accessibility-debt-tracking

Accessibility Debt Tracking

Track accessibility debt the way you'd track technical debt — as a known liability with a cost that compounds over time.

What Is Accessibility Debt

Accessibility debt is every known accessibility issue that exists in your product but hasn't been fixed. It includes:

• Issues found in audits that were deprioritised
• Tradeoffs where accessibility was deferred
• New features shipped without full accessibility
• Regressions introduced by updates or redesigns
• Known gaps in assistive technology support

Why It Compounds

Unlike a feature request that just waits, accessibility debt grows:

• Each new feature built on top of an inaccessible foundation inherits the inaccessibility
• Users with disabilities develop workarounds that break when you eventually fix things differently than they expect
• Legal exposure increases with time and awareness
• The longer an issue persists, the more expensive it becomes to fix (code has grown around it)
• Team knowledge of why the issue exists fades

Debt Record Format

For each known accessibility issue, track:

Issue: clear description of the accessibility barrier Severity: critical (blocks task) / major (significant difficulty) / minor (friction) Who's affected: specific user groups Where: page, component, or flow WCAG criteria: which success criteria it violates Discovered: date and how (audit, user report, testing) Deferred because: the reason it wasn't fixed immediately Workaround: any temporary alternative for affected users Estimated fix effort: small / medium / large Remediation deadline: when it must be fixed Owner: who is responsible for the fix

Managing the Debt

Triage Rules

• Critical (blocks task): fix in current sprint, no exceptions
• Major (significant difficulty): fix within 30 days
• Minor (friction): fix within 90 days
• Any issue older than its deadline gets escalated

Preventing New Debt

• Accessibility acceptance criteria on every story
• Accessibility check before merge (automated + manual)
• Regression testing for previously fixed issues
• New features cannot ship with critical accessibility debt

Paying Down Debt

• Allocate a percentage of each sprint to debt reduction (10–20% is common)
• Fix debt when you're already touching the component
• Prioritise by: severity × number of users affected
• Celebrate debt reduction — make it visible

Tracking Regressions

• When a previously fixed issue reappears, it's a regression
• Regressions should be treated as critical by default
• Add automated tests for every fix to prevent recurrence
• Track regression rate as a quality metric

Assessment Questions

1. Is there a documented list of known accessibility issues?
2. Does each issue have a severity, owner, and deadline?
3. Is accessibility debt being paid down each sprint?
4. Are regressions caught and treated as critical?
5. Is the debt trend improving or worsening over time?