Day 20 of 60
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E2E, UI, accessibility
Accessibility (a11y) automation
Roughly one in five of your users has a disability that affects how they use software. Automated checks catch a third of the violations; the rest require humans, but that third is non-negotiable.
ProblemWCAG violations that exclude users with disabilities, and risk legal action.
How it works
Automated checks for ARIA, contrast, keyboard nav, semantics. Catches ~30% of all a11y issues; the rest require manual review with assistive tech.
What it catches
Missing alt-text, contrast failures, missing labels, broken keyboard navigation, focus traps.
Tools
axe-core · OSS Pa11y · OSS Lighthouse · OSS
Verdict by project size
Small
Opt
Medium
Rec
Large
Must
Extra-large
Must
Cost
| Project size | Setup | Maint / mo | Tool / mo | CI / run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small <10k LOC | 4h | 1h | $0 | +1m |
| Medium 10–100k LOC | 2d | 5h | $0 | +2m |
| Large 100k–1M LOC | 8d | 25h | $0 | +5m |
| Extra-large >1M LOC | 25d | 80h | $0 | +10m |
Setup = engineer-days to first useful run ·
Maint = engineer-hours / month at steady state ·
Tool = out-of-pocket $ / month ·
CI = minutes added (or saved) per pipeline run
Lifecycle & ownership
When in lifecycle
Test Release
Per release · Runs before promotion to production.
Who owns it
QA / Test Engineer
Strategy, exploratory, eval design
Collaborates with: Developer
Reference implementations
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axe-core examples
Accessibility automation examples from the axe rule engine.
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cypress-axe
Accessibility checks embedded into Cypress E2E flows.
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Playwright accessibility testing
Official Playwright pattern for adding axe accessibility scans.
Quick check
Roughly what fraction of accessibility issues can automated checks (axe, Pa11y, Lighthouse) catch?
One question. Pick the best answer. Your streak is saved locally on this device.
Save the lesson
Download SVG ↓
Screenshot for a 1:1, drop it in Slack, or download the SVG.