Begin with one device for checking designs and one for documenting accessibility necessities. Axe for Designersis a free possibility for scans and annotations; Embrace offers a guided handoff workflow. For textual content over pictures or gradients, take into account Distinction. Examine Stark and BrowserStack Accessibility Design Toolkit when your workforce wants a broader suite or part scanning.
This information covers 26 Figma accessibility plugins and supporting instruments, grouped by their function: audits and annotations, distinction checks, visible simulation and typography, and inclusive design. We in contrast the instruments utilizing their official listings and developer documentation. They’re grouped by goal, with suggestions for particular design duties.
A distinction checker, a imaginative and prescient simulator, and a translation plugin clear up completely different issues. The ultimate class contains supporting design instruments, and Font Scaler is particularly described for FigJam. None of those instruments can certify the accessibility of a completed web site or app.
Greatest Picks at a Look
| Choose | Select it for | Price or entry | Necessary boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stark | A broad suite of design checks | Free account; paid capabilities | Match wanted options to the plan |
| BrowserStack | Part and structure critiques | Free entry level; plan limits want checking | Confirm generated steering throughout implementation |
| Axe for Designers | A free scanning and annotation workflow | Free; signup for auto-annotation | Design checks don’t check the operating product |
| Embrace | Guided accessibility handoff | Free | Annotations nonetheless want implementation |
| Distinction | Textual content over layered, picture, or gradient backgrounds | Free | Factor strokes are unsupported |
| In a position | Fast checks between chosen layers | Free | Pair checks don’t cowl each state |
About pricing: Prices are included the place the developer publishes clear phrases. Different entries hyperlink to their present Figma listings. A free obtain or useful resource license doesn’t set up limitless entry to related providers.
All-in-one and Audit Instruments
Stark brings a number of design checks into one place: distinction, imaginative and prescient simulation, focus order, landmarks, alternative-text annotations, typography, and contact targets. That breadth makes it a wise shortlist alternative for a workforce that desires a shared accessibility workflow. It additionally affords automated scanning and remediation, however these capabilities needs to be evaluated in opposition to the plan you propose to purchase.
Key options:
- Distinction checks with advised different colours
- Focus-order, landmark, and alt-text annotations
- Imaginative and prescient simulation and touch-target instruments
Greatest for: Groups evaluating a broad accessibility suite with specialist plugins.
Pricing / entry: Free account accessible; paid plans unlock further capabilities. See Stark pricing.
Sensible be aware: Test function entitlement earlier than selecting a plan. A free account doesn’t suggest unrestricted automated scanning.
For on a regular basis checks between two layers, In a position is a targeted possibility. Maintain the plugin open, change your choice, and it compares the chosen colours with out requiring a contemporary run. Its color-vision previews and copyable distinction outcomes additionally make it helpful when documenting a palette.
Key options:
- Distinction comparability between two chosen layers
- Coloration-vision simulation within the preview
- Copyable ratios and scores for fashion documentation
Greatest for: Designers checking particular person shade combos whereas working.
Sensible be aware: A pairwise examine is beneficial throughout enhancing; it doesn’t substitute a assessment of each part state.
BrowserStack is price contemplating when your foremost downside is repeated elements. Its toolkit affords structure and part scanning, together with distinction, target-size findings, and annotations for handoff. The official component-scanner documentation describes further component-specific checks for buttons, inputs, hyperlinks, radio buttons, and checkboxes. That could be a extra concrete cause to contemplate it than a basic promise to make a complete design accessible.
Key options:
- Format scanning throughout chosen frames
- Part scanning with variant and state steering
- Accessibility annotations and developer documentation
Greatest for: Groups reviewing a reusable part library earlier than handoff.
Pricing / entry: Free entry level accessible; examine present entry limits on BrowserStack’s toolkit web page.
Sensible be aware: Automated ARIA strategies categorical design intent. Builders nonetheless want to decide on applicable HTML and confirm the carried out conduct.
Embrace, created by eBay, combines guided accessibility annotations with chosen checks. Its step-by-step strategy covers internet and native interfaces, serving to you doc studying order, headings, contact targets, different textual content, and different choices {that a} polished mockup can depart unspoken. eBay explains that teammates can assessment the generated layers with out putting in the plugin themselves.
