Target: WCAG 2.2 Level AA for everything new. Existing components must reach 2.1 AA first and 2.2 AA by the first external audit.
Severity: axe impact × reach × WCAG level. Reach = how many consumer apps render the component, estimated from the consumer repos we know; when in doubt, assume high. Critical or Serious in a widely used component blocks a release; a maintainer decides, in review, until the automated gates land. Once the Storybook a11y gate runs, a component with a Critical finding cannot stay in todo.
Definition of Done: the Accessibility section of the PR template (Keyboard, Names, Vision), ticked after the "Before you declare done" checks in AGENTS.md section 7: Storybook a11y panel clean, manual keyboard pass. Say in the PR description what you did not test.
Debt: lint violations that existed when eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y was switched on are frozen in eslint-suppressions.json, per file and rule. That file is the counter: it should only shrink, and the lint part of the work is done when it is empty. Everything else has a Linear ticket (CUI-123), marked on the story as parameters.a11y.test: 'todo' // CUI-123 once Storybook a11y runs at error (not in effect yet).
Status (W39 2026): program started. eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y (recommended plus two rules, see eslint.config.js) runs in yarn lint at error: frozen violations do not block; a new one fails CI, except in a file already frozen for the same rule, where only a rising count trips it.
Report a problem: GitHub issue with the a11y label · internal: Linear team CUI, label a11y. Include: what you tried, the browser and assistive technology, the story or URL.
Last reviewed: W39 2026 | Next review: W41 2026