Accessibility on Framer
Framer is a visual design tool that publishes sites directly, so a layout drawn on the canvas becomes the live page. Pages are built from frames, stacks and components with variants, and the effects designers like, such as scroll animations, hover states, parallax and tickers, are a feature of the tool.
The same freedom is why accessibility needs attention. A frame can look like a heading, a button or a menu without being any of them in the page’s structure, and a text layer only becomes a real heading when its tag is set. Motion and hover effects can leave out keyboard and reduced-motion users.
Common Accessibility Issues on Framer Sites
Text that looks like a heading
Large styled text layers become headings only when you choose a heading tag, so pages can end up with no h1 or with levels in the wrong order.
Icon-only buttons and links
Social icons, menu toggles and arrow buttons made from a vector frame have no name until you add an ARIA label.
Tickers, marquees and autoplay
Scrolling logo tickers, looping carousels and background video move constantly, with no way for a visitor to pause them.
Hover-only interactions
Menus and cards that reveal content only on hover are out of reach for keyboard and touch users unless the same state is available on focus and tap.
Contrast and focus over imagery
Text over photos and gradients can fail contrast, and custom components often hide or replace the default focus indicator.
How AccessBell Scans Your Framer Site
- Enter any public page. Paste the address of a page on your Framer site into the scanner above. There is nothing to install: no plugin, no code snippet and no login.
- We load it in a real browser. AccessBell opens the page in headless Chrome and runs its scripts, so it tests what your visitors actually see, including content added by your theme, apps or plugins.
- We run the WCAG rules. The open-source axe-core engine checks the page against the standard you choose, and every result is mapped to the WCAG success criteria it affects.
- You see what is wrong in seconds. The free scan lists every issue it finds, ranked by severity, with the WCAG criteria each one fails. Start a free trial to get the failing code and the fix for each one. Our methodology explains exactly what runs and what still needs a person.
What You Get From the Free Scan and the Free Trial
Free, with no account
- 63 automated rules for WCAG 2.2 Level AA, or presets for WCAG 2.1 AA, the ADA, Section 508 and EN 301 549
- Every issue found on the page, ranked by severity from critical to minor
- The WCAG success criteria each issue fails, which you can look up in our WCAG library
With a 3-day free trial
- The failing HTML, so you can find the element in your Framer editor or code
- How to fix each issue, with a corrected example
- Every page scanned, up to 500 per domain, with daily monitoring and an email when something breaks
- A list of checks that need a person to review, so nothing is missed
- A dated record of your scans and fixes
How to Fix What the Scan Finds
- Set a heading tag on each real heading, use one h1 per page and add alt text or an ARIA label to every image and icon-only control in the accessibility panel.
- Turn on the reduced-motion option in your site settings, and give any ticker, carousel or autoplay video a pause control.
- Build hover effects so the same content is available on focus, and keep a clearly visible focus style on interactive components.
- Run a free scan above on your homepage and a few key pages, fix issues starting with critical and serious, then rescan to confirm.
- For ongoing protection, AccessBell Pro monitors up to 500 URLs per domain every day and alerts you when a theme, app or plugin update introduces a new issue.
Related Guides
Framer Accessibility — Frequently Asked Questions
Are Framer sites accessible by default?
Framer offers the controls for accessibility, but it only does what you set: labels, heading tags and reduced-motion settings need to be applied by the designer. A scan shows where they are missing.
Do animations hurt accessibility?
They can. Constant movement can be distracting or harmful, and WCAG requires a way to pause moving content that lasts more than five seconds. Respecting the visitor’s reduced-motion setting helps as well.
Does AccessBell work with Framer?
Yes. AccessBell loads the published page in a real browser, runs its scripts and tests the result, so animated and component-based pages are covered.
Sources
This page explains general accessibility patterns for Framer sites and is not legal advice. AccessBell is not affiliated with Framer. Framer and its logo are trademarks of their owners and are used only to identify the platform. See our disclaimer.
