┌─────────────────────┐
│  1. Identify Scenario│
│  Determine purpose   │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  2. Gather Info      │
│  Required→Context→   │
│  Optional            │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  3. Maturity Assess  │
│  Determine level     │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  4. Generate Draft   │
│  Roadmap, KPIs, etc. │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  5. Review & Adjust  │
│  Refine strategy     │
│  with user feedback  │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  6. Export File      │
│  Save final MD file  │
└─────────────────────┘

Step 1: Identify Scenario

First, identify the user's purpose. Classify into one of the three scenarios:

New Introduction Phase

Indicators:

"We're just starting with accessibility"
"Where should we begin?"
Little to no prior initiatives

Characteristics: Prioritize baseline establishment, foundational training, seeding design system

Acceleration Phase

Indicators:

"We want to systematize existing efforts"
"We want to be more efficient"
Have some track record

Characteristics: Prioritize governance strengthening, QA gates, toolchain automation

External Audit Response Phase

Indicators:

"We have an audit coming" "There's litigation risk"
"We need to comply by [date]"
Urgent response to regulations or external requirements

Characteristics: Prioritize rapid triage, legal alignment, communication plan

Ambiguous Cases

Ask the user:

I'll help develop an accessibility improvement strategy. Which situation is closest to yours?

1. **New Introduction** - Just starting to work on accessibility
2. **Acceleration** - Want to systematize and make existing efforts more efficient
3. **External Audit Response** - Need urgent response to regulations or audits

Step 2: Gather Information

Once the scenario is identified, collect information in the following order. Ask short, efficient questions using the available interaction mechanism.

Stage 0: Reference Documents (Check first)

If documentation about prior initiatives exists, reading it first enables more accurate planning.

Example documents to read:

Accessibility test results / conformance reports
History of prior initiatives / retrospective documents
Existing a11y guidelines / policies
Tech stack or organizational structure descriptions

Example question:

Do you have any reference documents for planning?
(e.g., test results, initiative history, guidelines, etc.)

Please provide the file path and I'll review the contents.
For multiple files, separate paths with commas.
If none, reply "none".

If file paths are provided, use the available file-reading capability and apply the content to the maturity assessment and roadmap.

Stage 1: Required Items (Always confirm first)

These items are essential for strategy development. Combine multiple questions efficiently:

Category	Question Item	What to Confirm
Business	Target users	B2B/B2C, who are decision makers
Business	Target market	US, Europe, Asia, Global, specific regions only
Technical	Design system	Existence, coverage
Technical	Legacy code	Approximate amount (high/medium/low)
Technical	UI quality	Current quality level (good/average/needs improvement)
Organization	Team structure	Team composition, dedicated personnel
Organization	Prior initiatives	Track record, content

Example questions:

Let me ask a few questions for strategy development:

1. **Target users and market**
   - Is this B2B or B2C? For B2B, who are the decision makers?
   - What is your target market? (US, Europe, Asia, Global, etc.)

2. **Technical situation**
   - Do you have a design system? If so, what's its coverage?
   - How much legacy code do you have? (high/medium/low)
   - How would you rate your current UI quality?

3. **Organizational situation**
   - Please describe your team structure (design, frontend, QA, etc.)
   - Please share any prior accessibility improvement initiatives

Stage 2: Context-Dependent Items (Confirm based on scenario)

Additional items to confirm based on scenario:

Scenario	Additional Items
New Introduction	Budget expectations, executive understanding, reference cases
Acceleration	Current bottlenecks, tooling environment, CI/CD status
External Audit Response	Deadline, target scope, legal/compliance structure

Stage 3: Optional Items (If user has additional information)

Not required but improves strategy accuracy:

Competitor situation
Procurement requirements (public sector, etc.)
Vendor involvement status
Past audit results or user feedback

Step 3: Maturity Assessment

Based on collected information, assess the organization's accessibility maturity.

Maturity Levels

Based on the W3C Accessibility Maturity Model ICT Development Lifecycle dimension, supplemented with Microsoft AEM and Level Access DAMM.

Level	Name	Characteristics
L0	Inactive	No initiatives. Baseline for assessment
L1	Ad hoc	Sporadic efforts driven by individual goodwill or interest. No organizational support or structure
L2	Launch	Organization recognizes the need for accessibility and has started. Efforts are underway but inconsistent. New development only
L3	Integrate	Organizational approach defined and deployed. Processes embedded across the development lifecycle. Remediation of existing products begins
L4	Optimize	Standardized approach permeates the entire organization. A11y tests integrated into CI/CD. Continuous evaluation and improvement cycle operational

Assessment Axes

Evaluate on these 8 axes (W3C ICT Development Lifecycle 7 sub-dimensions + Governance):

User Research: Including people with disabilities in research, participant accommodations, accessible research materials
Planning and Design: Integrating a11y standards into design phase, checklists, design reviews, design system
Development: Developer resources, coding standards, issue management, acceptance criteria
User Experience: UX testing with people with disabilities, accessible test materials
Quality Review Through Release: Manual/automated testing, bug tracking, release gates, ACR creation
ICT Development Training: Role-specific a11y training
Goals and Metrics: Goal setting, metric definition, progress tracking
Governance: Executive sponsor, policy, budget, accountability

Proof Points: See references/maturity-proof-points.md for detailed proof points per axis and level.

