Tools of the trade: Getting started with accessibility

I recently gave a talk called “Tools of the trade: Accessibility without the cost” to Accessibility NYC (a11yNYC) in Lower Manhattan. The session focused on accessibility tools—which ones to invest in, how to get the most out of them, and when to consider paid features.

In this post, I’ll recap some of the insights I shared. We’ll take a look at tools designed for three stages of development: writing code, testing locally, and post-commit/pre-production. I’ll specifically focus on free linting tools and browser extensions that you can use right away.

Choosing and using tools requires an investment of time and, often, money. My goal is to help expose you to some readily available free tools to help you get started with digital accessibility and ensure you can make the right investment for your development needs.