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Accessibility Test Suite

Make accessibility checks part of normal development rather than an audit before launch.

involved Testing & QA

What it adds

Automated accessibility checks over components and pages, paired with a defined set of manual keyboard and screen reader passes.

What your agent is told to do

5
  1. 1

    Run automated checks against both isolated components and assembled pages, because contrast and naming failures show up in components while landmark, heading order, and duplicate-label failures only appear once the page is built.

  2. 2

    Write scripted keyboard passes for the flows that matter: tab through the whole flow, operate every control without a pointer, confirm focus is visible at each step, and confirm focus returns sensibly when a dialog closes.

  3. 3

    Test components in their open, loading, error, and disabled states rather than only their resting state, since a dialog that traps focus correctly when open may leave focus stranded when it closes on an error.

  4. 4

    Record any known violation as a dated, owned exception with a stated reason and a review date, and fail the run when an exception passes that date rather than letting it become permanent.

  5. 5

    Broader visual review — hierarchy, spacing, copy, and responsive behaviour — belongs to the Design QA Checklist; this brief owns the machine-checkable and keyboard-checkable half. Do not duplicate the checklist's judgement items as automated assertions.

Edge cases it handles

7
  • An automated pass covers only a fraction of real accessibility barriers, so a green run must never be reported as an accessibility guarantee — pair it with the manual passes and say plainly what was not checked.
  • Components hidden behind an interaction go untested unless the suite opens them, so menus, dialogs, tooltips, and expanded rows must be driven into their open state before being checked.
  • Loading and error states are where accessible names and live-region announcements are most often missing, and they are the states least likely to be present when a check runs against a resting component.
  • An exception with no expiry becomes a permanent silence; every suppression needs an owner, a reason, and a date at which it is reconsidered.
  • Checks running against a component in isolation will report missing landmarks and heading structure that the surrounding page actually provides, so those rules belong to the page-level run only.
  • Colour contrast depends on the rendered theme, so a suite that only tests one theme misses every contrast failure in the other.
  • A check that fails intermittently because the page had not settled will be disabled rather than fixed; wait for a visible, stable outcome before asserting.

Definition of done

8
  • Automated checks run against both components in isolation and fully assembled pages, in every supported theme.
  • Scripted keyboard passes cover each major flow end to end, including focus visibility and focus return after a dialog closes.
  • Open, loading, error, and disabled states are exercised, not only resting states.
  • Every suppressed violation has a named owner, a written reason, and a review date, and the run fails once that date passes.
  • The reported result states which checks are automated and which require a human, rather than presenting a passing run as full coverage.
  • No check in the suite fails intermittently on an unchanged codebase.
  • The feature matches the existing design system.
  • No existing functionality is broken.

Related features

How it works

  1. 1

    Copy the link

    Grab the Markdown instruction URL for this feature.

  2. 2

    Give it to your AI

    Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Lovable — whatever you build with.

  3. 3

    It inspects, then implements

    Your agent reads your existing app first, then adds the feature to fit it.

Works with your stack

These instructions are written to adapt. They tell the agent to detect your framework, match your existing design system, and reuse what you already have — rather than assuming a particular stack.

Need it tighter than that? Customize the feature and tell it exactly what you're running.