Accessibility

mtools aims to be usable by everyone, including with a keyboard, a screen reader or high-contrast settings.

Last updated: 23 October 2026

The standard

The site aims to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA.

What you can expect

  • Every tool can be used with a keyboard alone. Controls such as the colour picker's area and the gradient's stops have keyboard alternatives to dragging.
  • Form fields, buttons and results have labels for screen readers, and results that change are announced.
  • Text meets AA contrast in every theme, including the JSON formatter's syntax colours.
  • Windows High Contrast and other forced-colour modes are supported.
  • Pages reflow to fit a screen 320 pixels wide (the same as 400% zoom on a laptop) without scrolling sideways.
  • The few animations are switched off if you ask your system to reduce motion.

Typeface

The site uses Atkinson Hyperlegible Next for text and Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono for code and data. The Braille Institute designed them for readers with low vision, so that characters that look alike in many fonts stay distinct: the digit 0 and the letter O, and 1, l and I. That matters on a site where a single wrong character in a hash, a token or a timestamp changes its meaning. If your browser is set to use your own fonts instead of the ones websites choose, that setting is respected.

Themes

Choose a theme under Theme at the bottom of the menu. System follows your device's light or dark setting; Light and Dark have strong contrast.

The four low-glare themes, Soft cream, Soft blue, Soft green and Dim, avoid pure white and pure black and soften the contrast of body text, while still meeting WCAG AA. They are for anyone who finds strong contrast tiring, including some people with visual stress (sometimes called Meares-Irlen syndrome) or dyslexia. People differ in which tint they find most comfortable, so there is a choice; try each for a while. If none suits you, please say which colours would.

How it is tested

On every change, automated tests check each page and its main states with the axe accessibility engine in Chrome, Firefox and Safari, in the light, dark and low-glare themes, and with forced colours. Keyboard operation of each tool, and reflow at 320 pixels wide, are tested too. Automated checks find only some problems, so they are a minimum, not proof of accessibility.

Known limitations

  • A full manual audit with screen readers has not been done yet. It is planned.
  • The contrast checker's sample and the gradient preview show colours you choose, which may have low contrast on purpose. Their results are also given as text.
  • The HTML entity tool's preview shows your own HTML as you wrote it, which may not be accessible.

Feedback

If you find something hard to use, please email and describe the page, what you were trying to do and any assistive technology you use. You should get a reply within five working days.