Accessibility Test Driven Development

Accessibility should not be an afterthought—it should be an integral part of our development and testing workflow. In this talk, we’ll explore Accessibility Test Driven Development (A-TDD) and how developers can leverage existing tools to ensure accessibility from the start. Many accessibility issues can be caught early using tools already built into our browsers, such as color contrast checkers and source order visualization. But we can take this further with automated testing. We’ll look at the accessibility-first mindset of Testing Library, unit testing for accessibility using jest-axe, and how we can integrate CI/CD tools like Lighthouse CI and pa11y to catch issues before they reach production. By the end of this session, you’ll walk away with practical strategies and tooling recommendations to embed accessibility checks seamlessly into your development pipeline—making your applications not only more inclusive but also more robust.