Accessibility Testing & Tuning

The core accessibility infrastructure is in place -- ARIA roles, labels, states, landmarks, live regions, focus indicators, and slot-to-ARIA metadata wiring are all implemented in the framework's view classes (see Accessibility documentation). What remains is testing that implementation against real assistive technology and tuning behavior for edge cases that only surface during actual screen reader use.

macOS VoiceOver is the primary testing target since it's built into the development platform.

• Walk through a representative application with VoiceOver enabled (Cmd+F5)
• Verify that tile navigation announces tile content (aria-label from title())
• Verify that field tiles announce their role, label, and current value
• Verify that boolean fields announce as checkboxes with checked state
• Verify that action fields announce as buttons with enabled/disabled state
• Verify that option lists announce as listbox with selected option
• Verify that breadcrumbs announce as navigation with current location
• Verify that aria-live regions announce new content (chat messages, status updates)
• Verify that landmark roles provide useful navigation shortcuts (VO+U landmarks menu)

The framework overrides native Tab behavior with a custom nextKeyView chain. This may conflict with screen reader conventions.

• Test whether VoiceOver's Tab navigation (VO+Tab) works correctly with tabindex=-1 tiles
• Determine if the nextKeyView chain needs to be suspended when a screen reader is detected
• Investigate aria-activedescendant as an alternative to physical focus movement for tile navigation
• Verify that form fields within tiles receive focus correctly when Tab is pressed

The policy is established: announce programmatic navigation, stay silent on user-initiated navigation. The mechanism needs implementation.

• Investigate whether tile-selection navigation and programmatic navigation go through different code paths in SvStackView / SvNavView
• Determine how to detect "this focus change was not a direct response to a tile selection"
• Implement aria-live announcements for programmatic navigation (e.g., "Start Session" navigating to Narration view)
• Test that user-initiated drill-in/drill-out does not produce redundant announcements

Different screen readers have different behaviors and ARIA support levels.

• NVDA on Windows -- the most popular free screen reader; test with Firefox and Chrome
• JAWS on Windows -- the most widely used commercial screen reader
• TalkBack on Android -- test with Chrome on Android
• Verify that ARIA roles, states, and properties work consistently across readers
• Document any reader-specific workarounds needed

The framework provides good defaults, but some content needs application-level attention.

• Alternative text for images -- the framework can't infer what a picture shows; applications must provide alt text for meaningful images
• Custom views -- any view that overrides default rendering may need custom ARIA attributes
• Domain-specific labels -- where auto-generated slot descriptions aren't clear enough, applications should override title() or provide aria-label overrides
• Complex widgets -- application-specific composite widgets (e.g., dice rollers, map views) need manual ARIA patterns

The default dark theme has been reviewed for WCAG 4.5:1 contrast compliance. Remaining work:

• Run automated contrast checks (axe, Lighthouse) against a running application
• Verify contrast ratios for all interactive states (hover, focus, disabled, selected)
• Check contrast in light theme variants if applicable
• Verify that prefers-contrast: more media query produces sufficient enhancement
• Ensure information is not conveyed by color alone -- use shape, text, or pattern as reinforcement

WCAG 1.4.4 requires content to be usable at 200% text size.

• Test with browser zoom at 200%
• Verify that content reflows correctly at 320px equivalent viewport width (WCAG 1.4.10)
• Check that no content is clipped or overlapping at increased text sizes
• Verify that STRVCT's flexbox-based layout accommodates text expansion gracefully

• Focus trapping in modals -- when a modal dialog is open, Tab should cycle within the dialog
• Focus restoration -- drilling out should restore focus to the tile that was drilled into
• Skip links -- provide a way to skip past repetitive navigation to main content
• Verify that focus is visible and meets WCAG 2.2 contrast requirements (3:1 against adjacent colors) in all themes

• Evaluate integrating axe-core or similar into the test suite for automated ARIA validation
• Consider adding Playwright accessibility assertions for critical navigation paths
• Set up CI checks that flag new accessibility regressions