Selected work

Government / Public Sector

WCAG 2.2
Accessibility Audit

WCAG 2.2 AA EAA 2025 Web + Mobile

Challenge

A public-sector organisation needed a rigorous audit of complex digital systems — web and mobile — to identify real barriers for users and reduce legal, technical, and operational risk ahead of EAA 2025 compliance deadlines.

The systems had never been formally assessed for accessibility. Without a structured audit, the organisation had no way to prioritise fixes, estimate remediation effort, or demonstrate conformance to regulators.

Audited web interface: incident card with a status label flagged in red, showing colour-only state communication and missing semantic relationships between labels and values
Colour-only state and labels without semantic relationships — web interface
Two mobile app screens: request detail view with overlapping fields and a home screen with navigation structure — revealing absent semantic hierarchy and interactive components without accessible names
Missing semantic hierarchy and inaccessible interactive components — mobile app

My Role

  • WCAG 2.2 audit at Level AA across web and mobile surfaces
  • Manual and heuristic analysis of critical user flows
  • Keyboard navigation and screen reader testing (VoiceOver)
  • Issue identification and severity classification
  • Prioritisation by user impact and remediation effort
  • Actionable recommendations for design and development teams

Discovery &
Research

Systematic analysis of the full systems revealed four categories of systemic failure recurring across both platforms:

  1. Colour reliance. State, severity, and status communicated through colour alone, with no text or icon alternatives, failing users who are colour blind or using high-contrast modes.

  2. Missing semantic relationships. Labels and their corresponding values were visually paired but had no programmatic association, making screen readers announce content out of context.

  3. Inconsistent focus states. Keyboard focus indicators were absent or suppressed on the majority of interactive elements, blocking keyboard-only and switch access users entirely.

  4. Inaccessible interactive components. Custom controls — filters, status toggles, expandable rows — had no accessible name, role, or value, making them invisible to assistive technologies.

Design
Decisions

The audit was structured around critical flows rather than page-by-page coverage — the areas where an accessibility failure would have the highest real-world consequence.

Testing covered:

  • Critical flows: login, task creation, filtering, status management
  • System states and feedback: loading, empty, error, success
  • Keyboard navigation: tab order, focus traps, skip links
  • Screen reader pass with VoiceOver: announcements, landmarks, form labels

Each issue was documented with four components designed to make remediation actionable: evidence (screenshot or recording), the specific WCAG 2.2 criterion, the real user impact, and a concrete recommendation written for both designers and developers.

Issues were classified by severity — critical (blocks access), major (significantly degrades experience), and minor (reduces quality) — and ordered into a prioritised remediation roadmap.

Outcome &
Impact

  • 400+ WCAG 2.2 issues identified and documented across web and mobile systems
  • All issues prioritised by severity and real user impact, not just technical category
  • Remediation roadmap delivered to development teams — actionable without further interpretation
  • Direct reduction of EAA 2025 legal non-compliance risk
  • Audit methodology applied structured manual testing complemented by heuristic analysis, covering what automated tools miss
  • Each documented issue demonstrates the ability to diagnose complex systems, reason about user impact, and communicate clearly across design and engineering