AccessMate vs Toolbelt

AccessMate scans your WordPress site for accessibility issues against WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, and Section 508 — pick a single standard or combine several — scores each page, and provides guided fixes, all from your WordPress dashboard. Zero running cost for you. AccessMate is 100% free. AI features (auto alt-text, code fixes, plain-English explanations) use your own API key from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, or a local Ollama instance. Your key is stored encrypted in your database and never proxied through our servers. Core features Accessibility scanner — powered by axe-core, scans every page against your choice of WCAG standard, or several combined at once Score & grade — A–F accessibility score, weighted across Critical/Serious/Warning/Notice severity tiers, with POUR (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) breakdown Issue detail panel — shows the offending HTML, WCAG criterion, and affected element count Issues by page — stacked bar chart showing critical/serious/warning/notice counts per page Accessibility statement generator — creates a public accessibility statement page for your site Visitor accessibility toolbar — floating widget with 10 user-controlled accessibility features AI auto-fix (requires API key) — generates corrected HTML for fixable issues AI alt text (requires API key) — writes descriptive alt text for images AI explanations (requires API key) — plain-English summaries for non-technical site owners WCAG standards & rulesets AccessMate scans with axe-core, the same open-source accessibility testing engine used by major browser DevTools. Pick any one of the following from the ruleset selector in the scanner or in Settings, or combine a standard with Best Practice: WCAG 2.0 — A, AA, or AAA WCAG 2.1 — A, AA, or AAA WCAG 2.2 — AA Section 508 Best Practice — common accessibility recommendations beyond the WCAG spec Visitor accessibility toolbar features Font size · High contrast · Dyslexia font · Grayscale · Reading guide · Pause animations · Line height · Large cursor · Highlight links · Screen mask AI providers supported Anthropic Claude (claude-haiku-4-5, claude-sonnet-4) OpenAI (gpt-4o-mini, gpt-4o) Google Gemini (gemini-1.5-flash, gemini-1.5-pro) Ollama (local, no key needed — llama3.2, mistral, phi3) Privacy AccessMate makes no external requests unless you configure an AI provider and trigger an AI action. When an AI action is triggered, your WordPress server makes a direct request to your chosen provider using your key. No data passes through AccessMate servers. The API key is encrypted at rest using AES-256-CBC with your WordPress auth salt. Third Party Libraries axe-core by Deque Systems — Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL-2.0) Freemius WordPress SDK — GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3) — Pro build only OpenDyslexic font via Fontsource — Bitstream Vera Fonts License — loaded on demand from jsDelivr CDN only when the dyslexia font feature is enabled by the visitor External Services This plugin can connect to the following external services. No external requests are made unless you explicitly configure and trigger the relevant feature. AI providers (optional) When you add an API key and click an AI action (auto-fix suggestion, alt-text generation, or accessibility report summary), your WordPress server sends a direct HTTPS request to your chosen AI provider. The request contains the page HTML snippet and accessibility issue context being analysed. No data passes through AccessMate servers. These requests are only sent when you have entered an API key in Settings and manually trigger an AI action. Anthropic — https://api.anthropic.com/ Used for: AI fix suggestions, alt-text generation, accessibility report summaries. Data sent: page HTML snippet, accessibility issue context, and your Anthropic API key (in the request header). Terms of Service | Privacy Policy OpenAI — https://api.openai.com/ Used for: AI fix suggestions, alt-text generation, accessibility report summaries. Data sent: page HTML snippet, accessibility issue context, and your OpenAI API key (in the request header). Terms of Service | Privacy Policy Google Gemini — https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/ Used for: AI fix suggestions, alt-text generation, accessibility report summaries. Data sent: page HTML snippet, accessibility issue context, and your Gemini API key (as a URL parameter). Terms of Service | Privacy Policy Ollama — http://localhost:11434/ (local only) Ollama runs entirely on the user’s own machine or local network. No data is sent to any external server. jsDelivr CDN (visitor-facing, on demand) When a site visitor enables the Dyslexia Font feature in the accessibility toolbar, their browser loads the OpenDyslexic font stylesheet from jsDelivr. This is a standard browser-initiated HTTP request that includes the visitor’s IP address and User-Agent string. The font is cached locally after the first load; no further requests are made on subsequent pages. This request is triggered only by the visitor explicitly toggling the dyslexia font feature — it is never loaded automatically. jsDelivr — https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/ Privacy Policy

