5 DrupalCon Accessibility Talks! (Yesterday)

• Christopher Torgalson (13:30)Baseline WebAIM failures & WCAG semantics.

• Junaid Masoodi (17:35)AI hallucinated ARIA, broken focus traps, false confidence.

"Whack-a-Mole" Fails, Over and Over Again

• Organizations repeatedly fail basic automated testing
• ... the focus hasn't been on the system, but the page.
• axe-core initial release 1.0 was in 2015
• ... which was over a decade ago.
• Periodic automated scans catch issues
• ... but after non-compliant code reaches production.

The Hierarchy of Truth

1. Disabled Users & Lived Experience <-- Highest Authority
2. Accessibility SME Manual Audits backed by WCAG
3. Deterministic DOM Scanners (axe-core)
4. Synthetic AT Automation (GuidePup & GuidePup MCP)
5. Probabilistic AI Proposals (LLM Candidates) <-- Lowest Authority

The AI Alt-Text Paradox: Capability vs. Context

• The FOSDEM 2025 Baseline: Vision models consistently generate richer candidate descriptions than untrained human authors.
• The GitHub Engineering Trap:
  • Passing automated checks doesn't mean your site is accessible.
  • Automated scanners confirm the rule works as defined, it does not mean it meets WCAG SC.
• The AI Blind Spot: LLMs do not know context, editorial intent, or when an image requires alt text (vs declaring the image a decorative element alt="").

The 5-Step Operational Remediation Pipeline

1. Scan Site* Auto-scan (playwright + axe-core): Ingest raw DOM violations into Open Accessibility Workbench.* Synthetic Pass (Guidepup + Playwright MCP): Execute programmatic VoiceOver/NVDA passes.
2. Review Results* Context Lookup (wcag-mcp + uswds-mcp): Pair violations with normative rules and token patterns.
3. Remediate Priorities:* Generate constrained patches using approved semantics where possible.
4. Validate Solutions* Scan page: Use a tool like Accessibility Insights to validate the page is fixed.* Synthetic Pass2 Rescan to validate it has been fixed. Include updated
5. Human Audit: SME reviews diffs, tests new UI, and approves PR.

Human Driven

• Nothing About Us, Without Us
  • We need to do much better at engaging PwD and hiring them.
• Accessibility Statements
  • These are a key feedback loop for any system. Actively listen to your users.
• Design Systems
  • Shift left. Yes, an ACCESSIBILITY.md may help, but not as much as a well supported design system.
• Accessibility Champions
  • Accessibility is a team sport. Build your champions.
• Training
  • Everyone needs to learn more about how others interact with the tools we build.

Next Accessibility Sessions

• 14:05 (Room 2): Daniel Angelov — The Reality of Accessibility Automation
• 16:00 (Room 3): John Jameson — Getting the Most Out of Editoria11y v3