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A11y PulsevsIBM Equal Access Accessibility Checker

IBM Equal Access while you build.
A11y Pulse once it's live.

IBM Equal Access Accessibility Checker is a free toolkit for testing pages as you develop them. A11y Pulse watches your whole live site every day, with alerts and reports included.
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What is IBM Equal Access?

IBM Equal Access Accessibility Checker is IBM's open-source accessibility toolkit. It is built on IBM's own rules engine and checks against WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 as well as IBM's internal accessibility requirements.

Browser extensionChrome, Firefox, Edge
Adds an accessibility panel to the browser's developer tools, highlighting issues on the page you have open.
accessibility-checkerNode.js package
Runs the same rules inside automated tests with Selenium, Puppeteer, or Playwright, and compares results against a baseline.
IntegrationsCypress, Java, Karma
Wrappers for other test frameworks, so checks can run wherever your existing tests already do.

Side by side

A11y Pulse vs IBM Equal Access

Pricing
Testing engine
WCAG 2.2 A and AA criteria checked
Interaction audits
Primary workflow
Page discovery
Scheduling
Regression alerts
Stakeholder reports
CI integration
Best for
A11y PulseContinuous, site-wide
Recommended
$19, $49, $159 / monthHosted, monthly billing
axe-core + A11y Pulse auditsOur own audits interact with pages how real users would
28 of 55 today39 planned by the end of 2027
Included
Scheduled production monitoring
Sitemap, crawl, or URL list
Daily, with unlimited rescans
Email, Slack, Teams
PDF report and monthly email
Fully supported
Always-on site monitoring and reporting
IBM Equal AccessOpen-source toolkit
For comparison
FreeApache 2.0 licensed
accessibility-checker-engineMaintained by IBM
32 of 55
Not offered
Browser extension and automated tests
Pages your tests visit
Build it yourselfRuns when your tests run
Build it yourself
Developer-facing reports
Node, Cypress, Java, KarmaWorks with Selenium, Puppeteer, and Playwright
Developers testing pages and components as they build

WCAG coverage

More WCAG coverage than IBM Equal Access by the end of 2027

IBM Equal Access checks 32 of the 55 WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA success criteria with its default settings, and A11y Pulse checks 28 today. Our roadmap adds 11 more criteria by the end of 2027, taking A11y Pulse to 39.

That will put A11y Pulse ahead of every tool we have measured.

No automated tool can check every criterion. Use A11y Pulse alongside thorough manual testing to help you work towards WCAG compliance. See how we measured coverage.

WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA success criteria checked by each tool, out of 55
ToolSuccess criteria checked
A11y Pulse today
28 of 55 (51%)
A11y Pulse in 2027
39 of 55 (71%)
IBM Equal Access
32 of 55 (58%)

IBM Equal Access: accessibility-checker-engine 4.0.34 rule list. Measured in October 2026.

Why teams switch to A11y Pulse

Three things a test toolkit leaves for you to build

IBM Equal Access is a thorough engine with excellent developer tooling. Turning it into ongoing monitoring of a live site is a project of its own.

1

Scheduling

Every page, every day

The browser extension checks the page you have open, and the test packages check the pages your test suite visits. A11y Pulse discovers pages from your sitemap or a crawl and scans all of them daily, including the ones no test covers.

Daily, up to 1,000 pages

2

Alerting

Know when something regresses

Most regressions on a live site come from content edits and third-party scripts, not code changes, so they never reach a CI run. A11y Pulse alerts you by email, Slack, or Teams when a scan finds something new.

Email, Slack, Teams

3

Reporting

Reports stakeholders can read

IBM Equal Access produces detailed reports for developers. A11y Pulse adds a dashboard, trend history, monthly email digests, and PDF reports for the people who don't read test output.

PDF reports + monthly digest

Where we fit

The monitoring layer around the engine

IBM Equal Access is a strong choice for checking pages during development. A11y Pulse covers what happens after release: discovering every page, scanning them daily in a real Chrome browser, and telling you when something changes. Many teams use a developer toolkit and a monitoring service side by side.

  • axe-core plus our own audits that interact with pages how real users would
  • Scripted login flows for pages behind authentication
  • Email, Slack, and Microsoft Teams alerts on regression
  • Monthly stakeholder reports and PDF exports
The A11y Pulse site overview showing the accessibility score, total issues, and a per-page list across every tracked URL.

The verdict

When each tool is the right call

Choose

A11y Pulse

  • You want every page of your live site scanned daily without writing tests for each one
  • You need Slack, Teams, or email alerts when something regresses
  • You want stakeholder-friendly reports without building them
  • Content editors and third-party scripts change your site between releases
  • Nobody on the team has time to operate test infrastructure for accessibility

Choose

IBM Equal Access

  • You want a free, open-source checker in the browser while you build
  • Accessibility checks in your unit or end-to-end tests are the priority
  • You already have CI infrastructure and want to fail builds on violations
  • Your organization follows IBM's own accessibility requirements
  • You are happy to build your own scheduling, alerting, and reporting

The information presented here about A11y Pulse and IBM Equal Access is provided for comparison purposes and may change over time. Pricing and feature claims about IBM Equal Access should be verified on their own website before making a purchasing decision.

Keep testing as you build. Let us watch production.

30-day free trial, no credit card. Daily scans across your whole site, with alerts and reports included.
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