inclusive-design-skills

Generate an accessibility decision handoff for engineering. Chains: decision-documentation, compliance-mapping, accessibility-testing-strategy. Use when a design is ready for implementation and the engineering team needs clear accessibility specifications.

Review and surface undocumented accessibility assumptions in an existing feature or product. Chains: decision-documentation, tradeoff-analysis, compliance-mapping, accessibility-debt-tracking. Use when inheriting a product, joining a team, or auditing a feature where accessibility decisions were never formally captured.

Document accessibility decisions and tradeoffs for a feature. Chains: decision-documentation, tradeoff-analysis, compliance-mapping. Use when a feature is being designed or shipped and accessibility decisions need to be captured.

Plan what to test, how to test, and who should test for accessibility. Use when defining a testing approach, planning QA, setting up automated and manual testing, or deciding what level of accessibility testing a project needs. Triggers on: accessibility testing, how to test, test plan, automated testing, manual testing, screen reader testing, user testing, accessibility QA, what to test, testing strategy.

Track and manage accessibility debt — known accessibility issues that have been deferred. Use when managing a backlog of accessibility issues, planning remediation, or when accessibility problems are accumulating faster than they're being fixed. Triggers on: accessibility debt, tech debt, known issues, backlog, deferred, we'll fix it later, remediation, accessibility backlog, accumulating issues, regression.

Communicate accessibility decisions, requirements, and value to stakeholders who aren't accessibility specialists. Use when presenting accessibility work to leadership, product managers, engineers, or anyone who needs to understand why accessibility decisions matter. Triggers on: stakeholder, business case, justify accessibility, explain accessibility, leadership, executive, ROI, why accessibility, cost of accessibility, persuade, convince, accessibility presentation.

Map design decisions to accessibility standards and legal requirements. Use when documenting WCAG conformance, preparing for audits, tracking compliance status, or when legal or procurement requires accessibility documentation. Triggers on: WCAG, compliance, conformance, audit, VPAT, accessibility statement, legal requirement, ADA, EAA, European Accessibility Act, Section 508, EN 301 549, accessibility standard, success criterion.

Analyse accessibility tradeoffs when a design decision improves accessibility for one group but may affect another, or when accessibility competes with other requirements. Use when facing conflicting accessibility needs, business pressure to reduce accessibility scope, or technical constraints that limit accessibility options. Triggers on: tradeoff, trade-off, compromise, accessibility vs performance, accessibility vs deadline, conflicting needs, which users, who do we prioritise, can't do both, accessibility scope.

Document accessibility decisions and the reasoning behind them so they survive team changes, redesigns, and time. Use when making accessibility tradeoffs, choosing between approaches, or when a decision needs to be recorded for future reference. Triggers on: accessibility decision, why did we, tradeoff, decision record, ADR, architecture decision, accessibility rationale, why is it like this, document the decision, decision log.

Review responsive and flexible layout for accessibility across devices, zoom levels, and orientations. Chains: responsive-accessibility, flexible-typography, information-density. Use when testing an existing interface across screen sizes and zoom levels for accessibility.

Audit an existing interface for respect of user preferences including motion, contrast, colour scheme, and text scaling. Chains: user-preference-respect, responsive-accessibility, colour-independence. Use when reviewing an existing product for adaptive behaviour.

Specify adaptive behaviour for an interface. Chains: user-preference-respect, responsive-accessibility, flexible-typography, colour-independence, simplified-views, information-density. Use when designing a new interface and you want to build adaptability in from the start.

Design interfaces where information density can be adjusted to suit different cognitive needs and preferences. Use when designing dashboards, data tables, feeds, inboxes, settings panels, or any interface with variable amounts of content. Triggers on: information density, too dense, too sparse, compact view, comfortable view, spacing, whitespace, data density, content density, crowded, breathing room.

Design simplified and reduced-complexity views of interfaces for users who need less visual noise and fewer options. Use when designing settings, dashboards, complex tools, or any interface that could benefit from a simpler mode. Triggers on: simplified view, simple mode, easy mode, basic view, reduce complexity, less clutter, overwhelmed, too many options, beginner mode, essential view, focus mode.

Design interfaces where colour is never the only way information is communicated. Use when designing status indicators, data visualisations, form validation, alerts, maps, or any content that uses colour to convey meaning. Triggers on: colour blind, color blind, colour alone, color alone, colour vision, color vision, red green, deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia, colour coding, status colour, chart colours, accessible colours.

Design typography systems that adapt to user needs — scaling, spacing, and font preferences. Use when designing type systems, setting font sizes, defining line heights, or reviewing text readability across conditions. Triggers on: typography, font size, line height, letter spacing, word spacing, text scaling, dyslexia font, readable font, type scale, font units, rem, em, px, reading difficulty.

Design responsive layouts that maintain accessibility across screen sizes, zoom levels, and orientations. Use when designing responsive interfaces, testing zoom behaviour, or reviewing layouts across devices. Triggers on: responsive, zoom, reflow, breakpoint, mobile accessibility, screen size, orientation, viewport, 200% zoom, text scaling, layout shift, horizontal scroll.

Design interfaces that detect and respond to system-level user preferences. Use when implementing dark mode, reduced motion, high contrast, text scaling, or any user preference that affects how the interface renders. Triggers on: user preference, system preference, prefers-reduced-motion, prefers-contrast, prefers-color-scheme, forced-colors, media query, user settings, system settings, accessibility settings, OS settings.

Map inclusive usage scenarios across ability spectrums for a product or feature. Chains: ability-spectrum-mapping, situational-impairment-mapping, assistive-technology-scenarios. Use when planning test coverage, identifying accessibility gaps, or understanding how a feature performs across diverse users.

