Stark Review 2026: Accessibility Checking Built Into Your Design Tool

Accessibility failures in digital products are usually not malicious. They're a result of designers not knowing a problem exists until someone points it out. Stark's approach is to point it out earlier — directly in the tools where designers are already working.

The tool doesn't replace accessibility expertise, but it does catch a large class of preventable issues before they reach development.

What Stark checks

Contrast checker — the core feature. Select any two color values or elements in Figma and Stark tells you whether the contrast ratio passes WCAG AA or AAA standards. It also shows which WCAG criteria apply based on text size and weight.

Color blindness simulator — preview your design as it would appear to users with various types of color blindness: protanopia, deuteranopia, tritanopia, and more. Essential for designs that rely on color to convey information.

Focus order — visualize and edit the keyboard navigation order for interactive elements. Designers often define this implicitly through visual layout; Stark makes it explicit and correctable before handoff.

Alt text management — review image elements and ensure alt text is defined. Useful in design systems where images are components.

Touch target sizing — flag interactive elements that are too small for reliable touch interaction, per WCAG 2.5.5 guidelines.

Platform coverage

Stark operates as a plugin in Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD. It also has a browser extension that runs checks on live websites — useful for auditing production without accessing the design source.

Pricing

The free tier covers the contrast checker and color blindness simulator, which are the two most-used features. Pro is $99/year per user and adds focus order, alt text management, touch target checking, and team features. Enterprise is custom pricing with SSO and bulk licensing.

For most designers, the free tier is enough to catch the most common issues. Pro adds value when accessibility is a formal requirement and you need the full audit capability.

Where it fits in a workflow

Stark is most useful as a preventive tool, not an audit tool. Running contrast checks as you choose colors, running color blindness simulation before finalizing a design — these are the moments that matter. Catching issues at the design stage is dramatically cheaper than catching them after development.

For teams with accessibility compliance requirements (ADA, WCAG 2.1, EN 301 549), Stark documents the checks you've run — useful for demonstrating due diligence.

Limitations

Stark is a checking tool. It tells you whether something passes or fails a specific criterion; it doesn't teach you how to fix it or explain why accessibility matters beyond the test. Teams without some background in accessibility principles may find themselves passing the checks while still producing inaccessible experiences.

The tool also only covers what's checkable automatically. Cognitive accessibility, plain language, logical reading order beyond focus order — these require human judgment that no plugin provides.

The verdict

Stark earns a 7.5/10. It's the right tool for embedding accessibility checking into the design process rather than treating it as an afterthought. The free contrast checker alone is worth installing as a standard part of any Figma workflow. Pro adds enough capability for teams with formal compliance requirements to justify the cost.

Try Stark Free