Key options:
- Guided internet and native annotation workflows
- Textual content distinction and touch-target checks
- Studying-order, alt-text, reflow, and text-resizing steering
- Dev Mode implementation and testing steering
Greatest for: Designers who want a structured accessibility handoff.
Pricing / entry: Free, confirmed by eBay’s documentation.
Sensible be aware: Annotations ought to describe the meant conduct exactly. A marked-up body nonetheless wants implementation and testing.
Adee teams distinction, color-vision simulation, alt-text era, and touch-target checks. The itemizing describes reside previews and making use of shade modifications to the design, together with help for SVG, PNG, and JPG photographs in its alt-text workflow. Think about it when these 4 jobs match your assessment course of; there isn’t any want to purchase a broader platform merely to examine just a few screens.
Key options:
- Distinction changes with preview and undo
- Eight color-vision simulation modes
- Alt-text era for frequent picture codecs
- Contact-target checks
Greatest for: Small design critiques combining visible checks and picture annotations.
Sensible be aware: Assessment generated descriptions in opposition to the picture’s goal. An ornamental illustration and an informative chart want completely different therapy.
WCAG Plugin places reference materials beside the design choices it informs. It offers guideline search, notation playing cards, and utility tokens that may be imported as Figma variables. In contrast to an automatic scanner, its strongest function helps a reviewer clarify which requirement issues and hold that reasoning within the file.
Key options:
- Searchable accessibility pointers
- WCAG notation playing cards contained in the design
- Accessibility utility tokens as variables
Greatest for: Opinions the place the workforce wants shared references and documented reasoning.
Pricing / entry: Free and open supply, confirmed by the developer.
Sensible be aware: Use it to help a assessment, to not declare conformance. A suggestion card doesn’t check an interface.
Axe for Designers is a robust free start line for groups wanting greater than a distinction ratio. Deque paperwork automated scans for distinction, goal measurement, and headings, plus accessibility annotations and focus-order instruments. Its annotations can embrace developer steering, which helps join a design discovering to the work wanted throughout implementation.
Key options:
- Automated design scans
- Distinction, target-size, and heading checks
- Focus-order instruments and developer annotations
Greatest for: Groups looking for a free design-checking and annotation workflow.
Pricing / entry: Free; signup required for auto-annotation, in line with Deque.
Sensible be aware: Deque says signup is required for auto-annotation. The Figma plugin and axe instruments for testing a operating web site serve completely different phases.
Accessibility Assistant focuses on the knowledge builders want for keyboard and screen-reader help. Its Microsoft-backed itemizing describes native Figma annotations for interactive parts, headings, landmarks, and pictures, together with assessment checklists. It may handle a number of annotation units and bulk updates, giving a workforce a technique to hold these specs organized.
Key options:
- Native accessibility annotations
- Bulk annotation updates and a number of units
- Keyboard and screen-reader planning checklists
Greatest for: Documenting navigation and semantic intent earlier than engineering begins.
Sensible be aware: An annotated focus sequence is a specification. Confirm the precise tab sequence and focus administration within the completed product.
Distinction Checkers
Distinction is probably the most compelling specialist right here for designs with complicated backgrounds. It finds the colour behind a particular layer and may scan pages for textual content distinction points. Its printed Good Sampling technique additionally evaluates picture and gradient backgrounds, making it extra related to a photographic hero or translucent card than a checker restricted to stable fills.
Key options:
- Chosen-layer and page-level distinction checks
- Sampling for picture and gradient backgrounds
- Stay updates as colours, opacity, or mix modes change
- APCA help labeled beta
Greatest for: Textual content over imagery, gradients, or layered backgrounds.
Pricing / entry: Free, described by the developer’s firm.
Sensible be aware: The itemizing says factor strokes are unsupported. Sampled background checks additionally deserve a handbook assessment of probably the most troublesome areas.
A11y checks seen textual content throughout a body and stories AA or AAA distinction outcomes. Its shade sliders allow you to regulate a mixture and see how the ratio modifications. The helpful boundary is specific: the itemizing helps single, absolutely opaque stable fills and notes background-detection points. Select it for simple UI screens, with that limitation in thoughts.
Key options:
- Body-level visible-text checks
- AA and AAA suggestions
- Coloration sliders with altering distinction ratios
Greatest for: Reviewing textual content in interfaces constructed from opaque stable colours.
