Building your accessibility tech stack

It’s very likely your team knows accessibility matters, but the same problems keep slipping through. Most of the time, this is because no one catches these problems until QA or, worse, production. You need reliable technology that surfaces accessibility issues so they can be fixed before your users find them.

Here’s a good place to start.

Add automated testing to your CI/CD pipeline first. Tools like axe-core or Pa11y can catch 30-40% of accessibility issues automatically. That covers things like missing landmarks, color contrast failures, and missing form labels. Configure them to fail the build when critical issues are found.

Start with errors only. Don’t try to enforce warnings and best practices on day one, or you’ll risk overwhelming the team. Get the serious issues flagged automatically, then expand.

Build an accessible component library. If your team builds the same buttons, modals, and form inputs repeatedly, create accessible versions once and reuse them. This is where most teams see the biggest return on investment.

If you’re starting from scratch, consider established libraries that handle accessibility: Radix UI or Chakra UI for React. The GOV.UK Design System is also a great starting point for government work. Don’t rebuild what already exists unless you have specific requirements.

Give developers the tools to test manually. Automated tools miss 60-70% of accessibility issues. Your team needs screen readers (NVDA is free, VoiceOver is built into Mac), browser extensions (axe DevTools or WAVE), and basic keyboard testing skills.

Track what you’re finding. If automated tools catch the same issues repeatedly, those need to be fixed in your component library or added to your linting rules. If manual testing always finds the same patterns, your training needs updating.

Don’t try to implement everything at once. Accessibility can easily become overwhelming. Pick one thing to start with, get that working, then add the next piece.

Technology won’t solve everything, but it catches the repetitive issues so humans can focus on the complex ones.