This is a full WCAG 2.2 accessibility audit using WCAG-EM. It defines scope, samples representative pages and flows, runs both evaluation tiers, and produces one conformance report:
- Automated tier:
accesslint:accessibility-scan (the rule engine).
- Semi-automated manual tier:
accesslint:accessibility-inspect (keyboard, focus, state, reflow, and the rest the engine can't decide).
Assess; don't fix (accesslint:accessibility-fix) or diff (accesslint:accessibility-diff). One page with no sampling is a accessibility-scan, not an audit. This skill delegates each sampled page to its own subagent (step 4), so it stays light on large samples.
The full doctrine — WCAG-EM in detail, the severity rubric with examples, the no-proxy boundary, grounding — is in ../shared/methodology.md. The rules needed to run this skill are below.
Grading
Each finding carries a severity and an evidence basis. Keep them separate.
- Evidence basis: ● verified (deterministic, with cited proof) · ◐ flagged (evidence captured, a person decides) · ○ human-required (needs assistive technology or lived experience; handed off, not emulated).
- Severity: critical (blocks a core task) · serious (major barrier) · moderate (friction, still completable) · minor (polish).
WCAG-EM steps
Run in order and state what you did at each.
Scope. State the target and its boundary, the goal (default WCAG 2.2 AA; --level AAA adds AAA), the technologies in use, and the assistive-technology baseline the human handoff should cover. You scope that baseline; you don't test it.
Explore. Use Glob/Grep to find routes, templates, and shared components. Note key flows, content types, and stateful UI (modals, wizards, empty and error states). accesslint.config.json targets are a starting point.
Sample. Choose a structured set (entry page, each key flow end to end, every page with a new template or complex widget, and the important states) and a small random set. Say what's in each and why.
Evaluate. Delegate each sampled page or state to its own Task so it runs in its own context and returns its findings; independent pages can run in parallel. Each Task:
- runs
accesslint:accessibility-scan (--format json) first, then accesslint:accessibility-inspect against the same rendered state — same URL, --selector, --wait-for — passing scan's results (or at least the list of SCs the engine covered) into the inspect run;
- dedups by SC ownership before driving, not after:
accessibility-scan owns rule-detectable criteria, accessibility-inspect owns interaction and judgment criteria; inspect never re-checks an engine-owned SC, and where both still cover the same SC at the same element, accessibility-scan's result wins;
- returns a structured block: per finding, the SC, severity, evidence basis (●/◐/○), location, tier, evidence, and fix or handoff, plus this page's per-SC ledger (verified / flagged / engine-owned / N/A / not exercised).
Aggregate the returned blocks in step 5. For a one- or two-page scope, run the tiers inline instead of spawning a Task.
A shared browser is optional and improves selector matching across tiers, but it's a pre-wired precondition, not something this skill sets up at runtime: the browser MCP binds to its Chrome at server start (--autoConnect or --browser-url), with the engine pointed at the same port. Without it (the default), each Task runs both tiers against the same URL and --wait-for gate and dedups by SC ownership.
Report. Aggregate into the format below. Conformance has three states: pass or fail only for ● findings; everything ◐ or ○ — and every SC no page exercised — is undetermined and goes to a human. One sampled page failing an SC fails it for the whole scope at that level. Don't report conformance you can't support, and don't let a not-exercised SC read as a pass. Keep the ledger to counts and bare SC lists — group undetermined SCs by shared reason, one clause per group — and spend the report's words on failures, flags, and handoffs: a pass is its SC number in the list, with at most one sentence of narration for the whole passing set.
Report format
# Accessibility audit — <product / scope>
WCAG 2.2 Level AA · WCAG-EM · <N> pages/states sampled
## Scope
- Target & boundary: <…> Goal: WCAG 2.2 AA
- Technologies in use: <…>
- AT baseline (for the human handoff, not tested here): <SR+browser pairs, keyboard-only, …>
## Sample
- Structured: <page/state> — <why> (×N)
- Random: <page/state>
## Conformance (per success criterion)
- Pass ●: <n> · Fail ●: <n> · Undetermined (◐/○/not exercised): <n> · N/A: <n>
- Fail ●: <SCs> Pass ●: <SCs> N/A: <SCs>
- Undetermined: <SCs (shared reason)> · <SCs (shared reason)>
- Pass/fail is asserted only for ● criteria; ◐/○ and not-exercised are undetermined.
