Building Accessible React Components with Replay: A Compliance Guide

TL;DR: Replay helps developers build accessible React components faster by analyzing user behavior in videos and generating compliant code, significantly reducing manual accessibility audits and remediation efforts.

The Accessibility Bottleneck: Speed vs. Compliance#

Building accessible React components isn't just about following best practices; it's about ensuring inclusivity and meeting legal requirements. But let's be honest: manually auditing for accessibility issues is tedious, time-consuming, and often gets deprioritized in fast-paced development cycles. This creates a bottleneck: speed versus compliance. We need a way to build accessible components quickly without sacrificing quality.

Enter Replay.

Replay is a video-to-code engine powered by Gemini that reconstructs working UI from screen recordings. But unlike screenshot-to-code tools that only capture visual elements, Replay uses behavior-driven reconstruction. It analyzes user interactions within the video to understand intent, leading to more accurate and inherently accessible code generation. This approach can drastically reduce the time and effort spent on accessibility remediation.

Replay: Your Accessibility Co-Pilot#

Replay offers a unique advantage: it learns from user behavior captured in video. This means it doesn't just generate code that looks accessible; it generates code that behaves accessibly, based on observed user interactions.

Here's how Replay helps you build accessible React components:

• •Automated Accessibility Audits: Replay analyzes user flows in the video to identify potential accessibility violations.
• •Compliant Code Generation: Replay generates React code that adheres to WCAG guidelines, including proper ARIA attributes, semantic HTML, and keyboard navigation.
• •Real-World Testing: Video input allows for testing with real user scenarios, uncovering accessibility issues that static analysis might miss.
• •Faster Development: By automating the initial code generation and accessibility checks, Replay speeds up the entire development process.

From Video to Accessible Code: A Practical Example#

Let's say you've recorded a video of a user interacting with a complex form. The form has multiple input fields, dropdown menus, and custom UI elements. Manually coding this form and ensuring its accessibility would take hours, if not days.

With Replay, you can upload the video, and it will generate the React code for the entire form, complete with accessibility features.

Here's a simplified example of how Replay can help generate accessible code for a custom dropdown component:

Step 1: Capture User Interaction#

Record a video of a user interacting with your existing dropdown component. Make sure the video captures all the relevant actions, such as opening the dropdown, navigating through the options with the keyboard, and selecting an option.

Step 2: Upload to Replay#

Upload the video to Replay. The engine will analyze the video and reconstruct the UI, including the dropdown component.

Step 3: Review and Refine#

Replay generates React code for the dropdown component, including ARIA attributes for accessibility. For example:

typescript
// Generated by Replay
import React, { useState } from 'react';

const AccessibleDropdown = ({ options, onSelect }) => {
  const [isOpen, setIsOpen] = useState(false);
  const [selectedValue, setSelectedValue] = useState(null);

  const toggleDropdown = () => {
    setIsOpen(!isOpen);
  };

  const selectOption = (option) => {
    setSelectedValue(option);
    onSelect(option);
    setIsOpen(false);
  };

  return (
    <div className="dropdown">
      <button
        aria-haspopup="true"
        aria-expanded={isOpen}
        onClick={toggleDropdown}
        className="dropdown-button"
      >
        {selectedValue || 'Select an option'}
      </button>
      {isOpen && (
        <ul className="dropdown-list" role="listbox">
          {options.map((option) => (
            <li
              key={option.value}
              onClick={() => selectOption(option.value)}
              className="dropdown-item"
              role="option"
              aria-selected={selectedValue === option.value}
            >
              {option.label}
            </li>
          ))}
        </ul>
      )}
    </div>
  );
};

export default AccessibleDropdown;

This code includes:

• •
  text

  aria-haspopup
  and
  text

  aria-expanded
  attributes on the button to indicate the dropdown's state.
• •
  text

  role="listbox"
  on the
  text

  ul
  element to identify it as a list of options.
• •
  text

  role="option"
  and
  text

  aria-selected
  attributes on the
  text

  li
  elements to indicate the selected option.

💡 Pro Tip: While Replay generates accessible code, always review and test the generated components with assistive technologies to ensure full compliance.

Step 4: Integrate into Your Project#

Copy the generated code into your React project and integrate the

component into your application.

Replay vs. Traditional Accessibility Tools#

Let's compare Replay to other methods for building accessible React components:

⚠️ Warning: Replay is not a replacement for accessibility experts. Always review the generated code and conduct thorough testing with assistive technologies.

Addressing Common Concerns#

"How accurate is Replay's code generation?"

Replay's accuracy is significantly higher than screenshot-to-code tools because it analyzes user behavior, not just visual elements. However, the quality of the input video is crucial. Clear, well-defined user flows will result in more accurate code.

"Does Replay support custom UI libraries?"

Yes! Replay supports style injection, allowing you to seamlessly integrate your existing UI library and design system.

"Is Replay only for React?"

While this article focuses on React, Replay supports generating code for various frameworks and libraries.

Optimizing Your React Components for Accessibility#

Beyond using tools like Replay, here are some key practices for building accessible React components:

• •Semantic HTML: Use semantic HTML elements (e.g.,
  text

  <article>
  ,
  text

  <nav>
  ,
  text

  <aside>
  ) to provide structure and meaning to your content.
• •ARIA Attributes: Use ARIA attributes to enhance the accessibility of custom UI components.
• •Keyboard Navigation: Ensure that all interactive elements are accessible via keyboard navigation.
• •Color Contrast: Use sufficient color contrast between text and background to ensure readability.
• •Focus Management: Implement proper focus management to guide users through the interface.
• •Alternative Text: Provide alternative text for all images and non-text content.

typescript
// Example of adding alt text to an image
<img src="/path/to/image.jpg" alt="Description of the image" />

📝 Note: Accessibility is an ongoing process. Regularly audit your components and update them as needed.

Frequently Asked Questions#

Is Replay free to use?#

Replay offers a free tier with limited features. Paid plans are available for more advanced features and usage.

How is Replay different from v0.dev?#

While both tools aim to accelerate UI development, Replay uniquely leverages video input and behavior-driven reconstruction. v0.dev relies on text prompts and AI models, whereas Replay analyzes real user interactions to generate more accurate and context-aware code. This results in more accessible and user-friendly components right from the start. Replay understands what users are trying to do, not just what they see.

What type of video input does Replay accept?#

Replay accepts common video formats such as MP4, MOV, and WebM. The video should clearly capture the user's interactions with the UI.

How does Replay handle dynamic content?#

Replay analyzes the video to understand how dynamic content changes based on user interactions. It then generates code that reflects this behavior.

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Ready to try behavior-driven code generation? Get started with Replay - transform any video into working code in seconds.