Compliance Profiles

Compliance Profiles

For years, accessibility initiatives have failed during the early stages of product development because they are often treated as a binary switch: "Either you follow all 50+ WCAG rules perfectly, or your product is inaccessible."

When startups and MVPs with tight budgets realize they need specific font sizes, high-contrast grays, and massive touch targets (which often forces a complete redesign), they usually make the worst possible decision: they abandon accessibility entirely.

A11Y.md solves this adoption bottleneck by introducing Modular Compliance Profiles. It allows you to configure your AI agent to apply the right level of rigor for your project's current maturity.

Each profile mixes two layers: WCAG Success Criteria at its target level (cited by SC number — skipping one must be logged in EXCEPTIONS.md) and House Rules† — this standard's stricter ergonomic policy (relaxing one is a product decision, recorded in A11Y-DECISIONS.md). Notably, WCAG defines no minimum font size at any level, so every font minimum below is a House Rule.

🛡️ The Shield Profile (AAA)

• Target Standard: WCAG 2.2 AAA
• Use Cases: Highly regulated industries, healthcare software, government portals, or tools built primarily for people with disabilities.
• The Rules: Extreme visual rigor. 7:1 contrast for text (SC 1.4.6); UI components remain at 3:1 (SC 1.4.11 — WCAG has no AAA non-text contrast criterion). Touch targets of at least 44x44px are normative here (SC 2.5.5), with a 48x48px House Rule† design target (Material norm). Zero density exceptions allowed. The visual aesthetic is completely subordinated to maximum legibility.

⚖️ The Standard Profile (AA)

• Target Standard: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Use Cases: The default configuration. Commercial SaaS, online stores, production-ready web apps.
• The Rules: The perfect balance between modern aesthetics and strict inclusion. 4.5:1 contrast for text, 3:1 for UI elements (SC 1.4.3, 1.4.11). Touch targets of at least 24x24px — the AA normative floor (SC 2.5.8) — with a 44x44px House Rule† design target (Apple HIG / Material norm). Standard ARIA patterns.

🚀 The Launchpad Profile (A) — The Tactical MVP

• Target Standard: WCAG 2.2 A
• Use Cases: Rapid MVPs, internal tools, early-stage prototypes.
• The Rules: Allows for relaxed visual criteria (a baseline 3:1 contrast floor, 24x24px touch targets, 10px minimum font sizes) — all House Rules†, since WCAG Level A defines no contrast or target-size criteria and no minimum font size at any level.
• The Rule: Every criterion relaxed below AA must be documented in your EXCEPTIONS.md file.

The Philosophy of the Launchpad Profile

The Launchpad Profile is A11Y.md's greatest tactical innovation. It tells a startup:

"It is okay if your gray text is slightly lighter than what WCAG recommends right now. It is okay if your buttons don't have the ideal touch size this month. BUT your site must work with the keyboard, your tags must be real <button>s, and your forms must have labels."

The Launchpad Profile relaxes visual/cosmetic criteria, but strictly enforces structural/CRITICAL criteria.

Why this matters: It is incredibly cheap to fix a color contrast issue via CSS six months later. It is incredibly expensive to rewrite your entire DOM tree because you used thousands of <div>s instead of native <button>s. The Launchpad Profile ensures that your semantic structure is born perfect, accepting conscious technical debt only in the styling layer.