accessibility-scanner-mcp

An MCP server that lets an AI agent scan a web page for WCAG accessibility issues and get back findings it can act on. The agent calls one tool with a URL; it gets every violation grouped by severity, each with the exact element selector, the offending HTML, the specific failure, the WCAG success criterion, and a fix-guide link — plus the items that still need human review.

It runs the real axe-core engine in your local Chrome (via playwright-core), so nothing about the pages you scan leaves your machine. It also resolves color contrast over CSS gradients, which most tools leave as "needs review."

Part of accessibilityscanner.app.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+

• Google Chrome installed (or set the CHROME_PATH environment variable to a Chromium binary)

Related MCP server: A11y Expert MCP

Install

Add it to your MCP client's config. No global install needed — npx fetches it on first run.

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json), Cursor, Claude Code, or any MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "accessibility-scanner": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "accessibility-scanner-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

If Chrome is not auto-detected, add an env block:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "accessibility-scanner": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "accessibility-scanner-mcp"],
      "env": { "CHROME_PATH": "/usr/bin/google-chrome" }
    }
  }
}

The tool

scan_accessibility

Returns a report grouped by severity. For each rule: the WCAG criterion, a fix-guide link, and per element the selector, HTML, and exact failure. Example flow with an agent:

You: Audit https://example.com for accessibility and fix what you can. Agent: (calls scan_accessibility) → reads the findings → edits the code → re-scans.

Honest about limits

Automated testing covers the machine-checkable subset of WCAG (most of the issues on a typical page, but not all of it). Items that need human judgement are returned under "Needs manual review." It never claims a page is "compliant."

License

MIT