kienbui1995 Accessibility Audit
When to Use
When ensuring a web product is usable by people with disabilities — required for legal compliance and good UX for all users.
Core Jobs
1. WCAG 2.1 Core Principles (POUR)
- Perceivable: can users perceive all content? (alt text, captions, color contrast)
- Operable: can users operate all UI? (keyboard nav, no seizure triggers, enough time)
- Understandable: is the UI clear? (readable language, predictable behavior, error messages)
- Robust: does it work across assistive technologies? (valid HTML, ARIA)
Target AA compliance as the standard (AAA is aspirational).
2. Automated Testing
Run first — catches ~30% of issues:
npx axe-cli https://yoursite.com
npx pa11y https://yoursite.com
Or in CI: integrate axe-core with Jest/Cypress.
Automated checks: missing alt text, low color contrast, missing form labels, invalid ARIA.
3. Manual Testing Checklist
- Keyboard navigation: Tab through every interactive element. Can you reach and activate all of them?
- Skip links: Is there a "Skip to main content" link?
- Focus indicators: Is focus visible on every interactive element?
- Screen reader test: VoiceOver (Mac/iOS), NVDA (Windows), TalkBack (Android)
- Does every image have meaningful alt text?
- Are form fields labeled?
- Are dynamic content changes announced?
- Color contrast: 4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text
- Zoom to 200%: Does content reflow without horizontal scrolling?
- Motion: Does it respect
prefers-reduced-motion?
4. Report and Prioritize
Per issue:
- WCAG criterion violated (e.g., 1.1.1 Non-text Content)
- Impact: Critical (blocks users) / Serious / Moderate / Minor
- Screenshot + code location
- Fix recommendation
Key Outputs
- Automated test results
- Manual audit report
- Prioritized fix list (by impact)
- Regression test to prevent recurrence
Anti-Patterns
- Relying only on automated testing (misses 70% of issues)
- Treating accessibility as a one-time audit
- "We'll add ARIA attributes" instead of fixing semantic HTML
- Not testing with actual screen reader users