Sensible be aware: Don’t use its outcome as proof for textual content over pictures, gradients, or translucent layers.
Visible Distinction makes use of APCA and features a textual content preview, distinction info for various content material, and advised colours. That makes it an possibility for exploring perceptual distinction alongside typography choices. Maintain the evaluation separate from the WCAG 2.x distinction ratios utilized in a WCAG 2.2 assessment.
Key options:
- APCA-based distinction evaluation
- Textual content preview
- Prompt substitute colours
Greatest for: An extra perceptual-contrast assessment alongside WCAG 2.x checks.
Sensible be aware: APCA outcomes should not interchangeable with WCAG 2.2 distinction ratios. The plugin’s reference to WCAG 3.0 shouldn’t be learn as a conformance declare.
Coloration Distinction follows a small, direct workflow: choose one or two layers, examine their distinction, change the colours, and apply the change to the art work. Think about it for adjusting a specific foreground/background mixture.
Key options:
- One- or two-layer choice
- WCAG-oriented distinction checking
- Apply shade modifications to the design
Greatest for: Adjusting a selected shade pair and not using a wider audit workflow.
Sensible be aware: The outline doesn’t set up help for each mix, picture, or gradient situation. Test the precise background earlier than trusting the outcome.
This Distinction Checker is the entry with plugin ID 1195158716202754858. Its description references WCAG text-contrast standards 1.4.3 and 1.4.6 and stories outcomes for regular and enormous textual content. It offers a color-selection workflow, moderately than documented whole-file scanning.
Key options:
- Coloration choice and affirmation
- Regular- and large-text outcomes
- References to minimal and enhanced textual content distinction
Greatest for: Checking particular person text-color combos.
Sensible be aware: The itemizing describes Degree A as a poor distinction outcome. WCAG text-contrast thresholds belong to AA and AAA standards; use the W3C necessities when deciphering its labels.
Coloration Distinction Checker WCAG 2.1 describes a simple foreground/background comparability. Its temporary itemizing affords little proof for broader scanning or remediation options, so it belongs on the shortlist for a small, particular process: checking the distinction between two colours.
Key options:
- Foreground/background comparability
- Centered color-contrast workflow
Greatest for: A fundamental comparability whenever you already know which colours want checking.
Sensible be aware: The WCAG 2.1 title doesn’t set up protection of each WCAG 2.1 criterion. Deal with it as a distinction device.
The second Distinction Checker, plugin ID 1394005938449547804, is from Pixelait. It describes checking a particular layer in opposition to its background and is explicitly introduced as free. Retaining the IDs separate issues: these are completely different plugins with the identical show title, not two hyperlinks to the identical product.
Key options:
- Chosen-layer/background distinction evaluation
- Explicitly marketed free use
Greatest for: Designers evaluating an alternative choice for particular person layer checks.
Pricing / entry: Free, acknowledged within the developer’s Figma itemizing.
Sensible be aware: Its advertising and marketing language contains broad compliance guarantees. A distinction examine alone can not set up {that a} web site is accessible.
Use Distinction checks a particular textual content layer or object and offers controls for adjusting colours. It’s best suited for easy shade combos as a result of the developer lists three unsupported circumstances: gradients, transparency, and object strokes. These exclusions are helpful when deciding whether or not to apply it to a specific part.
Key options:
- Checks chosen textual content or objects
- Coloration adjustment controls
- Revealed limitations for complicated fills and strokes
Greatest for: Checking easy, opaque shade combos.
Sensible be aware: Use one other technique for gradients, clear overlays, and strokes. Don’t infer that an unchecked case passes.
Imaginative and prescient Simulation, Kind, and Reference
Coloration Blind creates copies of a variety for eight color-vision deficiency simulations and labels the ensuing teams. That output is beneficial in a critique: evaluate whether or not chart sequence, warnings, or chosen states stay distinguishable when their colours change.
Key options:
- Eight color-vision simulation sorts
- Cloned, labeled variations of chosen content material
- Select which simulations to generate
Greatest for: Reviewing color-dependent that means in UI and information visualization.
Sensible be aware: The itemizing says picture layers should not transformed. A simulation of vector fills doesn’t inform you how an embedded {photograph} is dealt with.
