reader commands for NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, and TalkBack (setup notes, grouped shortcuts, search). Full vendor and Deque University references stay in the credit footer. PRIVACY — IT ALL STAYS IN YOUR BROWSER No account. No sign-in. No analytics or tracking. axe-core runs locally; scan results, preferences, and saved colour pairs stay in your browser’s local storage. Nothing is sent to any A11y Studio server. Full policy: https://a11ystudio.io/privacy/ BETA This is an early public release (v0.9.0). It’s useful today; some features are still being refined, and a few are marked “coming soon” or “preview” where they’re not final. Feedback is welcome. WHO IT’S FOR Developers, QA engineers, and accessibility specialists who want to catch and understand issues while they build and review — not after a release goes live. A NOTE ON WHAT THIS IS — AND ISN’T A11y Studio is a testing and review tool — not an “accessibility overlay” or an instant-fix widget. It makes no claim to make your site “compliant” or to protect you from legal risk, because no tool can: WCAG conformance lives in your site’s own code and always needs human judgement and testing with real assistive technology. What A11y Studio does is make that review faster and better informed — surfacing issues and evidence so you and your team can fix the underlying code. CREDITS Automated scanning is powered by axe-core (© Deque Systems, MPL-2.0). Screen-reader reference guides link to Deque University (© Deque Systems). Command references are authored from each vendor’s own documentation.