Fixing Accessibility

---
name: fixing-accessibility
description: "Use when auditing, pen-testing, hardening, and verifying code against fixing accessibility vulnerabilities, injection vectors, and auth flaws."
version: 6.0.0
last-updated: 2026-09-29
skills:
  - audit-and-fix
  - build-primitive
  - baseline-ui
tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash, Edit, Write
scripts-binding:
  - .agent/scripts/lint_runner.js
  - .agent/scripts/verify_all.js
---

# Fixing Accessibility — WCAG 2.2 AA Audit & Remediation

## Mandatory Pre-Flight Context Inspection
Before reading, generating, or refactoring code in the `fixing-accessibility` domain, inspect these 5 critical parameters:
1. **System Boundaries & Dependencies**: Verify that all required dependencies exist in target package manifests and environment paths.
2. **Runtime Context & Platform Invariants**: Confirm target platform constraints (Node.js, Browser, Mobile OS, Edge runtime) before applying APIs.
3. **Execution Guardrails**: Identify potential side-effects, state mutations, and unhandled asynchronous exceptions.
4. **Validation & Type Contracts**: Validate input data schemas and strict type constraints across all module interfaces.
5. **Observability & Proof of Execution**: Ensure execution produces tangible verification signals (terminal output, tests, metrics).


## Activation Boundaries
- **Activate when:** Use when auditing, pen-testing, hardening, and verifying code against fixing accessibility vulnerabilities, injection vectors, and auth flaws.
- **DO NOT activate when:** The task falls outside the `fixing-accessibility` domain or is managed by a different dedicated specialist agent.


## 🔁 Multi-Pass Execution Protocol

| Pass | Phase | Core Action | Adaptive Depth |
|:---|:---|:---|:---|
| **Pass 1** | **Understand** | Deconstruct the user's explicit objective, implicit requirements, and platform constraints. | Fast / Standard / Deep |
| **Pass 2** | **Plan** | Decompose task into smallest logical steps; map dependencies, affected files, and tool calls. | Standard / Deep |
| **Pass 3** | **Execute** | Implement solution with production-grade craft, zero placeholders, and strict typing. | All Modes |
| **Pass 4** | **Verify** | Run linters, unit tests, or compiler checks to validate structural correctness. | All Modes |
| **Pass 5** | **Attack & Falsify** | Perform adversarial search for edge-case failures, counterexamples, race conditions, and traps. | Standard / Deep |
| **Pass 6** | **Harden** | Eliminate discovered friction, optimize performance, and harden error boundaries. | Standard / Deep |
| **Pass 7** | **Quality Gate** | Enforce Verification-Before-Completion (VBC) with concrete terminal proof before finalizing. | All Modes |


---

## 🛠️ Technical Architecture & Reference Recipes

---

## 1. Priority Priority Matrix (WCAG 2.2 AA)

| Priority | Category                         | Critical Requirements                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| -------- | -------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **P1**   | **Accessible Names**             | Every icon button MUST have `aria-label` or `aria-labelledby`. Decorative icons MUST have `aria-hidden="true"`.                                                                                                   |
| **P2**   | **Keyboard Access**              | All interactive controls MUST be reachable and operable via `Tab` / `Shift+Tab`, `Space`, `Enter`. NEVER use `<div>` or `<span>` as clickable elements without `role="button"`, `tabIndex={0}`, and key handlers. |
| **P3**   | **Focus & Dialogs (SC 2.4.11)**  | Modals/Dialogs MUST trap focus within the dialog container while open, return focus on close, dismiss on `Escape`, and ensure focused items are **never fully obscured by sticky headers/footers**.               |
| **P4**   | **Focus Appearance (SC 2.4.13)** | Focus indicators MUST be clearly visible (`:focus-visible`), achieve at least **3:1 contrast** against adjacent background, and have a min **2px thickness**.                                                     |
| **P5**   | **Target Size (SC 2.5.8)**       | Interactive controls MUST measure at least **24x24 CSS pixels** (min **44x44px** recommended for mobile touch targets) or have sufficient non-intersecting spacing.                                               |
| **P6**   | **Color & Contrast**             | Text MUST satisfy WCAG AA 4.5:1 ratio (3.0:1 for large text). Color alone MUST NOT be the only indicator of state or error.                                                                                       |
| **P7**   | **Form Validation**              | Inputs MUST have explicit `<label>` or `aria-labelledby`. Errors MUST use `aria-invalid="true"` and `aria-describedby` pointing to error text.                                                                    |