Audit user stories for disability inclusion. Chains: inclusive-user-stories, edge-case-identification. Use when reviewing an existing backlog, sprint, or set of user stories to check whether they account for diverse abilities.

Generate a diverse, inclusive persona set for a product. Chains: disability-inclusive-personas, situational-impairment-mapping, assistive-technology-scenarios, ability-spectrum-mapping. Use when creating a new persona set or expanding an existing one to be more inclusive.

Map how a product or feature works across the full spectrum of human ability — not just 'can use' and 'can't use'. Use when planning accessibility coverage, identifying gaps, or communicating accessibility scope to stakeholders. Triggers on: ability spectrum, range of users, who can use this, who can't use this, accessibility coverage, accessibility scope, ability range, spectrum of needs.

Identify and design for edge cases that disproportionately affect users with disabilities. Use when reviewing designs for completeness, planning test cases, or when someone says 'that's an edge case.' Triggers on: edge case, corner case, that's unlikely, only a few users, exception, unusual scenario, we'll handle that later, happy path, unhappy path, error state, empty state.

Write usage scenarios that include assistive technology and diverse interaction methods. Use when writing scenarios, use cases, user journeys, or storyboards. Triggers on: assistive technology, AT, screen reader, switch, voice control, magnifier, braille display, head pointer, eye tracking, how people use our product, usage scenario, use case.

Map situational impairments that affect all users in specific contexts — not just people with permanent disabilities. Use when designing for mobile, outdoor, noisy, stressful, or multitasking contexts. Triggers on: situational, context of use, environment, one-handed, bright sunlight, noisy, driving, multitasking, gloves, temporary disability, context, edge case.

Write user stories that account for disability and diverse abilities from the start. Use when writing user stories, acceptance criteria, jobs to be done, or requirements. Triggers on: user story, user stories, acceptance criteria, jobs to be done, JTBD, requirements, as a user I want, definition of done, story writing.

Create user personas that include disability as a natural dimension of human diversity — not as a separate 'accessibility persona'. Use when creating personas, user profiles, proto-personas, or any representation of target users. Triggers on: persona, user persona, proto-persona, user profile, target user, who is the user, disability persona, accessibility persona, inclusive persona.

Structure content for screen reader and assistive technology use. Chains: heading-structure, alt-text-design, table-accessibility, form-labelling. Use when building a new page, document, or content template and you want to get the structural accessibility right from the start.

Rewrite content in plain language while preserving meaning. Chains: readable-content, link-text-design. Use when given content that is too complex, jargon-heavy, or inaccessible for the target audience.

Review content for accessibility across cognitive and literacy levels. Chains: readable-content, alt-text-design, heading-structure, link-text-design, table-accessibility, form-labelling, multimedia-accessibility. Use when auditing existing content for accessibility.

Design accessible video, audio, and multimedia content with captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions. Use when creating or reviewing video, audio, podcasts, webinars, animations, or any time-based media. Triggers on: captions, subtitles, transcript, audio description, video accessibility, podcast accessibility, multimedia, closed captions, sign language, media player, autoplay.

Design form labels, instructions, and grouping that work for screen readers and cognitive accessibility. Use when designing or reviewing forms, input fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, select menus, or any data entry interface. Triggers on: form label, label, input label, fieldset, legend, placeholder, form instructions, form group, radio group, checkbox group, required field, form accessibility.

Design data tables that work for screen readers and cognitive accessibility. Use when creating or reviewing tables, data grids, comparison tables, pricing tables, or any tabular data. Triggers on: table, data table, grid, spreadsheet, comparison table, pricing table, screen reader table, table headers, scope, caption, complex table.

Write link text that makes sense out of context for screen reader users and improves usability for everyone. Use when writing or reviewing links, calls to action, navigation labels, or any clickable text. Triggers on: link text, click here, read more, learn more, screen reader links, link purpose, anchor text, call to action, CTA, ambiguous link.

Write and structure content for diverse reading abilities and cognitive styles. Use when writing long-form content, help documentation, product descriptions, policies, terms, or any content that needs to be understood by a wide audience. Triggers on: readability, reading level, too long, too dense, wall of text, hard to read, simplify content, content accessibility, scannable, skimmable.

Design heading hierarchies and content structure that work for screen readers and cognitive accessibility. Use when structuring pages, articles, dashboards, forms, or any content-heavy interface. Triggers on: headings, heading hierarchy, h1 h2 h3, content structure, page structure, screen reader navigation, document outline, semantic structure, heading levels.

Write meaningful alternative text for images, charts, diagrams, and visual content. Use when creating or reviewing alt text, image descriptions, chart summaries, or any visual content that needs a text equivalent. Triggers on: alt text, image description, alternative text, screen reader, decorative image, chart description, infographic, data visualisation, complex image, meaningful alt.

Review keyboard navigation and focus management in an existing interface. Chains: keyboard-navigation, feedback-and-status. Use when testing or reviewing keyboard accessibility specifically, before a release, or when users report keyboard issues.

Design an interaction flow with inclusive input and output options from the start. Chains: multi-modal-input, keyboard-navigation, touch-target-design, feedback-and-status. Use when designing a new feature, flow, or interface and you want to build inclusive interaction in from the beginning.

Audit an interface for multi-modal interaction support. Chains: keyboard-navigation, touch-target-design, multi-modal-input, gesture-alternatives, feedback-and-status, motion-sensitivity. Use when reviewing an existing interface for interaction accessibility.