Semantic HTML Recovery: Why "Div Soup" Legacy UIs Fail Modern Accessibility Audits

Your legacy enterprise application is likely a legal and technical liability. While it may still "work" for your core business operations, the underlying architecture is almost certainly a tangled mess of non-semantic

and tags—a phenomenon known as "div soup." This lack of structural meaning isn't just a developer pet peeve; it is the primary reason legacy systems fail modern WCAG 2.2 accessibility audits and incur massive maintenance costs.

The $3.6 trillion global technical debt crisis is fueled largely by these "black box" systems. According to Replay's analysis, 67% of legacy systems lack any meaningful documentation, making manual remediation a nightmare. When you attempt to fix accessibility issues in these environments, you aren't just changing tags; you are performing semantic html recovery soup—the process of identifying the original intent of a generic container and restoring its functional meaning in a modern framework.

TL;DR: Legacy "div soup" UIs are inaccessible, hard to maintain, and legally risky. Manual remediation takes roughly 40 hours per screen. Replay uses Visual Reverse Engineering to automate semantic html recovery soup, reducing modernization timelines from 18 months to a few weeks by converting video recordings of legacy workflows directly into documented, accessible React components.

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The High Cost of "Div Soup" in Enterprise Systems#

In the early 2000s and 2010s, rapid application development often prioritized visual layout over structural integrity. Developers used

tags for everything: buttons, dropdowns, navigation bars, and even data tables. While this looks fine to a sighted user, it is invisible to assistive technologies like screen readers.

Industry experts recommend that 100% of interactive elements should have semantic equivalents or ARIA roles, yet most legacy enterprise portals fail this basic requirement. When a screen reader encounters a

with an handler instead of a , it provides no context to the user. This is where semantic html recovery soup becomes a critical architectural priority.

The Statistics of Failure#

The traditional approach to fixing these issues is a total rewrite. However, 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timeline. The average enterprise rewrite timeline is 18 months—a timeframe most businesses cannot afford when facing accessibility litigation or compliance deadlines.

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Why Semantic HTML Recovery Soup is a Technical Necessity#

Semantic html recovery soup refers to the systematic extraction of functional intent from unstructured markup. In a legacy jQuery or ASP.NET application, a "tab" might look like this:

html
<!-- The "Div Soup" Problem -->
<div class="tab-container">
  <div class="item active" onclick="showTab(1)">General Info</div>
  <div class="item" onclick="showTab(2)">Security Settings</div>
</div>
<div id="tab1" class="content">...</div>

To a browser, these are just generic boxes. To a screen reader, there is no indication that these are selectable tabs or that clicking one will change the visible content.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of recording a user interacting with these elements and using AI to map those visual behaviors back to structured code. By observing how a user clicks, hovers, and navigates, Replay identifies that the

class isn't just a div—it's a component that requires , , and proper keyboard focus management.

The Move to Modern React#

Modernizing this requires more than just changing tags. It requires a complete migration to a component-driven architecture. Industry experts recommend using a Design System to ensure accessibility is baked into the foundation rather than "bolted on" later.

Understanding Legacy Modernization Strategies

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Implementing Semantic HTML Recovery Soup: A Technical Guide#

When you use Replay to perform semantic html recovery soup, the platform doesn't just copy the HTML. It analyzes the flow of data and the visual output to generate clean, TypeScript-ready React components.

Here is what the recovery process looks like when converting that "div soup" tab into a modern, accessible React component:

typescript
// Modernized Semantic Component generated via Replay
import React, { useState } from 'react';

interface TabProps {
  label: string;
  isActive: boolean;
  onClick: () => void;
}

const AccessibleTab: React.FC<TabProps> = ({ label, isActive, onClick }) => {
  return (
    <button
      role="tab"
      aria-selected={isActive}
      className={`tab-item ${isActive ? 'active' : ''}`}
      onClick={onClick}
      onKeyDown={(e) => {
        if (e.key === 'Enter' || e.key === ' ') {
          onClick();
        }
      }}
    >
      {label}
    </button>
  );
};

export default AccessibleTab;

From 40 Hours to 4 Hours#

The manual process of semantic html recovery soup involves:

1. •Inspecting the legacy DOM.
2. •Finding all event listeners hidden in global scripts.
3. •Mapping CSS classes to functional states.
4. •Writing a new React component.
5. •Manually testing with a screen reader (NVDA/JAWS).