Accessibility Simulator extends the dialogue past color-vision variations. The developer lists gentle sensitivity, imaginative and prescient loss, and crimson–inexperienced and blue–yellow color-blindness simulations. Use it to query a structure’s visible assumptions, particularly when essential controls or labels rely upon refined visible variations.
Key options:
- Gentle-sensitivity simulation
- Imaginative and prescient-loss simulation modes
- Pink–inexperienced and blue–yellow color-vision simulations
Greatest for: Visible critiques that want greater than a palette examine.
Sensible be aware: The developer warns that enormous recordsdata can run slowly and suggests copying a piece to a brand new web page. Begin with consultant screens.
Low Imaginative and prescient lets you choose a body or factor, then select a field-of-vision impairment and visual-acuity vary. Its function is exploratory: it offers a assessment workforce one other technique to look at how the position and visibility of essential info would possibly want consideration.
Key options:
- Body or factor choice
- Discipline-of-vision settings
- Visible-acuity vary controls
Greatest for: Discussing visible hierarchy and the visibility of essential content material.
Sensible be aware: Simulations can not symbolize each individual’s expertise. Deal with the preview as a design immediate and embrace person analysis the place attainable.
Textual content Resizer is beneficial when a structure appears to be like fantastic at its authentic font measurement however might wrestle with bigger textual content. You select the present base measurement for 1rem, enter a brand new base measurement, and clone the choice with resized textual content. Its developer recommends Auto Format for the most effective outcomes.
Key options:
- Base-font-size conversion utilizing rem
- Cloned alternatives with resized textual content
- Works on alternatives containing textual content
Greatest for: Exploring larger-text layouts earlier than implementation.
Sensible be aware: Resizing a Figma body doesn’t check browser zoom, reflow, or an app’s precise text-scaling conduct. Confirm these within the constructed product.
Imaginative and prescient Simulator describes a color-perception simulation workflow inside Figma. Its public description is way shorter than these of the opposite simulators right here, with no detailed mode listing or algorithm rationalization. Maintain it as an possibility to judge, moderately than assuming that it covers the identical situations as Coloration Blind or Low Imaginative and prescient.
Key options:
- Coloration-perception simulation described by the developer
- An in-editor visual-review workflow
Greatest for: Exploratory critiques after confirming the accessible simulation modes.
Sensible be aware: The documented function set is restricted. Test its precise controls earlier than making it your workforce’s commonplace simulator.
Font Scaler is described particularly as a technique to enlarge or shrink textual content nodes in FigJam. It may make workshop notes simpler to learn or assist range textual content measurement on a board. That could be a helpful supporting process, however it’s completely different from reviewing how a Figma Design interface responds to bigger textual content.
Key options:
- Scale FigJam textual content nodes up or down
- Centered typography utility
Greatest for: Bettering the readability of FigJam workshop materials.
Sensible be aware: For interface text-resizing exploration, Textual content Resizer is the nearer match. Font Scaler is just not documented as a WCAG checker.
Inclusive Design and Localization
Playing cards for Humanity begins an inclusive-design dialog by dealing an individual card and a trait card. The mixed situation asks a workforce to contemplate how its product might meet that individual’s wants. It’s helpful earlier than a structure has hardened right into a ultimate proposal, when assumptions are nonetheless straightforward to problem.
Key options:
- Particular person-and-trait situation playing cards
- Prompts for inclusive-design discussions
Greatest for: Workshops and early product discussions.
Sensible be aware: A generated situation is a dialog starter. It doesn’t substitute analysis with individuals who have the wants being mentioned.
Humaaans for Figma brings Pablo Stanley’s mix-and-match illustration library into the editor. It offers pre-made individuals and components you possibly can mix into new scenes. Maintain it within the supporting-tools class: illustration in art work can inform a design’s tone, however illustrations don’t examine distinction, navigation, or assistive-technology help.
Key options:
- Premade individuals illustrations
- Combine-and-match illustration elements
Greatest for: Creating people-focused illustrations for prototypes and content material.
Pricing / entry: Free Group itemizing; the underlying illustration library is CC0 for private and business use.
Sensible be aware: The underlying Humaaans library is CC0. Resolve whether or not every completed illustration is informative or ornamental when specifying its textual content different.