---

## 2. Accessible Code Patterns

### Icon-Only Button

```tsx
// ✅ SAFE & ACCESSIBLE
<button
  type="button"
  onClick={onClose}
  className="p-2 rounded-md hover:bg-neutral-100 dark:hover:bg-neutral-800"
  aria-label="Close dialog"
>
  <XIcon className="w-5 h-5" aria-hidden="true" />
</button>
```

### Accessible Modal Dialog Focus Trap

```tsx
// ✅ SAFE & ACCESSIBLE
<div
  role="dialog"
  aria-modal="true"
  aria-labelledby="dialog-title"
  aria-describedby="dialog-description"
  className="fixed inset-0 z-50 flex items-center justify-center bg-black/50"
>
  <div className="bg-surface p-6 rounded-xl max-w-md w-full">
    <h2 id="dialog-title" className="text-xl font-bold">
      Confirm Deletion
    </h2>
    <p id="dialog-description" className="text-muted mt-2">
      This action cannot be undone.
    </p>
    {/* Actions */}
  </div>
</div>
```

---

## Anti-Slop Table

| Violation                            | Accessible Fix                                                               | Impact                                              |
| ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
| `<div onClick={submit}>Submit</div>` | `<button type="button" onClick={submit}>Submit</button>`                     | Fixes screen reader announcement & keyboard trigger |
| `<button><TrashIcon /></button>`     | `<button aria-label="Delete item"><TrashIcon aria-hidden="true" /></button>` | Gives screen reader clear accessible name           |
| `outline: none` in CSS               | `:focus-visible { outline: 2px solid var(--ring); outline-offset: 2px; }`    | Restores visible keyboard focus indicator           |

## 🚨 Edge-Case & Failure Mode Matrix

| Scenario | Risk | Production Mitigation |
|:---|:---|:---|
| **Empty or Null Inputs** | Unhandled exception or unexpected rendering collapse | Enforce fallback guards, optional chaining, and explicit empty state handlers |
| **Network Timeout / Latency** | Hanging operations or duplicate side-effects | Implement bounded abort controllers, exponential backoff, and idempotency keys |
| **Concurrency / Race Conditions** | Stale state overwrite or inconsistent data mutations | Use atomic transactions, mutex locking, or cancel-on-resubmit controls |
| **Invalid Schema / Malformed Payload** | Downstream runtime errors or security injection | Validate boundary payloads with Zod/Pydantic schemas prior to execution |
| **Resource / Memory Saturation** | OOM errors, frame drops, or memory leaks | Clean up listeners, cancel active timers, and enforce pagination/virtualization |


## 🤖 LLM-Specific Traps Table

| Anti-Pattern | What AI Commonly Does Wrong | What Is Actually Correct |
|:---|:---|:---|
| **Hardcoded Secret Pattern** | Committing API keys, tokens, or private salts into source code | Load credentials strictly via runtime environment variables and secret stores |
| **Prompt Injection Surface** | Directly concatenating untrusted user input into LLM system prompts | Wrap user content in isolated delimiters and strip injection control sequences |
| **Missing Authorization Check** | Relying only on authentication token presence without checking tenant/object RBAC | Verify user permissions against the specific target record ID before mutation |


## 🏛️ Tribunal Verification & Guardrails

**Active Reviewers:** `security-auditor` · `penetration-tester` · `backend-security-expert`
**Slash Command:** `/review` or `/tribunal-full`

### 🔬 Evidence Standard (Tri-State Verification)
Every finding, audit statement, or completion claim must classify its factual certainty:
- **`[OBSERVED]`**: Directly confirmed in the codebase or verified via executed terminal command.
- **`[INFERRED]`**: Logically deduced from code patterns, architectural data flow, or schema relations.
- **`[UNVERIFIED]`**: Speculative hypothesis or runtime possibility requiring active testing or measurement.

### ✅ Pre-Flight Self-Audit Checklist
```
✅ Are user inputs sanitized and treated as untrusted data at system boundaries?
✅ Are secrets loaded strictly via environment variables with zero hardcoding?
✅ Is least-privilege enforcement active on APIs, tokens, and storage buckets?
✅ Are prompt-injection delimiters and sanitizers wrapped around LLM inputs?
✅ Did I verify encryption in transit and at rest for sensitive data?
```

### 🛑 Verification-Before-Completion (VBC) Protocol
**CRITICAL:** You must follow a strict "evidence-based closeout" state machine.
- ❌ **Forbidden:** Declaring a task complete because the output "looks correct."
- ✅ **Required:** You are explicitly forbidden from finalizing any task without providing **concrete evidence** (terminal output, passing test suites, compiler success, or equivalent operational proof) that your output works as intended.