PageKiwi for Chrome beta

PageKiwi on whatever page you're looking at. See, in plain English, what stops people with a screen reader, a keyboard or weaker eyesight from using it, see the page as they do, and send what's wrong to your web person in one link.

Download the extension

Free. Works in Chrome and Microsoft Edge on a computer (not on phones). It only looks at a page when you click the kiwi, and sends nothing to us unless you press Send or open one of the More checks. What changed in each version.

Check the official rules. Rules and dates change, so check them with the official sources before you rely on them: ADA.gov (the US Department of Justice), the W3C's WCAG pages and Section508.gov. PageKiwi helps you find problems and get closer to meeting the rules. It can't promise a website meets them, it isn't legal advice, and we can't take responsibility for decisions made from it.

It's in beta

It works, but it isn't in the Chrome Web Store yet, so installing it takes a few more clicks than usual (about two minutes). When it's in the store, it'll be one click, and this page will say so. If something looks wrong, that's useful to know: let us know.

Install it in Chrome

  1. Download the extension (the button above). It arrives as a zip file, usually in your Downloads folder.
  2. Unzip it: on Windows, right-click it and choose Extract All; on a Mac, double-click it. You'll get a folder called pagekiwi-extension.
  3. In Chrome, type chrome://extensions in the address bar and press Enter.
  4. Turn on Developer mode, the switch at the top right. (It only lets you add extensions from a file. It doesn't change anything else.)
  5. Click Load unpacked and choose the pagekiwi-extension folder.
  6. Click the puzzle piece at the top right of Chrome and click the pin next to PageKiwi, so the kiwi stays in your toolbar.

Keep the folder: Chrome runs the extension from it, so if you delete it, the extension stops working.

In Microsoft Edge

The same steps, but go to edge://extensions, and the Developer mode switch is on the left.

How to use it

  1. Go to the page you want to check, say your home page.
  2. Click the kiwi in your toolbar. A panel opens on the right and checks the page straight away.
  3. Read the problems, worst first. Most say who they stop and what to ask for. Show me scrolls to the spot on the page and outlines it in pink.
  4. Try the views under the problems: they show the page as other people meet it. Click a view again to turn it off.
  5. Faster: press Ctrl+Shift+Y (⌘+Shift+Y on a Mac) on any page to open the panel and check it. If nothing happens, open chrome://extensions/shortcuts and set it there: Chrome only sets it on a fresh install, and some computers use those keys for something else.
  6. Going to another page? Click the kiwi again there. The panel only looks at a page after you've clicked on it.

What the results mean

Stops people
Someone can't use this part of the page at all, like a form box a screen reader can't name, or text too faint to read. Fix these first.
Gets in the way
People can get past it, but it's slow or confusing, like headings that skip a level.
Worth fixing
Small things that add up.
"Other checks passed"
What it looked for and didn't find. No tool catches everything: also try your page with only the keyboard (Tab to move, Enter to click).

What it does

  • Send it to your web person

    One link with a screenshot, the page's error messages, your browser and screen, and a note. You see the screenshot before anything is sent.

  • Accessibility check

    The page as you see it, color contrast included, with each problem explained and a "Show me" button.

  • Tab order

    Numbers every stop a keyboard user makes, in order. Jumps around the page mean it's confusing to use without a mouse.

  • Color blindness

    Roughly how the page looks with strong red-green color blindness (about 1 in 12 men have some red-green color blindness). Is anything told apart only by red and green?

  • 200% zoom

    Many people with weaker eyesight zoom in. Does anything get cut off or overlap?

  • Page outline

    The headings a screen reader user jumps between. Do they make sense on their own?

  • PageKiwi's checks

    Full Check, Picture Check, Facts Check, Google and share preview and Site health on pagekiwi.com, with the page you're on filled in.

It uses axe-core, the open-source accessibility engine, with its common findings rewritten in plain English. It asks Chrome for permission to read a page only when you click the kiwi on it.