## Findings — by severity, tagged by evidence basis
### Critical
- [●] <barrier> — SC x.x.x — where: <selector / file:line> — tier: scan|inspect — → `accessibility-fix`
- [◐] <barrier> — SC x.x.x — evidence: <screenshot / measurement> — confirm: <what a person checks>
### Serious / Moderate / Minor
[same shape]
## Human-required (○) — the testing handoff
- <what only AT or lived experience reveals> — SC x.x.x
needs: <functional ability + AT, per Section 508 FPC> flow: <sampled flow>
## Recommendations
- Root-cause / pattern fixes (one change that clears many instances) → hand to `accessibility-fix`.
- What to send to human and AT testing, and on which flows.
- Wire `accesslint:accessibility-diff` into CI for the sampled targets.
Notes
- Assess, don't fix (use
accessibility-fix) or diff (use accessibility-diff). Don't emulate human experience: usability is ◐, lived experience is ○ and handed off.
- Conformance is per SC across the whole sample. Don't average failures away.
- Two browsers can drift selectors; prefer a shared browser for ●-precision, otherwise note that dedup is best-effort.
- State what wasn't covered (pages outside the sample, ○ criteria). Omitting it reads as "all clear".
- Use
list_rules and explain_rule for engine-rule metadata.
1---2name: accessibility-audit3description: Whole site or product — a full web accessibility (a11y) audit against WCAG 2.2, following the WCAG-EM methodology. Defines scope, samples representative pages and flows, runs the automated tier (`accessibility-scan`) and the hands-on manual tier (`accessibility-inspect`), and produces one conformance report. Grades each finding by severity and evidence basis, and states per-criterion conformance as pass, fail, or undetermined (needs a human). Use it for 'audit my site for accessibility', 'is this product accessible', 'a11y audit', 'WCAG or Section 508 conformance report', or any multi-page assessment. Assesses; does not fix (use `accessibility-fix`) or diff (use `accessibility-diff`). For a single page use `accessibility-scan`; for hands-on keyboard and screen-reader checks use `accessibility-inspect`.4---5
6This is a full WCAG 2.2 accessibility audit using WCAG-EM. It defines scope, samples representative pages and flows, runs both evaluation tiers, and produces one conformance report:
7
8- Automated tier: `accesslint:accessibility-scan` (the rule engine).
9- Semi-automated manual tier: `accesslint:accessibility-inspect` (keyboard, focus, state, reflow, and the rest the engine can't decide).
10
11Assess; don't fix (`accesslint:accessibility-fix`) or diff (`accesslint:accessibility-diff`). One page with no sampling is a `accessibility-scan`, not an audit. This skill delegates each sampled page to its own subagent (step 4), so it stays light on large samples.
12
13The full doctrine — WCAG-EM in detail, the severity rubric with examples, the no-proxy boundary, grounding — is in [`../shared/methodology.md`](../shared/methodology.md). The rules needed to run this skill are below.
14
15## Grading
16
17Each finding carries a severity and an evidence basis. Keep them separate.
18
19- Evidence basis: ● verified (deterministic, with cited proof) · ◐ flagged (evidence captured, a person decides) · ○ human-required (needs assistive technology or lived experience; handed off, not emulated).
20- Severity: critical (blocks a core task) · serious (major barrier) · moderate (friction, still completable) · minor (polish).
21
22## WCAG-EM steps
23
24Run in order and state what you did at each.
25
261. Scope. State the target and its boundary, the goal (default WCAG 2.2 AA; `--level AAA` adds AAA), the technologies in use, and the assistive-technology baseline the human handoff should cover. You scope that baseline; you don't test it.
272. Explore. Use Glob/Grep to find routes, templates, and shared components. Note key flows, content types, and stateful UI (modals, wizards, empty and error states). `accesslint.config.json` targets are a starting point.
283. Sample. Choose a structured set (entry page, each key flow end to end, every page with a new template or complex widget, and the important states) and a small random set. Say what's in each and why.
