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The accessibility checks I run before every launch

Fifteen minutes, no tools you have to buy. Catches most of what an audit would.

John Doe - - 1 min read

Before anything I have built goes live, I run this list. It takes about fifteen minutes and catches the majority of what a formal audit would find. It came out of the Marrow engagement, where two engineers with no accessibility background used it to keep their audit findings in single digits.

Keyboard

  1. Unplug the mouse. Tab through every screen. Can you reach everything? Can you see where you are?
  2. Open every modal and menu with the keyboard. Close them with Escape.
  3. Does focus go somewhere sensible after you delete something or close a dialog?

Screen reader

  1. Turn on VoiceOver or NVDA and read the page from the top. Do the headings make sense on their own?
  2. Does every form field announce its label? Does every error announce itself?
  3. Do icon buttons say what they do?

Vision

  1. Zoom to 200 percent. Does anything overlap or disappear?
  2. Check contrast on text and on the focus ring. The ring is the one everyone forgets.
  3. Turn on reduced motion. Does anything still spin?

Content

  1. Is there a visible, consistent way to undo or go back?
  2. Are the error messages written for a person?

That is it. Not because the list is clever, because it is run.

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