A11yMate – Accessibility Checker

A11yMate (“ally mate”) helps you work towards WCAG 2.2 AA on your own WordPress site. It finds the real problems, explains each one like a helpful colleague, tells you exactly what to change, and stops new ones appearing as people write.

It is not an overlay. A script cannot make a site compliant, and disabled people and regulators know it. A11yMate does not claim to. It helps you fix the site itself.

Everything runs on your own site. No account, no tracking, no external API. No page content, URL or data ever leaves your server.

What you get, free

• Site Scan, with no page limit. Finds your homepage, every published post, page and public custom post type, a sample of archives, the search results page and the 404 page. Two passes per page: a server pass (structure, labels, names) and a browser pass (real contrast, text sizes, line height, click target size, focus rings, reflow at 320px, text spacing, motion). You can set a page limit in Settings if you want one; by default every page is scanned.
• Grouped results. The same problem on the same template element across 48 pages shows once, as “on 48 pages”. That is what makes the results usable.
• Plain-English rules. About 70 rules mapped to WCAG 2.2 success criteria, each with why it matters, how to fix it, a code example and the W3C guidance.
• Dashboard and Issues. A 0 to 100 score with a documented formula, the best fixes to make next, a breakdown by area, and an issues list you can filter, search, ignore and re-open.
• Editor Assistant. A sidebar and pre-publish panel in the block editor that checks the post as it is written: missing alt text, skipped headings, vague links, empty buttons, low-contrast colour settings, tables without headers, long paragraphs. Nudges, never blocks.
• Safe Fixes. Front-end fixes you switch on one by one: skip link, restore pinch-zoom, a visible focus ring, “(opens in a new tab)” text, iframe titles, reduced motion, underlined links, missing page language, no positive tabindex, alt text from the Media Library. Nothing in your database is rewritten.
• For developers. WP-CLI (wp a11ymate scan, issues, score, rules), a REST API at /wp-json/a11ymate/v1, and the hooks a11ymate_rules, a11ymate_scan_urls and a11ymate_scan_complete.

Honest about limits

Automated checks find roughly a third to a half of WCAG issues. A11yMate says which results need a human and keeps them out of your score. It helps you work towards WCAG 2.2 AA; it does not guarantee compliance.

A11yMate Pro

The free plugin is complete: it is not limited, locked or timed. A separate paid plugin, A11yMate Pro, adds Alt Text Manager, Colour Studio and Typography Studio, scheduled scans and email digests, printable reports with CSV and JSON export, an accessibility statement generator and an optional visitor toolbar.

• Pro: £89 a year, 1 site.
• Agency: £249 a year, up to 25 sites, plus white-label client reports.

See a11ymate.co.uk/pricing.

Context

The European Accessibility Act (in force since 28 June 2025), the UK Equality Act 2010 and public sector accessibility regulations, and the ADA in the US all expect accessible websites.

Made by

OakFox, a small UK studio.

External services

A11yMate does not connect to any external service. It makes no requests to OakFox or anyone else, loads no scripts, fonts or images from a CDN, and has no tracking or telemetry. Scanning fetches pages from your own site (the same server, over its own address) and examines them in your own browser. The links to the W3C’s WCAG guidance and to a11ymate.co.uk are ordinary links that only open if you click them.