Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA)

[ozziest]

Audit the current UI against WCAG 2.1 AA, document all violations, and fix the critical and serious ones.

Background

Rawfeed is committed to being usable by everyone. A formal audit first establishes the full scope of issues, then fixes are applied in the same workstream.

Audit scope

• All main pages: home feed, profile, post compose, search, login/register, notifications, settings.
• Keyboard navigation across all pages.
• Colour contrast ratios.
• Screen reader compatibility (NVDA / VoiceOver).
• Focus management when content updates without a full page reload.

WCAG 2.1 AA criteria to check

• 1.1.1 Non-text content (alt text)
• 1.3.1 Info and relationships (semantic HTML)
• 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum)
• 2.1.1 Keyboard accessible
• 2.4.3 Focus order
• 2.4.7 Focus visible
• 4.1.2 Name, role, value (ARIA)
• 4.1.3 Status messages

Expected fixes

Semantic structure

• Every page uses correct landmark elements (<main>, <nav>, <header>, <footer>).
• Every form input has a visible, associated label (not just a placeholder).
• Flash messages and status updates are announced to screen readers without requiring a page reload.
• Icon-only buttons have a text alternative readable by screen readers.

Focus management

• A "Skip to main content" link is the first focusable element on every page.
• All interactive elements are reachable and operable via keyboard alone.
• A visible focus ring is shown on all focusable elements.
• When content updates without a full reload, focus moves to the updated area.

Colour contrast

• All text meets minimum contrast ratios (4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text).

Images and icons

• All meaningful images have descriptive alt text; decorative images have empty alt attributes.

Acceptance Criteria

• All in-scope pages are audited and an audit report is published to docs/accessibility-audit.md.
• Manual keyboard navigation is tested on all pages.
• Screen reader walkthrough completed on at least 3 core pages.
• All critical and serious violations from the audit are resolved.
• "Skip to main content" link present on every page.
• All form inputs have visible associated labels.
• Status updates are announced to screen readers.
• All interactive elements are keyboard-accessible with a visible focus ring.
• No critical or serious violations remain in re-audit.