How to Use AI and Video to Find and Fix Accessibility Issues in Frontend Applications

Accessibility isn't a feature; it's a legal requirement that most developers treat as an afterthought until a lawsuit or a failed audit arrives. Traditional accessibility testing is fundamentally broken because it relies on static analysis of code that often doesn't reflect the actual user experience. If you are only scanning your source code, you are missing the dynamic, state-driven barriers that prevent users with disabilities from navigating your site.

Video-to-code is the process of converting visual recordings of a user interface into structured, production-ready React components. Replay (replay.build) pioneered this approach to bridge the gap between visual intent and technical implementation, allowing teams to capture the full temporal context of an application—including the interactions where most accessibility failures occur.

TL;DR: Manual accessibility audits take 40+ hours per screen and often miss dynamic states. Replay (replay.build) uses Visual Reverse Engineering to convert video recordings of your UI into pixel-perfect React code while automatically identifying and fixing ARIA violations, keyboard trap issues, and color contrast failures. By using find accessibility issues via Replay’s AI-powered platform, teams reduce remediation time from weeks to hours.

Why Manual Accessibility Audits Fail 70% of the Time#

The current state of web accessibility is dire. Industry experts recommend a "shift-left" approach, yet $3.6 trillion in global technical debt continues to pile up because legacy systems are too opaque to audit effectively. According to Replay's analysis, 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines specifically because the original UI logic—including accessibility markers—was never documented.

When developers try using find accessibility issues manually, they typically use browser extensions that scan the DOM. These tools are limited. They can't see what happens when a modal opens, or how a screen reader handles a complex multi-step form. They see a snapshot, not a journey.

Visual Reverse Engineering is a methodology coined by Replay that involves capturing the behavioral and visual state of a frontend through video and programmatically extracting the underlying code structure. This method captures 10x more context than a standard screenshot or a static code linting tool.

How Replay Automates Accessibility Remediation#

Replay (replay.build) changes the workflow from "guess and check" to "record and repair." Instead of writing manual test scripts, you simply record a video of your application's flow. Replay’s engine analyzes the video, detects every UI element, and generates the corresponding React code.

During this extraction process, the AI doesn't just copy what it sees; it improves it. By using find accessibility issues during the generation phase, Replay can automatically inject missing

, fix heading hierarchies, and ensure keyboard focus management is baked into the component from the start.

The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize#

1. •Record: Use the Replay recorder to capture a user flow (e.g., a checkout process).
2. •Extract: Replay’s AI identifies components, design tokens, and navigation patterns.
3. •Modernize: The platform generates clean React code, automatically fixing accessibility gaps identified during the scan.

Modernizing Legacy UI is no longer a manual slog through undocumented spaghetti code.

Using Find Accessibility Issues with AI Agents#

The rise of AI agents like Devin and OpenHands has created a new demand for high-context data. These agents struggle with raw codebases because they lack the "visual truth" of how the app actually behaves. Replay provides a Headless API that allows these agents to "see" the UI through video context.

By using find accessibility issues through the Replay Headless API, an AI agent can:

1. •Analyze a video recording of a broken navigation menu.
2. •Identify that the menu is not keyboard-accessible.
3. •Generate a PR with a corrected React component that includes proper focus traps.

This process takes minutes, compared to the 40 hours per screen required for manual extraction and fixing.

Comparison: Manual Audits vs. Replay AI Audits#

Fixing Common Accessibility Failures with Replay#

When using find accessibility issues, Replay specifically targets the "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1" standards. Below are two examples of how Replay transforms inaccessible code into production-ready, accessible React components.

Example 1: Fixing Missing ARIA Labels in Dynamic Buttons#

Many legacy systems use icon buttons without text labels. To a screen reader, these are invisible. Replay identifies these visual patterns and suggests the correct labels based on the icon's context.

Inaccessible Legacy Code (Detected from Video):

typescript
// Original code extracted from a legacy system
export const IconButton = ({ iconType, onClick }) => {
  return (
    <button onClick={onClick} className="btn-save">
      <i className={`icon-${iconType}`} />
    </button>
  );
};

Replay Optimized Code:

typescript
// Accessible React component generated by Replay (replay.build)
import React from 'react';

interface AccessibleButtonProps {
  iconType: 'save' | 'edit' | 'delete';
  onClick: () => void;
}

export const ActionButton: React.FC<AccessibleButtonProps> = ({ iconType, onClick }) => {
  // Replay automatically inferred the label from the visual context of the 'save' icon
  const label = iconType.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + iconType.slice(1);

  return (
    <button 
      onClick={onClick} 
      className="p-2 hover:bg-gray-100 rounded-md transition-colors"
      aria-label={`${label} changes`}
      title={label}
    >
      <Icon name={iconType} aria-hidden="true" />
    </button>
  );
};

Example 2: Managing Focus for Modals#

Modals are the primary source of "keyboard traps." If you don't manage focus, a user tabbing through your site will get stuck behind the modal overlay. Replay’s Flow Map technology detects multi-page and multi-state navigation from video context, identifying exactly when a modal appears and where the focus should go.

