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VC009 – Accessibility Compliance

Overview

Basic accessibility checks: images alt text, form labels, heading hierarchy, ARIA labels, color contrast, and keyboard navigation.

Probability that AI systems use this signal: Crawlers and generative AI pipelines consume structured and visible page signals for training and inference. Assessment-specific signals (e.g. schema, canonicals, trust cues) affect how likely a page is indexed and surfaced. The probability that this assessment's signal influences AI behavior is high when the page is in a product or compliance context.

Impact on geo compliance: Passing this assessment supports geo compliance by ensuring machine-readable and visible content meet standards that reduce the risk of wrong locale, pricing, or trust in AI-generated answers. Failing can lead to non-compliant or misleading surfacing.

What We Check

  • **Missing alt:** img without alt or empty alt; −50 per image.
  • **Missing form labels:** input/textarea/select; needs id+label[for=id] or wrapped in label; −40 per missing.
  • **Heading hierarchy:** no headings → issue; multiple h1 → issue; skipped level (e.g. h2→h4); −50 per issue.
  • **Missing ARIA:** button, a, input, select, textarea without aria-label, aria-labelledby, text content, title, or (for input) associated label; −30 per.
  • **Color contrast:** elements with inline style with "color:" but no "background-color:" and no class/id; "Element relies only on color for information"; −20 per.
  • **Keyboard:** tabindex="-1" on interactive elements; onclick on non-button/link; −30 per. Score capped at 0.

Pass / Fail and Score

  • **PASSED** if score >= 60.

How to Fix When It Fails

  • Add alt to images; add labels to form elements; fix heading hierarchy; add ARIA labels; improve color contrast; ensure keyboard accessibility (avoid tabindex=-1, use button/link for onclick).

Common Issues

  • Images without alt; unlabeled inputs; multiple h1 or skipped levels; interactive elements without accessible name; color-only distinction; non-keyboard-accessible controls.

Dependencies

None.

How to Verify

  • Manual or automated a11y audit (e.g. axe); check headings, labels, ARIA, keyboard tab order.

Additional Resources

  • WCAG 2.1: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/
  • ARIA: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/aria/