Welcome to axe DevTools HTML
We at Deque Systems built axe DevTools HTML to make it easy for you to integrate automated testing for accessibility into your development process. We believe that preventing accessibility defects by adding automated testing for accessibility is the most efficient and sustainable way to create accessible products.
Axe DevTools HTML is built on top of our axe-core product, which is the most popular open-source accessibility testing engine.
If you are interested learning more about our vision for accessibility, read the axe-core Manifesto and the Philosophy on which the axe-core engine is built.
The Components of axe DevTools HTML
Axe DevTools HTML is comprised of the following components to enable you to integrate accessibility testing into different points in your development process.
- axe DevTools Linter: Spot Accessibility Issues as You Code
- axe DevTools Browser Extension: Check Accessibility from Your Browser
- APIs: Automate Your Accessibility Testing
- CLI: Check Accessibility from the Command Line
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.
Deque has a separate linter product called axe DevTools Linter that allows you to lint source via an on-premises server or a software as a service (SaaS) product. See the axe DevTools Linter Documentation 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.
To take full advantage of the axe DevTools Browser Extension, you will need to sign in with the credentials you received in your Welcome email.
APIs: Automate Your Accessibility Testing
The axe DevTools HTML APIs are designed to help you automatically test for accessibility as part of your existing 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.
To find which axe DevTools HTML package you need to use with the test drivers or test frameworks you already use, look at our Examples Catalog. That page 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 do this first. Once you have the example working locally, it will be easy for you to include automated accessibility testing in your own project.
CLI: Check Accessibility from the Command Line
If your team does not yet have a lot of automated UI testing, the axe DevTools HTML CLI might be a good option to include accessibility testing for some important user flows in your website or web application. The axe DevTools HTML 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. To get started with the axe DevTools HTML CLI, read the Quick Start Guides.
Accessing the axe DevTools HTML Packages
There are two ways to get the axe DevTools HTML packages:
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Directly from our artifact repository. You can download the files you need from our Downloads page. On the Examples Catalog you'll find links to download an example project or see the documentation for your preferred example.
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By connecting your organization's artifact repository to ours so your package manager can resolve all dependencies on axe DevTools HTML packages. See our Instructions for connecting to your Nexus repository or your Artifactory repository.
To access the axe DevTools HTML packages, you'll need to log in to your axe account. Your credentials are in your Welcome email.
Getting Help
If you have any questions or need help getting started, we are here to help. Please send an email to helpdesk@deque.com, 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.