Accessibility bug classification

CivicActions teams use this guidance to prioritize accessibility issues based on the degree of content interference caused by a WCAG success criterion failure. We treat accessibility issues as bugs, and have adapted priority definitions from Deque's issue impact classification.

Note that:

• The list is illustrative, not exhaustive, and
• A failure can belong to more than one level depending on how severely it impacts content access.

Teams may evaluate an issue further with respect to its impact on specific content, functionality, or usability. Reasons for adjustment should be included in the ticket description, and when new patterns or examples are identified they should be considered for inclusion in the table.

Access failure	Issue priority	Action
Page-level interference (Single A criteria) no audio control (1.4.2) keyboard trap (2.1.2) no pause, stop, hide (2.2.2) four flashes or above threshold (2.3.1)	Highest user impact Dire, resolve immediately Forces user to abandon essential workflow Users with disabilities fundamentally blocked Creates immediate organizational risk Everything else can wait for this	Do now Bypass release cycle
Primary component failure images missing alt attributes (1.1.1) audio lacks captions (1.2.2) video lacks audio descriptions (1.2.5) content meaning wrong without CSS (1.3.2 F1) text less than 4.5:1 contrast ratio (1.4.3) an interaction is not keyboard navigable (2.1.1) keyboard trap in one direction only (2.1.2) user not warned of timeout (2.2.6) form inputs missing a label (3.3.2)	High user impact Significantly degrades essential workflow Users with disabilities substantially blocked Significant frustration for AT users The issue has been around a long time Other work can wait for this	Do next Address in next release
Component interference headings missing/out of order (1.3.1) content/component not in a landmark (1.3.6) table is not well-formed (1.3.2) content sequence wrong without CSS (1.3.2 F1) skip to content link missing or broken (2.4.1) tab order is non-sequential (2.4.3) table is missing headings (2.4.6) keyboard focus disappears/not visible (2.4.7) instructions not with inputs (3.3.2 ARIA17) form label missing but inferrable (3.3.2 G167) custom control lacks full API support (4.1.2)	Medium user impact Degrades non-critical workflows for AT users Users with disabilities are slowed down Some frustration for AT users is likely Acceptable short-term workaround exists Low priority issue that has been around a while	Do soon Address this quarter
Page or component degradation iframe is missing title attribute (2.4.1 H64) page titles duped/lack adequate detail (2.4.2) link text lacks adequate context (2.4.9) language not set at page level (3.1.1) inconsistent labeling of same function (3.2.4)	Low user impact Does not substantially degrade a workflow Has a simple workaround Hinders compliance Annoyance bug If the affected component is not actively used	Do later Address when doing related work
Missing best practices	Lowest user impact No significant user value to fix Only in unsupported browser or component	Do as time allows