AccessLab

A local Chrome extension to find accessibility barriers, inspect their cause and verify a fix. Version 0.1 is an engineering beta; automated findings and rendering approximations do not establish accessibility compliance. Human screen-reader, current stable Chrome and participant evaluation gates remain open.

Quick start

Use Node 24.19.0, pnpm 11.19.0 and Python 3 for packaging. Clone this repository, then run:

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm exec playwright install chromium
pnpm build
pnpm dev:demo

On Linux without browser libraries, use pnpm exec playwright install --with-deps chromium. Before adding/updating a dependency, follow dependency security checks. Keep verification enabled and use the committed lockfile.

In your local Chrome, open chrome://extensions, enable Developer mode, choose Load unpacked, and select apps/extension/.output/chrome-mv3. Pin AccessLab to the toolbar. Open the demo at http://127.0.0.1:4173/ and click the toolbar action. Cloud onboarding does not provide a localhost web preview; use the automated loaded-extension tests in the cloud, or run the demo locally for this manual walkthrough. AccessLab activates only on your request.

1. Choose Run audit. Review missing labels/names/alternative text and contrast findings; use Locate target, then separately Focus target if needed.
2. Check Use fixed examples, then run the audit again. The paired name/label/image barriers should disappear; other/manual findings may remain.
3. In Inspect, enable observed focus trail and use Tab/Shift+Tab on the host page. Inspect target-size measurements at 24 or 44 CSS pixels; these are heuristics with spacing/exceptions.
4. In Preview, enter #preview-region, select the region and explicitly apply a grayscale, blur or color-vision approximation. Audits temporarily suspend it to measure baseline.
5. Open Export report, preview JSON or Markdown, then explicitly download. Review locators/pathnames before sharing. Reset clears reports/effects; Close removes the panel and restores connected prior focus.

Panel tabs support arrows/Home/End; native controls support keyboard activation. Escape inside the panel closes it. Host-page keys are not intercepted. Native host dialogs may cover the panel; close the host modal before returning to the panel. Only preferences persist.

Checks and package

pnpm verify
pnpm package

Verification runs lint, types, unit/component tests, production build, loaded-extension browser tests and visual gates. The test build has a localhost-only worker hook and separate .output-test directory; never distribute it. ZIP and SHA-256 files are written to dist/. See packaging and the release checklist.

Scope and contribution

Contributions are welcome through pull requests into main. Fork the repository, work on a topic branch, and follow CONTRIBUTING.md. Start with a focused bug fix, documentation improvement or fixture test; discuss new modules and permission changes in an issue first. Maintainers review contributions before merging. Direct pushes to main are prohibited by project policy; see repository governance for the enforcement setup and current access limitation.

Please follow our Code of Conduct. Use bug reports or feature proposals; report vulnerabilities privately using SECURITY.md.

Top document and discoverable open shadow roots; no iframe/closed-shadow coverage. Audit budget is 5,000 elements / 1,000 interactive targets; oversized documents fail explicitly before the engine can block the page. Previews require a static region ≤500 elements. Rendering approximations do not reproduce lived experience. No accounts, backend, telemetry, remote scans or all-site permission.

Read privacy/scope, architecture, module tutorial, test guide, contribution guide, security policy and task evidence. Optional v0.2 pointer sandbox requires explicit selection and is outside this v0.1 build.

MIT project license; third-party terms preserved in notices and production artifacts.