Output Format

## Maturity Assessment

**Current Level**: L2 Launch

### Assessment Rationale

| Axis | Rating | Rationale |
|------|--------|-----------|
| User Research | L1 | No process for including people with disabilities |
| Planning and Design | L2 | Some components have a11y guidance, design checklists started |
| Development | L2 | Code review includes a11y but ad-hoc |
| User Experience | L1 | No AT testing in UX process |
| Quality Review Through Release | L1 | Manual checks only, no automated tests |
| ICT Development Training | L1 | No systematic education program |
| Goals and Metrics | L1 | No formal a11y goals or metrics |
| Governance | L1 | Point of contact exists but no policy defined |

### Strengths
- Design system foundation exists
- Some engineers have a11y knowledge

### Gap Summary
- No lifecycle-wide quality gates established
- Cross-organizational ownership unclear
- Measurement mechanisms not established
- No formal user research with people with disabilities

### Target Level
**12-month target**: L3 Integrate

Step 4: Strategy Draft Generation

Based on maturity assessment, generate draft deliverables.

Important: See references/output-templates.md for detailed output templates.

4.1 Roadmap

Create a phased improvement plan:

Phase	Duration	Focus
Immediate	0-1 months	Quick wins, urgent fixes
Near-term	2-3 months	Foundation building, process setup
Mid-term	4-6 months	Automation, scaling
Long-term	7-12 months	Culture building, continuous improvement

Scope Recommendation: For organizations in New Introduction phase with limited resources or large/legacy codebases, strongly recommend limiting the initial scope:

Pilot scope selection criteria:
- High-traffic features used by many users
- Critical features like login, checkout
- Prioritize new development over legacy code (easier to improve, easier to create success stories)
Rationale: Showing results each quarter is critical for sustaining initiatives. Smaller scope enables hitting milestones on schedule rather than extending timelines.
Pattern: "Succeed with one first" → "Scale horizontally" is more sustainable than attempting organization-wide change from day one.

When recommending scope limitation, explain to the user:

Given your situation (new to accessibility + [limited resources / large codebase / legacy code]),
I recommend starting with a limited scope:

Recommended pilot scope: [specific recommendation based on their context]
- Start with high-traffic features used by many users, or critical features like login
- Prioritizing new development over legacy makes it easier to show results

Benefits of this approach:
- Show concrete results each quarter (important for continued investment)
- Build internal expertise before scaling
- Create a success story that makes horizontal expansion easier

Once the pilot succeeds, you can expand scope in subsequent cycles.

4.2 KPI/Metrics Design

Leading Indicators:

Percentage of components with a11y specs defined
Review coverage
Training completion rate

Lagging Indicators:

Audit finding counts (by severity)
Rework rate
A11y-related support tickets

4.3 Stakeholder Persuasion Materials

Organize around business impact:

Risk: Regulatory violations, litigation risk, market access restrictions
Opportunity: Market expansion, brand value, user satisfaction improvement
Cost: Future cost of not addressing vs. cost of addressing now

Scenario-Specific Guidance

See references/scenario-playbooks.md for detailed guidance for each scenario.

Output Format

Final output follows "5. Complete Strategy Report Structure" in references/output-templates.md.

Key sections:

Executive Summary
Current Assessment (Maturity Assessment, Key Challenges)
Strategic Roadmap (4 Phases)
KPIs/Metrics (Leading, Lagging)
Stakeholder Talking Points
Next Steps

Step 5: Review and Adjustment

After presenting the strategy draft, engage with the user to refine the strategy.

5.1 Collect Feedback

After presenting the draft, ask for feedback on these points:

Please review the strategy draft. I'd like your feedback on:

1. **Are any initiatives already done or in progress?**
   - We'll remove or adjust them in the roadmap

2. **Are any initiatives difficult to implement?**
   - Resource, budget, or organizational constraints?
   - We'll consider alternatives

3. **Would you like to change priorities?**
   - Reorder phases or adjust timelines

4. **Would you like to add any initiatives?**
   - Organization-specific efforts or requirements

5. **Any other concerns?**

5.2 Adjustment Patterns

Feedback	Response
"We already do this"	Remove from roadmap or mark as "ongoing"
"This is difficult"	Understand why, propose alternatives or defer to later phase
"We want this first"	Move to earlier phase, verify dependencies
"Add X"	Add to appropriate phase, consider KPIs
"Timeline too short/long"	Adjust based on organizational capacity

5.3 Iteration

Continue feedback cycles as needed. Keep adjusting until user confirms the strategy is acceptable.

Step 6: File Export

Once strategy is finalized, export as a Markdown file.

6.1 Confirm Output Path

Ask user for output location:

I'll save the strategy as a Markdown file.
Please specify the path (e.g., ./docs/a11y-strategy.md)

Default suggestion: ./a11y-strategy-YYYY-MM-DD.md

6.2 Write File

When workspace writing is available, save the final strategy as a Markdown file.

Include at the end of the file:

---
*This strategy was created on [date].*
*Review periodically (quarterly recommended) and update based on progress.*

6.3 Suggest Next Actions

After export, suggest:

How to share the strategy with stakeholders
When to start the first action items
Setting up regular review schedule

Notes

Be specific: Not abstract recommendations but concrete actions
Be realistic: Create executable plans considering organizational resources and constraints
Be flexible: Adjust timelines and priorities based on user's situation
Business perspective: Always tie explanations to business impact
Be interactive: After draft generation, dialogue with user to refine the strategy

planning-a11y-improvement

Planning Accessibility Improvement

Workflow Overview