Accessibility Senior interview questions and answers

75 questions for a Accessibility (Senior) interview - with correct answers, explanations and links to the docs.

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  1. 1.How does information get from the DOM to a screen reader?
  2. 2.Which of these roles gets its name from its content?
  3. 3.What does the screen reader announce for this link?
  4. 4.Can aria-describedby point to an element with the hidden attribute?
  5. 5.A modal sets aria-hidden="true" on #app, but focus is still inside #app. What happens?
  6. 6.What happens with role="presentation" on a focusable element?
  7. 7.Why does role="presentation" on a <ul> also change its <li> children?
  8. 8.Why might an extra wrapper break this widget?
  9. 9.Why shouldn't you rely on aria-controls alone?
  10. 10.Why does aria-labelledby fail across a Shadow DOM boundary?
  11. 11.What does ElementInternals offer custom elements?
  12. 12.When is role="grid" right, rather than a plain table?
  13. 13.What is the correct ARIA 1.2 structure for an editable combobox?
  14. 14.A search combobox updates results as you type. What else do screen reader users need?
  15. 15.When should you keep a native <select> rather than a custom listbox?
  16. 16.A price slider has aria-valuenow="3" but the label on screen says "$300 to $500". What's missing?
  17. 17.What makes a custom date picker hard to get right?
  18. 18.In a rich text editor, Tab inserts an indent. What must you also provide?
  19. 19.What is typeahead in menus and listboxes?
  20. 20.A React handler sets state to show a panel, then calls ref.current.focus(). Why does it fail?
  21. 21.What should happen if the element that opened a dialog is gone when the dialog closes?
  22. 22.Why is inert better than a focus trap built with sentinel elements?
  23. 23.How does the popover attribute differ from a modal <dialog>?
  24. 24.What differs between dialog.show() and dialog.showModal()?
  25. 25.Why can a live region become a problem in a chat or a dashboard?
  26. 26.Saving twice shows the same "Saved" text, but the second isn't announced. Why?
  27. 27.What risk does SSR add for interactive controls?
  28. 28.A Suspense fallback replaces the region that holds focus. What happens?
  29. 29.How do you make a <canvas> chart accessible?
  30. 30.What should an interactive chart offer beyond a good contrast?
  31. 31.Why does a PDF linked from a site need accessibility work too?
  32. 32.Which CSS helps layouts work in right-to-left languages?
  33. 33.Which WCAG 2.2 criterion concerns help mechanisms?
  34. 34.Which criterion was removed in WCAG 2.2?
  35. 35.Which of these was added in WCAG 2.2?
  36. 36.What is the status of WCAG 3?
  37. 37.Does WCAG conformance apply to individual components?
  38. 38.A site embeds a third-party payment widget that fails WCAG. Whose problem is it?
  39. 39.What is the role of WCAG-EM?
  40. 40.What is an ACR, usually based on a VPAT?
  41. 41.What is EN 301 549?
  42. 42.Which businesses are exempt from the EAA for services?
  43. 43.How should you prioritize a backlog of accessibility issues?
  44. 44.How do you add automated a11y checks to a big legacy app without blocking everyone?
  45. 45.What can a design system do for accessibility that page-level fixes can't?
  46. 46.Why test with disabled users if audits are already done?
  47. 47.How do you check contrast for text on a gradient or a photo?
  48. 48.What does semi-transparent text mean for contrast checks?
  49. 49.What does the AAA criterion Focus Appearance add?
  50. 50.At 400% zoom, a fixed header takes half the screen. What's a good fix?
  51. 51.A custom control reacts only to touchstart and keydown. Why can VoiceOver or TalkBack fail with it?
  52. 52.Why can a custom swipe gesture be inaccessible?
  53. 53.How do Dragon or Voice Control users click a button?
  54. 54.How does a screen magnifier user experience a toast in a far corner?
  55. 55.Why not rely on the title attribute for important information?
  56. 56.When is aria-roledescription a bad idea?
  57. 57.A web app adds single-key shortcuts like j and k. What does WCAG require?
  58. 58.Which reduced-motion approach is the safest default?
  59. 59.How do you respect reduced motion in JavaScript animations?
  60. 60.What does prefers-reduced-transparency address?
  61. 61.Why avoid images of text, like a heading drawn in an SVG banner?
  62. 62.What is audio description, and when is it needed?
  63. 63.A virtualized table shows rows 500-520 of 10,000. What helps?
  64. 64.How can a sortable drag-and-drop list be made keyboard-accessible?
  65. 65.Which test assertion checks what a user of assistive tech gets?
  66. 66.What do Playwright ARIA snapshots compare?
  67. 67.Does a passing getByRole query prove a screen reader will behave?
  68. 68.A page has 800 links, and a screen reader user wants the third section. What makes it fast?
  69. 69.What's the problem with an async validation error added to aria-describedby after blur?
  70. 70.Why can outline-offset and overflow: hidden conflict?
  71. 71.Is alt text generated by AI enough for a large catalog?
  72. 72.What is the main accessibility risk in cookie consent banners?
  73. 73.How should you decide between hiding and disabling a control a user can't use?
  74. 74.A team writes <button> styles but ships <a href="#"> for actions. What's the real cost?
  75. 75.What is the main value of adding accessibility criteria to the definition of done?