Accessibility

The substrate targets WCAG 2.2 AAA. Every component recipe ships conformant out of the box; tenants who fork the substrate inherit the floor unless they deviate at the primitive layer.

Conformance commitments

• WCAG 2.2 AAA for the canonical PointSav-brand theme on every shipped component recipe
• WCAG 2.2 AA minimum for any tenant theme that overrides primitives — the audit endpoint (subsequent milestone) flags drops below AA
• EN 301 549 alignment for European public-sector tenants
• Section 508 alignment for US public-sector tenants

What every component carries

Every recipe in dtcg-vault/components/ ships an accessibility.md tab covering:

1. Conformance status — WCAG criterion-by-criterion table
2. Keyboard interactions — Tab, Shift+Tab, Space, Enter, arrow keys, Escape
3. Screen reader behaviour — announced role, name, value
4. Reduced motion — prefers-reduced-motion: reduce honoured
5. Touch targets — 44x44 minimum
6. Colour independence — no state communicated by colour alone
7. Anti-patterns — common deviations and why they break

Recipe model is structurally accessible

The substrate's HTML+CSS+ARIA recipe model puts native elements first, so keyboard and screen-reader behaviour comes straight from the browser — no framework event layer sits between the user and native browser events:

• Native HTML elements first. <button> instead of <div role="button">. The native element brings keyboard and screen-reader behaviour for free.
• No JS required for activation. Buttons, links, form controls work without JavaScript loaded — degrades gracefully on slow connections, ad blockers, JS errors.
• No synthetic event layer. The recipe doesn't capture the user's keyboard events through a framework's synthetic-event system; native browser events fire.

Tenant override floor

A tenant who forks the substrate cannot unconfigure the accessibility floor. Three commitments are enforced regardless of theme overrides:

1. Focus is always visible. Component recipes never set outline: none without an alternative.
2. Touch targets are never below 44x44. Component recipes include the focus-ring offset in the activatable area.
3. Motion respects prefers-reduced-motion. Every recipe ships the media-query override.

The audit endpoint (subsequent milestone) flags violations of these commitments.

Audit endpoint (subsequent milestone)

GET /api/audit/wcag?theme=<theme> is planned to return per-component WCAG conformance for the named theme — contrast ratios, focus ring presence, touch target sizes, motion override coverage. The response is JSON suitable for CI/CD integration (exit 1 on fail) or AI-agent consumption.

Today this page is the canonical conformance statement; the audit endpoint formalises what's already required.

Where to look

• Each component carries its own Accessibility tab.
• Color covers contrast at the primitive layer.
• Motion covers reduced-motion patterns.
• Typography covers heading hierarchy and screen-reader navigation.