Handbook
Accessibility (blueprint)
Purpose: Deep, project-agnostic guidance for building accessible digital products. Covers standards, implementation patterns, testing approaches, and organizational practices.
Accessibility as a right, not a feature: Inclusive design is a baseline quality bar, not an edge-case backlog deferred to “phase two.” Standards like WCAG encode expectations for perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust experiences; keyboard support, semantics, and ARIA complete behaviors for assistive technology. Treat accessibility like security or performance: explicit targets, automated checks, manual verification, and regression discipline.
Audience: Teams adopting UX / UI Design; project docs in docs/design/accessibility/. Core knowledge: UX / UI design body of knowledge. Bridge: UX / UI Design ↔ SDLC ↔ PDLC bridge.
Accessibility implementation workflow
Topic guides
| Topic | Focus | Deep guide |
|---|---|---|
| WCAG conformance | POUR, levels A/AA/AAA, criteria by guideline, testing layers, legal overview, VPAT/ACR | WCAG 2.2 comprehensive guide |
| ARIA patterns | Native-first rule, roles, states, APG widgets, live regions, testing | WAI-ARIA patterns and widget guide |
| Keyboard navigation | Focus order, skip links, traps, custom widget keys | WCAG 2.2 comprehensive guide · WAI-ARIA patterns and widget guide |
| Screen reader compatibility | Landmarks, names/roles, live regions; NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, TalkBack | WCAG 2.2 comprehensive guide · WAI-ARIA patterns and widget guide |
| Color and contrast | Ratios, tooling, tokens | WCAG 2.2 comprehensive guide |
| Motion and animation | prefers-reduced-motion, seizure safety |
UX / UI design body of knowledge · WCAG 2.2 comprehensive guide |
| Forms and inputs | Labels, errors, autocomplete, grouping | WCAG 2.2 comprehensive guide |
| Inclusive design | Permanent, temporary, situational barriers | UX / UI design body of knowledge |
| Audit and testing | Scope, automated scan, manual + AT, remediation loop | WCAG 2.2 comprehensive guide |
External references: WCAG 2.2, WAI-ARIA APG, Microsoft Inclusive Design, WebAIM, The A11Y Project.
Keep project-specific accessibility audits in docs/product/ and remediation plans in docs/development/, not in this file.