294. Evaluate. Delegate each sampled page or state to its own `Task` so it runs in its own context and returns its findings; independent pages can run in parallel. Each Task:
30 - runs `accesslint:accessibility-scan` (`--format json`) first, then `accesslint:accessibility-inspect` against the same rendered state — same URL, `--selector`, `--wait-for` — passing scan's results (or at least the list of SCs the engine covered) into the inspect run;
31 - dedups by SC ownership **before driving, not after**: `accessibility-scan` owns rule-detectable criteria, `accessibility-inspect` owns interaction and judgment criteria; inspect never re-checks an engine-owned SC, and where both still cover the same SC at the same element, `accessibility-scan`'s result wins;
32 - returns a structured block: per finding, the SC, severity, evidence basis (●/◐/○), location, tier, evidence, and fix or handoff, plus this page's per-SC ledger (verified / flagged / engine-owned / N/A / not exercised).
33
34 Aggregate the returned blocks in step 5. For a one- or two-page scope, run the tiers inline instead of spawning a `Task`.
35
36 A shared browser is optional and improves selector matching across tiers, but it's a pre-wired precondition, not something this skill sets up at runtime: the browser MCP binds to its Chrome at server start (`--autoConnect` or `--browser-url`), with the engine pointed at the same port. Without it (the default), each Task runs both tiers against the same URL and `--wait-for` gate and dedups by SC ownership.
375. Report. Aggregate into the format below. Conformance has three states: pass or fail only for ● findings; everything ◐ or ○ — and every SC no page exercised — is undetermined and goes to a human. One sampled page failing an SC fails it for the whole scope at that level. Don't report conformance you can't support, and don't let a not-exercised SC read as a pass. Keep the ledger to counts and bare SC lists — group undetermined SCs by shared reason, one clause per group — and spend the report's words on failures, flags, and handoffs: a pass is its SC number in the list, with at most one sentence of narration for the whole passing set.
38
39## Report format
40
41```
42# Accessibility audit — <product / scope>
43WCAG 2.2 Level AA · WCAG-EM · <N> pages/states sampled
44
45## Scope
46- Target & boundary: <…> Goal: WCAG 2.2 AA
47- Technologies in use: <…>
48- AT baseline (for the human handoff, not tested here): <SR+browser pairs, keyboard-only, …>
49
50## Sample
51- Structured: <page/state> — <why> (×N)
52- Random: <page/state>
53
54## Conformance (per success criterion)
55- Pass ●: <n> · Fail ●: <n> · Undetermined (◐/○/not exercised): <n> · N/A: <n>
56- Fail ●: <SCs> Pass ●: <SCs> N/A: <SCs>
57- Undetermined: <SCs (shared reason)> · <SCs (shared reason)>
58- Pass/fail is asserted only for ● criteria; ◐/○ and not-exercised are undetermined.
59
60## Findings — by severity, tagged by evidence basis
61### Critical
62- [●] <barrier> — SC x.x.x — where: <selector / file:line> — tier: scan|inspect — → `accessibility-fix`
63- [◐] <barrier> — SC x.x.x — evidence: <screenshot / measurement> — confirm: <what a person checks>
64### Serious / Moderate / Minor
65[same shape]
66
67## Human-required (○) — the testing handoff
68- <what only AT or lived experience reveals> — SC x.x.x
69 needs: <functional ability + AT, per Section 508 FPC> flow: <sampled flow>
70
71## Recommendations
72- Root-cause / pattern fixes (one change that clears many instances) → hand to `accessibility-fix`.
73- What to send to human and AT testing, and on which flows.
74- Wire `accesslint:accessibility-diff` into CI for the sampled targets.
75```
76
77## Notes
78
79- Assess, don't fix (use `accessibility-fix`) or diff (use `accessibility-diff`). Don't emulate human experience: usability is ◐, lived experience is ○ and handed off.
80- Conformance is per SC across the whole sample. Don't average failures away.
81- Two browsers can drift selectors; prefer a shared browser for ●-precision, otherwise note that dedup is best-effort.
82- State what wasn't covered (pages outside the sample, ○ criteria). Omitting it reads as "all clear".
83- Use `list_rules` and `explain_rule` for engine-rule metadata.