tota11y review
A focused, open-source toolkit for inspecting accessibility issues directly on webpages.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
tota11y is an open-source JavaScript toolkit for web content creators, editors, designers, and developers who need to visualize accessibility issues on individual webpages. It adds an interactive toolbar to a page or runs as a bookmarklet, placing annotations around relevant elements and structures. The toolkit covers alternative text, color contrast, headings, form labels, links, ARIA landmarks, explicit roles, titles, empty elements, focus order, and screen-reader-oriented inspection. It is a practical fit for reviewing page structure and spotting common issues during content and design work.
Its standout feature is contextual visual inspection. Instead of presenting only a separate report, tota11y highlights page elements in place and offers contextual fix suggestions for some findings, including form-label issues. Contrast checks include suggested combinations, while heading, landmark, role, link-text, and focus-order checks help reviewers examine how a page is organized and navigated. This breadth makes it useful for designers and editors who want accessibility feedback tied directly to visible content, though it remains focused on page-level inspection rather than a broader accessibility program.
The open-source model keeps the toolkit accessible for teams working with web content, and its JavaScript, npm, Yarn, and bookmarklet options support several ways to add it to a workflow. The supplied repository is a Babylon Health fork of Khan Academy’s original project, and the original project page states that the project was deprecated on May 18, 2023. Choose tota11y for visual, page-by-page review of common accessibility concerns. Teams needing scheduled scans, CI/CD workflows, API access, or a stated WCAG version should choose a tool designed around those requirements instead.
tota11y pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Annotates accessibility issues and page structures in context
- Checks contrast, alternative text, headings, labels, and landmarks
- Runs through JavaScript, npm, Yarn, or a bookmarklet
- Where it doesn't
- Its scope is limited to page-level web inspection
- It does not provide scheduling, CI, or API support
- It does not identify a WCAG version for its checks
tota11y fact sheet, pricing and score →
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