Access Guide

What Is Access Guide?

Access Guide is a free resource in the **design** category that provides a structured introduction to digital accessibility guidelines based on WCAG 2.1. It organizes accessibility principles into individual cards covering areas such as keyboard navigation, color contrast, and content parsing for assistive technologies. Access Guide fits into the early stages of the design workflow, helping designers reference specific WCAG success criteria during ideation, wireframing, and component creation to ensure inclusive designs from the outset.

What Access Guide Does

• Presents WCAG 2.1 guidelines as small, processable cards grouped by categories like interaction, design, code, and user needs such as keyboard, visual, cognitive, and physical.
• Indicates WCAG conformance levels (A, AA, AAA) and testing methods (manual, semi-automated) for each guideline card.
• Covers topics including keyboard accessibility, focus order in markup, color contrast requirements, and responsive layouts.
• Addresses assistive technology parsing, navigation consistency, and error recovery mechanisms.
• Provides guidance on states, hover/focus practices, and conventional interactions like single-pointer gestures.
• Organizes content by impairment types and design aspects to facilitate quick lookups during accessibility checks.

How Access Guide Can Be Used

• Designers consult Access Guide cards while creating wireframes to verify intuitive focus order and keyboard trap avoidance in navigation elements.
• During visual design phases, teams reference cards on high color contrast, typography alternatives to images of text, and hover/focus indicators to meet WCAG AA and AAA levels.
• Developers use the code and markup-focused cards to implement adjustable time limits, context changes only on user request, and proper assistive tech parsing.
• In collaborative workflows, Access Guide serves as a checklist for reviewing components like buttons, forms, and multimedia for multiple input types and image descriptions.
• For audits, designers filter cards by conformance level or test type to prioritize manual checks on cognitive aspects like consistent UI components and contextual help.

Who Is Access Guide For?

Access Guide targets designers, developers, and content creators working on web projects who need a concise reference for WCAG 2.1 implementation across design, code, and interaction layers. It suits teams at various experience levels addressing accessibility in UI components, navigation patterns, visual styles, and error handling, particularly for those integrating guidelines into Figma prototypes, style guides, or development handoffs. UX researchers and inclusive design advocates also use it to align projects with standards for keyboard users, those with visual impairments, cognitive challenges, and physical limitations.Visit Access Guide