Since WCAG 2.2 became the standard public sector bodies are monitored against, our accessibility working group has run peer audits on member sites. Each audit pairs two people from different organisations for a day, using a keyboard, a screen reader and a checklist. The findings are private to each site, but the patterns are not. These are the six we see most.
1. Focus hidden behind sticky headers
WCAG 2.2 added Focus not obscured. Sticky headers and cookie banners are the usual culprits: tab down a long page and the focused link disappears underneath them. Adding scroll-padding-top to the page fixes most cases in one line.
2. Small targets in footers and pagination
The new target size criterion asks for at least 24 by 24 pixels. Pagination links and social icons in footers often fall short. Padding, not bigger icons, is usually the answer.
3. Drag-only interactions
Reordering paragraphs or sliders that only work by dragging fail Dragging movements. Drupal's own tabledrag has a "show row weights" alternative. Make sure custom widgets have one too.
4. Forms that ask twice
Redundant entry catches multi-step forms that make people retype an address they gave on the previous page. Webform's multi-page forms can carry values forward, so use that.
5. Help that moves around
Consistent help asks that contact details and help links appear in the same place on every page. Templates that put "Contact us" in the sidebar on some pages and the footer on others will fail.
6. CAPTCHAs that test memory
Accessible authentication rules out puzzles that rely on recall or transcription. A honeypot plus rate limiting stops most spam without asking anyone to read wobbly letters.
The working group's audit checklist is in the Accessibility group on the community platform. Our next accessibility clinic is online on 27 October. Bring a page you are unsure about and we will look at it together.
