Claude MD for Accessibility Requirements: A Practical.

Accessibility isn’t a feature you bolt on at the end of development. It’s a fundamental aspect of building inclusive web applications that serve all users, including those using assistive technologies. Claude Code, combined with well-designed skills, can help you integrate accessibility testing and implementation directly into your development workflow.

This guide shows you how to use Claude MD skills to generate accessible markup, audit existing code for WCAG compliance, and maintain accessibility as your projects evolve.

Setting Up Accessibility-Focused Skills

Claude skills can be configured with specific tools and prompts that focus on accessibility requirements. The key is establishing a skill that understands WCAG 2.1 guidelines and can apply them to your codebase.

Here’s a skill configuration focused on accessibility:

---
name: a11y-audit
description: "Audit code for accessibility compliance"
---

When you invoke this skill, Claude analyzes your HTML, JavaScript, and CSS components through the lens of accessibility standards. It checks for proper semantic markup, ARIA labels, focus management, and color contrast.

Generating Accessible Components

One of the most practical applications of Claude skills for accessibility is component generation. Instead of writing accessible markup from scratch, you can prompt Claude to generate components that meet WCAG requirements by default.

Consider a modal dialog component. An inaccessible version might look like this:

<div class="modal">
  <h2>Confirm Action</h2>
  <p>Are you sure you want to proceed?</p>
  <button>Cancel</button>
  <button>Confirm</button>
</div>

When you ask Claude to generate an accessible version using an accessibility-focused skill, it produces:

<div role="dialog" aria-modal="true" aria-labelledby="modal-title" aria-describedby="modal-desc">
  <h2 id="modal-title">Confirm Action</h2>
  <p id="modal-desc">Are you sure you want to proceed?</p>
  <button aria-label="Cancel this action">Cancel</button>
  <button aria-label="Confirm this action">Confirm</button>
</div>

The difference is substantial. The accessible version includes role="dialog" to announce the component type to screen readers, aria-modal="true" to indicate focus isolation, aria-labelledby connecting the heading to the dialog, and descriptive aria-label attributes on buttons.

Using the PDF Skill for Accessibility Documentation

Accessibility compliance requires thorough documentation. The PDF skill in Claude can help you generate accessibility statements, WCAG compliance reports, and VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) documents.

When creating accessibility documentation, ensure you include:

Conformance level (A, AA, or AAA)
Specific WCAG success criteria addressed
Known limitations and alternative navigation methods
Contact information for accessibility support

The PDF skill can also extract text from existing PDF documents to audit them for accessibility, checking for proper tagging, reading order, and alternative text for images.

JavaScript-heavy applications often break keyboard navigation. Interactive elements must be reachable and operable using only the keyboard. Claude can audit your JavaScript code to identify accessibility issues.

Common keyboard navigation problems include:

Missing focus management — When content updates dynamically, focus can be lost or stranded
Custom elements without keyboard support — Buttons implemented as divs lack keyboard interaction
Trap scenarios — Users can enter an element but cannot exit

The frontend-design skill includes patterns for implementing keyboard-accessible interactive components. It provides templates for:

Skip links that allow bypassing repetitive navigation
Focus indicators that meet the 3:1 contrast ratio requirement
Arrow key navigation for menus and grids
Escape key handling for closing modals and dropdowns

Integrating Accessibility Testing with TDD

The tdd (test-driven development) skill pairs well with accessibility requirements. You can write tests that verify accessibility compliance alongside functional tests.

describe('Accessible Button Component', () => {
  it('should have proper role attribute', () => {
    const button = render('<button>Click me</button>');
    expect(button.getAttribute('role')).toBe('button');
  });

  it('should be focusable', () => {
    const button = render('<button>Click me</button>');
    expect(button.tabIndex).toBe(0);
  });

  it('should respond to Enter key', () => {
    const handler = jest.fn();
    const button = render('<button>Click me</button>');
    button.addEventListener('click', handler);
    button.dispatchEvent(new KeyboardEvent('keydown', { key: 'Enter' }));
    expect(handler).toHaveBeenCalled();
  });
});

By writing accessibility tests as part of your TDD workflow, you ensure that accessibility requirements are treated with the same importance as functional requirements.

Maintaining Accessibility with Supermemory

As projects grow, maintaining accessibility becomes challenging. The supermemory skill helps you track accessibility decisions, known issues, and remediation plans across your codebase.

Supermemory can store:

Links between components and their accessibility tests
Known WCAG violations and their severity
Design decisions that impact accessibility
Progress on accessibility remediation efforts

When you modify a component, supermemory can surface related accessibility context, reminding you of connected tests and any documented concerns.

Automating Accessibility Reviews

Rather than relying solely on manual audits, use Claude skills to automate parts of your accessibility review process. The combination of code analysis skills and testing skills creates a pipeline where accessibility checks run automatically.

Set up a workflow where:

Code commits trigger accessibility analysis
Claude scans for common issues (missing alt text, improper heading hierarchy, contrast problems)
Test suites verify keyboard interaction and screen reader compatibility
Reports are generated for each pull request

This automation catches issues early, before they reach production and affect real users.

Getting Started with Accessible Development

Begin by auditing your current codebase with an accessibility-focused Claude skill. Identify the highest-impact issues—those affecting the most users or violating the most critical WCAG criteria—and address them systematically.

As you build new features, include accessibility requirements in your initial specifications. Use Claude skills to generate accessible components from the start rather than retrofitting accessibility later.

The accessibility skills ecosystem continues to evolve. Stay current by exploring new skills as they become available, and consider contributing your own accessibility-focused skills back to the community.

Built by theluckystrike — More at zovo.one

Claude MD for Accessibility Requirements: A Practical A11y Guide