Translator helps you place completely different languages into the design earlier than growth. Its itemizing describes greater than 130 languages, translating chosen textual content or complete designs, mixed-style textual content, and FigJam tables. The sensible worth is seeing the place actual language modifications pressure a part, moderately than treating the original-language mockup as the one structure that issues.
Key options:
- Greater than 130 languages listed
- Translate textual content alternatives, teams, and frames
- Blended textual content types and FigJam desk help
Greatest for: Exploring localization layouts and multilingual prototypes.
Pricing / entry: The Figma itemizing reveals a $9/month in-app subscription. Forex denomination and any trial limits should not specified.
Sensible be aware: Have a fluent reviewer examine essential copy. Machine translation is just not approval of terminology, that means, or studying course.
Design Suggestions offers structured feedback on a particular UI body, together with visible hierarchy, usability, responsiveness, and accessibility. It belongs in a critique workflow, the place strategies can assist establish questions for a designer to research. Its description doesn’t set up a clear WCAG rule set or validated protection.
Key options:
- Suggestions on chosen UI frames
- Feedback on hierarchy, usability, and responsiveness
- Accessibility included amongst assessment matters
Greatest for: Producing a second set of questions throughout a design critique.
Sensible be aware: Examine strategies earlier than making use of them. Basic design suggestions can not substitute a documented accessibility assessment.
How to decide on a Figma accessibility plugin
Begin with the hole in your present assessment course of. Should you already examine shade pairs however wrestle to speak studying order, headings, or picture descriptions, an annotation workflow similar to Embrace will add extra worth than one other distinction checker. If you would like a number of checks collectively, evaluate Axe for Designers, Stark, and BrowserStack in opposition to the elements and screens your workforce truly makes use of.
For distinction, examine the background assumptions. A11y and Use Distinction doc limits that matter for pictures, gradients, or transparency. Distinction describes sampling for complicated backgrounds. Whichever device you select, examine consultant textual content, part states, and the precise background; a passing outcome for one choice doesn’t cowl the remainder of a web page.
Use simulations to ask higher questions in regards to the design. If standing is communicated solely by crimson and inexperienced, add one other cue similar to textual content, form, or an icon with a label. Take a look at bigger textual content and localization individually. Then carry the selections into growth and assessment the carried out interface with keyboard navigation, applicable assistive applied sciences, and customers the place attainable.
Continuously requested questions
Do you want a plugin to examine distinction in Figma?
No. Figma features a distinction checker in its shade picker. Its official documentation explains foreground/background ratios, textual content and graphics classes, and AA/AAA settings. Add a plugin whenever you want a documented functionality past that workflow, similar to web page scanning, simulation, or accessibility annotations.
What distinction ratio do you have to examine for WCAG 2.2?
For the textual content coated by WCAG 2.2’s minimal distinction criterion, Degree AA requires at the very least 4.5:1 for regular textual content and 3:1 for giant textual content, topic to the criterion’s exceptions. Massive textual content is at the very least 18pt, or 14pt daring; roughly 24 CSS pixels or 18.7 CSS pixels daring. Test the W3C rationalization when deciphering a device’s outcome. A text-contrast move is just one a part of an accessibility assessment.
Can APCA substitute WCAG 2.2 distinction checks?
No. For a WCAG 2.2 assessment, assess its specified distinction necessities. APCA can present further perceptual info, however its values should not the identical measurements as WCAG 2.x distinction ratios. WCAG 3.0 stays a draft; don’t deal with a plugin’s WCAG 3.0 label as proof of conformance.
Can a Figma plugin show {that a} web site is accessible?
No. A design file doesn’t set up how the completed interface exposes semantics, handles keyboard interplay, or behaves with assistive expertise. Use plugin findings to tell design and handoff, then check the implementation. Equally, a resized mockup can not set up {that a} web site meets text-resizing or reflow necessities.
Which instruments do you have to begin with?
Axe for Designers is a helpful first possibility for a free scan-and-annotate workflow. Select Embrace when the recurring downside is documenting what builders have to implement. For visible checks over photographs or gradients, Distinction has a greater documented match than instruments restricted to opaque fills.
Begin with Axe for Designers for checks, and add Embrace in the event you want a guided handoff. Add a specialist solely when it solves a documented hole, similar to complex-background distinction or textual content resizing. Assessment the findings, repair shared elements the place applicable, and carry the selections into implementation. That follow-through issues greater than putting in each plugin within the listing.
