Accessibility — Ship WCAG 2.2 AA, not vibes

The bar is conformance to WCAG 2.2 Level AA. "Looks fine to me" is not a measurement. Fix the semantics, scan what a machine can scan, then walk the part it can't.

The loop (your 30-second model)

Run these in order. Skipping a step front-loads rework.

1. Native semantics first. A real <button> ships focus, keyboard, and role for free. Most "a11y bugs" are a <div> doing a button's job.
2. Automated scan. axe-core catches roughly 57% of WCAG issues — missing labels, bad roles, contrast (in a real browser), duplicate ids. Cheap, run it every commit.
3. Manual checklist for the rest. The other ~43% — keyboard order, focus traps, meaningful alt text, screen-reader flow — no engine can judge. A human (or you, deliberately) must.

Decision rule: never ship on a green axe run alone. A clean automated scan means "no machine-detectable failures," not "accessible." Treat it as necessary, never sufficient.

Legal stakes are real: the EU European Accessibility Act became enforceable 2025-06-28 for many consumer products and services, on top of EN 301 549 / ADA. AA is the line.

Rule 0 — reach for HTML before ARIA

The first rule of ARIA is: don't use ARIA. If a native element gives you the semantics and behavior, use it. Every role you add is behavior you now owe by hand — focus, keyboard, state.