Noordlicht Journal · 3 September 2026
An accessibility checklist that survives hand-over
Most accessibility regressions we see are not caused by bad intent. They happen six months after launch, when someone adds a new component that looks like the others but ignores the keyboard. A report full of WCAG references rarely prevents this; a short document that explains why a pattern exists does.
Three things we write down
The focus order of each template. Not as a screenshot, but as a numbered list. When a new banner is added, the reader can see immediately where it belongs.
The reason behind unusual markup. If a visually hidden label exists, we note which screen reader behaviour it compensates for. Otherwise it gets deleted in the next cleanup as "redundant".
One repeatable manual test. Tab through the page, open the mobile menu, submit the form with an error, and check that focus is visible throughout. It takes four minutes and catches more than automated tooling on small sites.
What we automate anyway
Contrast ratios in CI and a link-name check on the built HTML. They are cheap, deterministic, and free the manual test to focus on behaviour rather than colour values.