# Runtime accessibility audit

Source: https://refyneit.com/prompts/accessibility-runtime-audit

Exercise real keyboard, focus, form, dialog, zoom, and screen-reader paths with evidence.

## When to use it

It centers the audit on complete user tasks and manual runtime behavior, which catches focus and announcement failures that static checks routinely miss.

## Prompt

Audit [URL OR USER FLOW] for runtime accessibility. Do not rely on source inspection or an automated score alone.

Before testing, identify the critical tasks a user must complete and the browser, viewport, and assistive-technology setup available.

Exercise each critical task with:
1. Keyboard only — logical tab order, visible focus, no traps, usable menus/dialogs, and alternatives to pointer-only gestures.
2. Focus management — initial focus, focus containment where appropriate, escape behavior, and restoration to the trigger.
3. Forms — programmatic labels, instructions, autocomplete, retained input, understandable inline errors, and error-summary behavior.
4. Dynamic updates — route changes, loading, validation, and success/error states announced at the right time without duplicate noise.
5. Reflow and perception — 200% and 400% zoom, narrow viewport, text spacing, reduced motion, high contrast, and color-independent meaning.
6. Automated checks — run the project's existing accessibility tools, then manually validate every reported blocker.

For each finding include severity, affected task, WCAG success criterion when known, exact reproduction steps, observed vs expected behavior, evidence, and a testable fix recommendation. Separate confirmed failures from risks you could not test.

Finish with tested paths, environment, automated-tool results, manual findings, verified clean behaviors, and coverage gaps.

## Adaptation and provenance

Condensed and made tool-neutral from GitHub Awesome Copilot's Accessibility Runtime Tester.

Contributor: [@proflead](https://github.com/proflead)
Repository: https://github.com/github/awesome-copilot
Pinned commit: b95e24caae4f25c5985f8527fd092ccfed039c36
License: [MIT](https://github.com/github/awesome-copilot/blob/b95e24caae4f25c5985f8527fd092ccfed039c36/LICENSE)
- [accessibility-runtime-tester](https://github.com/github/awesome-copilot/blob/b95e24caae4f25c5985f8527fd092ccfed039c36/agents/accessibility-runtime-tester.agent.md)
Review: source-reviewed, 2026-08-23. Compared with the commit-pinned source and adapted into a tool-neutral, copy/paste request. This is a non-visual task, so no output artifact is required.