← ScanA11y

Browser Extension

Audit whatever page you have open, inspect any element, and try live accessibility adjustments — directly in a Chromium browser side panel. No login, no history stored, nothing sent to a server.

scana11y-chrome-extension.zip

Works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, and other Chromium-based browsers. Not on the Chrome Web Store yet — install as an unpacked extension (free, takes under a minute).

Download .zip
Install it

  1. Download the extension

    Download the zip below. It contains the built extension — no build step needed.

  2. Unzip it

    Extract the zip to a folder you'll keep around (don't delete it after installing — Chrome loads the extension from this folder every time it starts).

  3. Open your browser's extensions page

    Chrome: go to chrome://extensions. Edge: go to edge://extensions. Brave: go to brave://extensions. Any Chromium-based browser works the same way.

  4. Turn on Developer mode

    Toggle “Developer mode” on — it's usually a switch in the top-right corner of the extensions page.

  5. Click “Load unpacked”

    A file picker opens. Select the unzipped folder itself (the one containing manifest.json) — not a zip file, not the dist/ subfolder.

  6. Pin it and open the panel

    Click the puzzle-piece icon in the toolbar, pin ScanA11y, then click its icon to open the side panel. It stays open while you browse, unlike a popup.

What it does

  • Audit — runs axe-core plus a live keyboard/focus-order walkthrough directly in the tab, shown as the same WCAG 2.2 compliance matrix the website uses.
  • Inspect — click any element to see its role, name, contrast ratio, and touch-target size; step through the page's focus order; scan contrast pairs across the page.
  • Accessibility options — apply the same live adjustments as the website (contrast, text scale, dyslexia font, reduced motion, and more) to see how the page responds.
  • Download a 16:9 PDF report with a screenshot of every finding.

Why an unpacked install

Publishing to the Chrome Web Store requires a one-time paid developer registration. Loading it unpacked is completely free and gives you the exact same extension — the only difference is Chrome shows a "Developer mode" notice, and you reload it manually after an update instead of it auto-updating.

Permissions

The extension asks for broad host access (all sites) because it needs to script and screenshot whatever page you have open when you click a button — a side panel stays open across tab switches, so the narrower "only when clicked" permission Chrome offers isn't reliable here. Nothing is read or modified until you explicitly trigger an action from the panel; nothing is sent off your machine.

Updating

Re-download the zip, unzip it over the same folder (or a fresh one), then click the refresh icon on the extension's card in chrome://extensions.