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Accessibility defect severity rubric

This document will provide a common language for determining accessibility defect seriousness. It will capture the following things:

  1. Defect severity

  2. Timeline to fix the defect

  3. Potential users impacted by the defect

This rubric aligns to both the axe-core rule descriptions severity descriptions and human impact.

Launch-Blocking Issues

❗️ Must be fixed before production launch.

a11y-defect-0 and a11y-defect-1 issues have the potential to make an application unusable for a significant group of users.


a11y-defect-0

❗️ Potentially Harmful. Must be fixed immediately.

These issues have the potential to cause life-threatening situations and should be remediated before work starts or continues on a11y-defect-1 issues. Our audience has a higher incidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), so we need to correct these issues immediately.

Types of issues

Potential impact

  • Users who have photosensitivity or seizure disorders

  • Users who have vestibular issues like motion sickness


a11y-defect-1

❗️ Critical. Must be fixed before launch.

These issues have the potential to severely disrupt the user experience and must be fixed before the Platform will certify a staging accessibility review.

Types of severity 1 issues in web applications and pages

Types of severity 1 issues in PDF documents

Potential impact

  • Users who navigate by keyboard

  • Users who navigate by screen reader, magnification software, or other assistive device

  • Users who have low-vision, partial vision, or are blind

  • Users who are hard of hearing or deaf

  • Users with short-term memory or other cognitive issues

Post-launch Issues

⚠️ Should be fixed as soon as possible

a11y-defect-2 and a11y-defect-3 issues have the potential to degrade the user experience and should be fixed as soon as possible. These issues may have a short or long time horizon; some are violations, others are suggested improvements.


a11y-defect-2

⚠️ High. Should be fixed in 1-2 sprints post-launch.

These issues have the potential to disrupt the user experience and should be fixed before production launch if possible, or prioritized in the first 1-2 sprints post-launch. These issues will not delay your product launch.

Types of issues

  • Page <title> tags must update on every route (URL) change. This includes single-page apps (SPAs).

    • <h1> should match the <title> or be included in the <title>

      • Example title: Check your appeals status | VA.gov

      • Example heading: Check your appeals status

    • Page Titled: Understanding SC 2.4.2

  • Zoomed layouts must support use without horizontal scrolling, or have difficult to read text. Horizontal scrolling is allowed for data tables, images, or other rich media.

  • Color blindness issues must be corrected. A common example is color being used to distinguish links from plain text.

  • Labels or calls to action must be descriptive to assistive devices. Some examples include:

    • A button to edit a form in place. The button says "Edit", but doesn't answer "Edit...what?" to a screen reader. The user is asked to work back through the page and listen for a heading or key text to identify what this button might do.

    • A button labeled "Learn more" that expands an accordion. Again, screen reader users are left to figure out what they might be learning more about.

    • This issue is listed as a a11y-defect-2 because non-descript labels can reduce the overall experience for screen reader users. These labels usually appear in repeated UI controls, increasing the cognitive load on users.

    • This issue can be remediated in a couple of ways:

      HTML
      /*
       * Best if you need to support language translation
       */
      <button>
        <span aria-hidden="true">Edit</span>
        <span class="sr-only">Edit street address</span>
      </button>
      HTML
      /*
       * Less markup, but does not support language translation
       * <https://adrianroselli.com/2019/11/aria-label-does-not-translate.html>
       */
      <button aria-label="Edit street address">Edit</button>
    • Accessible labels must be included in visual labels

    • WCAG2.1 Understanding Success Criterion 2.5.3: Label in Name

  • Applications must have a logical source order

  • Applications must have elements that receive focus in an order that preserves meaning and usability for sighted, keyboard, and assistive technology users. All users should be able to determine where their keyboard focus is quickly, and understand when that focus changes based on changes in the user interface.

  • HTML should use meaningful landmarks. These include:

    • <banner>

    • <navigation>

    • <main>

    • <aside>

    • <footer>

    • divs with role attributes.

  • HTML should have properly nested headings. Adding an <h4> as the first heading underneath an <h2> is an example of improper nesting. The WebAIM WAVE or headingsMap browser plugins provide visual representations of heading nesting.

Potential impact

  • Users who navigate by keyboard

  • Users who navigate by screen reader, magnification software, or other assistive device

  • Users who have low-vision, partial vision, or are blind

  • Users who are hard of hearing or deaf

  • Users with short-term memory or other cognitive issues


a11y-defect-3

⚠️ Medium. Should be fixed in 1-3 sprints post-launch.

These issues have the potential to disrupt the user experience and should be fixed as time allows in the first 1-3 sprints post-launch.

Types of issues

Potential impact

  • Users who navigate by screen reader, magnification software, or other assistive device

  • Users who have low-vision, partial vision, or are blind

  • Users who navigate by keyboard


a11y-defect-4

✔️ Low. Consider fixing or exploring in 2-4 sprints post-launch.

These issues and items to consider can improve the experience for assistive technology users and those with other challenges. These issues might include research and design iteration, so they have a longer timeline for entering production.

Types of issues

  • Less semantic HTML (using <ul> instead of <ol> for sequential instructions, for instance) should be fixed

  • Best practice warnings in early release tools like axe-coconut should be fixed

Potential impact

  • Users who navigate by keyboard

  • Users who navigate by screen reader, magnification software, or other assistive device

  • Users who have low-vision, partial vision, or are blind

  • Users who are hard of hearing or deaf

  • Users with short-term memory or other cognitive issues


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