Welcome to Axe DevTools for Web

We at Deque Systems built Axe DevTools for Web to make it easy for you to integrate automated accessibility testing into your development process. We believe that preventing accessibility defects through automated accessibility testing is the most efficient and sustainable way to create accessible products.

Axe DevTools for Web is built on top of our axe-core product, which is the most popular open-source accessibility testing engine.

The Components of Axe DevTools for Web

Axe DevTools for Web comprises the following components to help you integrate accessibility testing at different stages of your development process.

• Axe Developer Hub: Unify Your Accessibility Testing Across Platforms
• Axe DevTools Linter: Spot Accessibility Issues as You Code
• Axe DevTools Browser Extension: Check Accessibility from Your Browser
• Axe Watcher: Quickly Add Accessibility Testing to Your Existing Web Test Suites
• Web APIs: Automate Your Accessibility Testing
• CLI: Check Accessibility from the Command Line

Axe Developer Hub: Unify Your Accessibility Testing Across Platforms

Deque's Axe Developer Hub provides a comprehensive accessibility testing platform that aggregates results from multiple sources across your development workflow. Whether you're testing web applications, mobile apps, or integrating Axe DevTools for Web APIs, Axe Developer Hub gives you a unified view of accessibility issues across your entire digital ecosystem. For more information, see Welcome to Axe Developer Hub.

Axe DevTools Linter: Spot Accessibility Issues as You Code

You can download the Axe Accessibility Linter for VS Code from the VS Code Marketplace. Use it while you are writing code so you can be alerted to accessibility issues immediately, just like any other linter.

Axe DevTools Linter is also available as a plugin for JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate and WebStorm). See Using the Axe Linter Plugin with JetBrains IDEs for more information.

Axe DevTools Browser Extension: Check Accessibility from Your Browser

The Axe DevTools Browser Extension can be downloaded directly from the Chrome web store, Edge Add-ons site, and Firefox add-ons site. Use this extension (which integrates into each browser's Developer Tools) to catch as many as 80% of all accessibility defects.

To learn more about getting started and using the Axe DevTools browser extension, see this video playlist.

To see the Axe DevTools Browser Extension documentation, see Axe DevTools Extension.

Axe Watcher: Quickly Add Accessibility Testing to Your Existing Web Test Suites

Using Axe Watcher with Axe Developer Hub simplifies getting started with accessibility testing. With Axe Watcher, you can add accessibility testing to your existing automated test suites by changing only a few lines of code. It automatically runs accessibility scans during your tests, captures failures alongside Git context (commits, branches, authors), and sends results to Axe Developer Hub for centralized tracking and reporting. Works with JavaScript/TypeScript and Java test suites.

To learn more about Axe Watcher, start with the Axe Watcher documentation.

Web APIs: Granular Control Over Accessibility Testing Within Your Existing Test Suites

The Axe DevTools for Web APIs (Web APIs for short) are designed to help you test for accessibility problems as part of your automated UI (end-to-end) testing process. You can use our APIs in tests where you use browser drivers like Selenium, Puppeteer, or Playwright and testing frameworks like Cypress, Jasmine, Jest, JUnit, Karma, Protractor, Robot Framework, unittest, and many others—giving you the ability to use our packages to help you find accessibility problems during your CI process.

The Web APIs give you more granular control over the testing process than using Axe Watcher with Axe Developer Hub. (Although increased granular control comes at the cost of added setup time and maintenance.) The Web APIs also provide additional language support over Axe Watcher (including C#, Python, and Ruby).

To find which Axe DevTools for Web package you need to use with the test drivers or test frameworks you already use, look at our Examples Catalog. The catalog will not only help you identify the package you need but will also point you to an example project that you can clone from GitHub and run locally. We recommend you try an example first. Once it is working locally, it will be easier to integrate automated accessibility testing into your own project.

CLI: Check Accessibility from the Command Line

If your team does not yet have much automated UI testing, the command-line interface (CLI) tool axe (usually just referred to as the CLI) might be a good option for adding accessibility testing to key user flows on your website or web application. The CLI can be scripted to load specified pages (through its built-in scripting language), fill out forms, log in with test-user credentials, and expose different states of pages built with React, Vue, Angular, and other such frameworks. It can also be very valuable for automatically testing responsive sites at different breakpoints, and it can upload its results to Axe Developer Hub as well as results from the Web APIs. To get started with the CLI, read the Quick Start Guides.

Accessing the Binaries for Axe DevTools for Web APIs and CLI

There are two ways to get the binaries for Axe DevTools for Web APIs and CLI:

1. Directly from our artifact repository. You can download the files you need from our Downloads page. On Axe DevTools for Web Examples you'll find links to download an example project or see the documentation for your preferred example.

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   To access the download page or artifact repository, you'll need to log in using your Axe Account. Your credentials are in your Welcome email.

2. By connecting your organization's artifact repository to ours so your package manager can resolve all dependencies on Axe DevTools for Web packages. See our Instructions for connecting to your Nexus repository or your Artifactory repository.

Getting Help

If you have any questions or need help getting started, we are here to help. Please send an email, and we will be happy to help.

In addition, your Welcome email contains the contact information of your assigned Customer Success Manager (CSM). They are also standing by to help you integrate accessibility testing into the way you build your own products.

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Note: It is never necessary to use Deque's software or services in a way that collects, stores, or shares personal data. Do not use the software or services in a manner that collects, stores, or shares personal data.