A collection of simple addons that provide every day functionality with privacy and speed. There’s very few options, and no unnecessary filler. It does exactly what it needs to do and nothing else. Toolbelt takes a privacy first approach to adding features. Everything happens on your server. No data is sent to third party servers without your explicit consent. No data is loaded from third parties (for example social sharing scripts). Taking inspiration from Jetpack I want to rebuild the features I use the most and make them as simple and fast as possible. Toolbelt has been featured on The WordPress Tavern in an interview with me. You can read more about the creation of the plugin and my desire for a more private internet. Gutenberg Blocks Some of the Toolbelt modules include blocks to make working with the generated content easier. The available blocks are: Contact Form – The simplest way to have people get in touch. Works with the spam module. Post Categories – A category content list for magazine and newspaper themes. Simple Slider – A fast, CSS powered slider. No JavaScript and easy to edit. Projects Grid – to list a collection of projects. These can be filtered by project category. Testimonials Grid – to list a group of testimonials. Great for showing off! 🙂 Markdown – for those who like a simpler writing experience. Sitemap – Easily list all posts, pages, Categories and Projects. Star Rating – Rate things with a simple visual interface. Breadcrumbs – for full site editing. Related posts – for full site editing. All Features Toolbelt has a lot of features. The complete list is below. Admin Interface Tweaks – Small CSS changes to make the interface nicer to use. Avatars – Algorithmicly generated private avatars that are consistent across websites. Breadcrumbs Contact Form – Gutenberg compatible & private. Supports the spam blocker module. Cookie Banner CSP Header Disable Comment Urls – Removes comments urls from your site. Disable REST API – Disable the REST API from public usage. Fast 404 – Stops WordPress from loading the full 404 page for images and other content. Reduces server usage. Footnotes Get Image – Find a featured image for posts that do not have one assigned. Heading Anchors – Add anchor names to headings so that they can be linked to. Iframe Privacy Shield – Remove iframes and add a clickable screen so that they load when the user wants to see them. Infinite Scroll Jetpack Dev Mode – Disable Jetpacks connection so that only local functions are enabled. Lazy Loading Layout Grid – A nicer columns block. Markdown Monetization – Enable Coil Web Monetization. OEmbed – Add additional OEmbed providers. Optimization – Remove WordPress features that are rarely used. Portfolio – Portfolio custom post type and blocks. Post Category – A post category block. Random Redirection – Randomly redirect to a blog post. Related Posts Remove IP Addresses – Remove IP addresses from comments for user privacy (spam protection still works). Responsive Videos Search Redirect – If there’s a single search result redirect to it instead of displaying the restuls. Sitemap – Sitemap block. Slider – JavaScript free CSS slider block. Social Menu – Replace social links with icons in navigation blocks. Spam Blocker – Privacy focused spam blocker. Static Social Sharing – Link to social sharing pages, and don’t load social network content on your site. Stats – Enable privacy focused analytics providers like Fathom. Testimonials – Testimonials Custom post types and blocks. Tidy Notifications – Move plugin and theme notifications to a sidebar. Typographic Widows – Remove widows in post titles. Widget Display – Set rules for widget visibility. Toolbelt is Private Every week there’s a new story about Facebook (or Google, or Amazon, or whoever) tracking people inappropriately, or selling user details. Or some security breach that leaks users passwords or credit card info. Privacy is a big topic and frankly, it’s scary how much big corporations like Google, Facebook, and Twitter know. To ensure Toolbelt is as privacy focused as possible it: Does not phone out. No data is shared with third parties. Does not use standard social sharing javascripts (loaded from social networks servers). Does not track your usage of the plugin. Does not add generator comments, or secret promotional comments to your site html. Toolbelt is Fast Slow websites make me sad. I don’t want to add anything to Toolbelt that will impact site load speed. My Google Pagespeed score should not move from 100. Why? Faster sites are shown to increase conversions and time on site. Google loves fast sites and improves their search rankings. In addition fast sites are great for people with slower internet access, or on mobile data, and use less resources to generate the page. So many benefits! To be fast Toolbelt: Doesn’t use jQuery or any other javascript framework. All javascript is vanilla js, and minified. Minifies all assets (JS and CSS). Loads all assets inline. They are already small, and loading them directly on the page means there are no server requests. Only loads things when they are needed. JS and CSS are only loaded for activated modules. Very few options. There’s one main database option, an array that stores what modules are active. And another that stores settings for some modules. Uses the minimum code possible. Minimum Javascript and PHP. Less code means more speed, and fewer bugs. All options are disabled by default. You enable only the ones you need. Built for developers Toolbelt is built with developers in mind. It has a collection of hooks and filters to enable you to make the modules work the way you want. If you’re intersted to jump in the project, there are opportunities for developers at all levels to help out. Contribute to Toolbelt on GitHub and join the party. 🎉 The code can be found on Github Documentation with code examples can be found on the wiki You can reach out to me with questions or problems on Twitter