A11y Annotation

How it works in practice

A designer marks up a checkout wireframe▭WireframeExperience DesignA low-fidelity structural layoutView reference → before handoff. The annotations declare a logical reading order so a screen reader announces the summary before the payment fields, a focus order that traps inside the card modal until it is dismissed, alt text for the trust-badge images, and an ARIA role="alert" on the validation message so errors are announced the moment they appear. Engineering builds from that spec directly. The later audit finds fewer issues, because the accessible behaviour was designed in rather than retrofitted, and the annotations double as the test script.

Accessibility annotation vs. its neighbours

• Accessibility guideline: the guideline is the external rule to satisfy; the annotation is the team's specific instruction for satisfying it on this screen. The annotation is how a guideline becomes buildable.
• Design component🧱Design ComponentDesign SystemA reusable UI componentView reference →: a component is the reusable building block; an annotation describes how that component behaves for assistive technology in a given context, including focus and announcement. One feeds the other.
• Wireframe: the wireframe shows layout and structure for sighted use; the annotation layers on the non-visual behaviour the wireframe cannot depict. They ship together as one handoff artefact.

In the graph

In the Unified Product Graph, an accessibility annotation links the design intent to both the product and the standard it serves. It attaches to the product through product_annotated_with_a11y_annotationProductannotated withA11y Annotationhierarchy, and it ties back to the relevant standard via a11y_standard_annotated_with_a11y_annotationA11y Standardannotated withA11y Annotationhierarchy, so a design-time spec is never disconnected from the conformance target it exists to meet. That pairing closes the loop with audits and issues: the annotation states intended accessible behaviour up front, and a later audit can check the built product against the same standard the annotation was written for.