There are a lot of web accessibility overlays.
These tools are generally represented by a button named “Accessibility” or containing an icon of a person in a wheelchair or a Vitruvian man. When clicked, these buttons display a series of options to modify the visual appearance of the website or to read the content of the page with a speech synthesizer, etc.
These tools are individually installed in the websites.
You can find below a non-exhaustive list of these tools.
- At first, make you website compliant with WCAG rules at the AA level at least (or with other accessibility reference from your country but based on WCAG);
- Then, test each functionality of the tool you have installed on the different pages of your website to ensure that everything is functional and that new accessibility issues do not arise.
Indeed, unfortunately, and even if it is sometimes promised, no tool can make a website fully compliant with WCAG rules or fully accessible to all disabled people.
- AccessConfig
- Confort de lecture
- One Click Accessibility (WordPress plugin)
- Orange Confort+: this tool is different because it is mainly a free browser add-on but it is possible to install it on your own site as well; this is not recommended. Instead, it is recommended to suggest that users install the add-on if they want to change the appearance of the site according to their needs. In this way, they will be able to change the appearance of all the websites they visit.
- WP Accessibility: this WordPress plugin fixes common accessibility problems in themes and has, in addition, a “Toolbar” module which is an accessibility overlay.
- WP Accessibility Helper (WordPress plugin - it has also a paid version)
- AccessiBe and the WordPress plugin
- AccessiWay, an Italian franchise of AccessiBe
- Accessus.ai, a franchise
- Enable and the WordPress plugin
- HandiEasyWeb, a French franchise of AccessiBe
- Accessibility ADApter™, by ADA Site Compliance
- Accessibility Enabler (HikeOrders)
- Accessman - Ability Browser
- ADA Bundle
- ADA Compliance Plugin - Accessibly, made by OnTheMapMarketing, widget for Shopify and WordPress
- AdaComply
- Adally
- Adapte mon web
- Adaptify, by GreenDevAccess
- Allyable
- Audioeye
- Bakh’Confort
- Equalweb
- Facil’iti in French and in English
- Inclusite
- Lisio, by Numanis
- Magixite, by Octa Code
- Make-Sense Web Accessibility Solutions
- Max Access
- PubliSpeak (you can test it here, for example)
- Purple Lens
- ReachDeck toolbar (ex-BrowseAloud)
- ReadSpeaker
- Recite Me
- Sogo Accessibility plugin (you can test it here, for example)
- Truabilities
- True Accessibility plugin
- User1st
- Userway
There are browser add-ons that have the same purpose as the accessibility overlays mentioned above: to adapt the appearance of web pages to some needs of some disabled people. However, the add-ons are supposed to work on all websites.
Of course, they will generally work better on websites that already comply with the WCAG standard. The existence of these add-ons must not be a reason for not making your website accessible because they do not make websites accessible or compliant with WCAG rules.
- EasyReading: add-on available on Firefox and Chrome
- Lexia Reader by Oziku Tech : add-on available on Firefox, Chrome and Edge
- Omoguru : add-on available on Chrome, dedicated to dyslexic people
- Orange Confort+: add-on available on Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer
If a tool is missing from the above lists, you can propose it via an issue on Github or by suggesting yourself a modification (pull request).
In the latter case, please do your best to respect the alphabetical order of the lists so that it remains clear. 😉