Treat accessibility as a design constraint, not a QA gate
Contrast, focus order, target size, and keyboard paths are decided during design, so remediation after handoff becomes unnecessary.
How to run it
- 01
Validate every colour pairing against WCAG AA contrast at token-definition time, before any component uses it.
- 02
Annotate focus order and keyboard interaction directly on the design file for every interactive component.
- 03
Enforce 24x24 CSS px minimum target sizes in the spacing system rather than per screen.
- 04
Never encode meaning in colour alone - pair every status colour with an icon or a label.
- 05
Include one assistive-technology user in testing rounds rather than auditing at the end.
Anti-pattern this prevents
An accessibility audit two weeks before launch that produces 200 defects, most of which trace back to three token decisions made months earlier.