Public documentation

Review categories and workflows

How A11Y Cat separates confirmed issues from guided review, advisory signals, limitations, and diagnostics.

Review categories

CategoryUse it forDo not use it for
Confirmed issueRemediation candidates backed by high-confidence current-state evidence.Claiming complete WCAG conformance or skipping context review.
Needs reviewManual judgement, visual review, interaction checks, or assistive technology testing.Automatic defect filing without human verification.
AdvisoryQuality guidance, metadata, spelling, language, and readiness signals.Definite WCAG failure claims.
LimitationKnown coverage boundaries that require another method.Page defect claims.
DiagnosticTroubleshooting permissions, storage, injection, runtime, and export support.User-impact claims without additional evidence.

Guided manual review workflow

  1. 1

    Open the relevant queue

    Start with needs-review, contrast review, screen reader review, or diagnostics depending on the evidence type.

  2. 2

    Inspect the real page state

    Use the current page, selectors, snippets, visual state, and user journey to decide whether the evidence represents a user-impacting problem.

  3. 3

    Use real assistive technology where required

    Run NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, TalkBack, Narrator, keyboard-only, or other required testing for release decisions.

  4. 4

    Record the decision

    Mark whether the item is confirmed, not applicable, deferred, blocked by limitation, or needs more evidence.

  5. 5

    Export only when appropriate

    Export review state or reports only when the data is authorised for sharing.