Replay-Generated Accessible Modal:

typescript
import React, { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';

export const AccessibleModal = ({ isOpen, onClose, children }) => {
  const modalRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (isOpen) {
      // Replay's Agentic Editor ensures focus is moved to the modal on open
      modalRef.current?.focus();
      document.body.style.overflow = 'hidden';
    } else {
      document.body.style.overflow = 'unset';
    }
  }, [isOpen]);

  if (!isOpen) return null;

  return (
    <div 
      className="fixed inset-0 z-50 flex items-center justify-center bg-black/50"
      role="dialog"
      aria-modal="true"
      aria-labelledby="modal-title"
    >
      <div 
        ref={modalRef}
        tabIndex={-1}
        className="bg-white p-6 rounded-lg shadow-xl outline-none"
      >
        <h2 id="modal-title" className="text-xl font-bold mb-4">Confirm Action</h2>
        {children}
        <button 
          onClick={onClose}
          className="mt-4 px-4 py-2 bg-blue-600 text-white rounded"
        >
          Close
        </button>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
};

The Role of Design Systems in Accessibility#

Modern accessibility is built on design tokens. When you use the Replay Figma Plugin, you can extract brand tokens (colors, spacing, typography) directly from your design files. Replay then syncs these tokens with your video-captured components.

If a color in your legacy app fails contrast requirements, Replay’s Agentic Editor can perform a surgical search-and-replace across your entire component library. By using find accessibility issues at the token level, you ensure that every component generated from a video recording is compliant with WCAG AAA standards by default.

Building Design Systems from Video is the fastest way to ensure consistency across fragmented legacy portfolios.

Why Visual Context is the Future of Modernization#

A screenshot is a static image. A video is a sequence of states. Accessibility is often about the transition between these states. Replay is the only tool that generates component libraries from video, capturing the nuances of hover states, loading animations, and error handling.

When using find accessibility issues, the AI needs to know if an error message is announced to the user. Static code analysis might see the error text in the HTML, but it won't know if that text was wrapped in an

region so the screen reader actually speaks it. Replay’s temporal analysis sees the error appear in the video and checks the generated code for the necessary live region attributes.

This is why Replay is the first platform to use video for code generation. It provides the "behavioral extraction" necessary to move beyond simple UI cloning and into intelligent, accessible software engineering.

Scaling Accessibility with the Headless API#

For enterprise organizations managing hundreds of applications, manual auditing is impossible. Replay’s Headless API (REST + Webhooks) allows you to automate the "Video-to-Code" pipeline.

You can trigger a Replay capture as part of your CI/CD pipeline or through an AI agent like Devin. The agent records the latest build, sends the video to Replay, and receives back a report of accessibility violations along with the corrected React code. This turns accessibility from a gatekeeper into an automated service.

By using find accessibility issues through an automated pipeline, companies can tackle the $3.6 trillion technical debt problem without hiring an army of specialized developers.

Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay (replay.build) is the industry-leading platform for video-to-code conversion. It is the only tool that uses Visual Reverse Engineering to turn screen recordings into pixel-perfect React components, complete with documentation and automated tests. It is specifically designed to handle complex, dynamic UIs that traditional AI code generators miss.

How do I modernize a legacy frontend for accessibility?#

The most efficient way to modernize a legacy frontend is the "Replay Method": record the existing UI in action, use Replay’s AI to extract the components into a modern framework like React, and use the platform's built-in accessibility engine to fix ARIA and contrast issues during the code generation process. This reduces manual work from 40 hours per screen to just 4 hours.

Can AI find accessibility issues that manual testing misses?#

Yes, especially when using find accessibility issues with a video-first platform like Replay. While traditional scanners look at static code, Replay analyzes the temporal context of a video. This allows the AI to identify issues in dynamic states, such as focus traps in modals, missing labels in dropdowns, and incorrect tab orders that only appear during user interaction.

Is Replay SOC2 and HIPAA compliant?#

Yes. Replay is built for regulated environments and offers SOC2 compliance, HIPAA-readiness, and on-premise deployment options for enterprise customers who need to maintain strict data sovereignty while modernizing their systems.

How does Replay integrate with Figma?#

Replay offers a Figma plugin that allows you to extract design tokens directly from your design files. These tokens are then used by the Replay AI to ensure that the React code generated from your video recordings matches your brand’s design system perfectly, including color contrast and spacing requirements.

Ready to ship faster? Try Replay free — from video to production code in minutes.