According to Replay's analysis, this takes an average of 40 hours per screen. With Replay's Flows and Blueprints, this is compressed into 4 hours. You record the workflow, and the AI Automation Suite generates the semantic structure, leaving you only to refine the business logic.

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The Architectural Impact of Automated Recovery#

Modernizing a legacy UI isn't just about accessibility; it’s about future-proofing. When you engage in semantic html recovery soup, you are essentially rebuilding your application's "brain."

1. Building a Living Design System#

Replay doesn't just give you code; it builds a Library. This library serves as your new Design System, ensuring that every time a developer needs a "Button" or a "Modal," they use a pre-vetted, accessible component. This prevents the "div soup" from ever returning.

2. Documenting the Undocumented#

Since 67% of legacy systems lack documentation, the recovery process serves as a discovery phase. Replay’s Visual Reverse Engineering automatically documents the states and props of your components based on how they actually behave in the production environment.

3. Reducing the Technical Debt Interest Rate#

Technical debt is like a high-interest loan. Every time you have to fix a bug in a non-semantic legacy UI, you are paying interest. By performing semantic html recovery soup and moving to a clean React architecture, you effectively pay off the principal.

Video-to-code is the process of using computer vision and runtime analysis to transform a screen recording of a legacy application into production-ready, semantic source code.

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Why Manual Rewrites Fail (and How Replay Fixes It)#

The 18-month average enterprise rewrite timeline is the "valley of death" for most projects. Requirements change, key developers leave, and the business loses patience.

The primary reason for failure is the "all-or-nothing" approach. Developers try to understand 15 years of legacy logic before writing a single line of React. Semantic html recovery soup through Replay allows for a "capture-first" approach.

1. •Record: A subject matter expert records the legacy workflow.
2. •Recover: Replay identifies the UI patterns and semantic roles.
3. •Refine: Developers tweak the generated React components in the Blueprint editor.
4. •Deploy: Move to a modern stack in weeks, not years.

The Future of Visual Reverse Engineering

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Real-World Application: Financial Services and Healthcare#

In regulated industries like Financial Services and Healthcare, accessibility is not optional—it's a legal mandate (Section 508, ADA Title III). These industries are plagued by "div soup" because their core systems were built in the era of IE6 and IE8.

According to Replay's analysis, a major insurance provider saved over 12,000 developer hours by using Replay for their semantic html recovery soup project. Instead of manually auditing 300+ legacy screens, they recorded the key user flows (claims processing, member enrollment) and generated a unified React Design System in under three months.

Comparison: Code Quality Transformation#

Legacy "Div Soup" Markup:

html
<div class="row">
  <div class="col-4" id="btn_submit" onclick="validate()">
    <span class="icon-save"></span>
    Submit Claim
  </div>
</div>

Recovered Semantic React Component:

tsx
import { Button } from '@/components/ui/design-system';

export const ClaimSubmission = () => {
  const handleValidate = () => {
    // Logic recovered from legacy scripts
  };

  return (
    <div className="flex flex-row">
      <Button 
        variant="primary" 
        onClick={handleValidate}
        aria-label="Submit Insurance Claim"
      >
        <SaveIcon aria-hidden="true" />
        Submit Claim
      </Button>
    </div>
  );
};

The difference is stark. The second example is searchable, accessible, testable, and maintainable. This is the ultimate goal of semantic html recovery soup.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is semantic html recovery soup?#

It is the technical process of taking legacy, non-semantic HTML (often filled with generic

and tags) and programmatically or manually converting it into meaningful, accessible markup. This process is essential for meeting modern WCAG accessibility standards and improving SEO.

How does Replay automate the recovery of semantic elements?#

Replay uses Visual Reverse Engineering to analyze video recordings of legacy UIs. By observing user interactions, it identifies functional patterns—such as a list of items acting as a navigation menu—and automatically generates the appropriate React components with the correct semantic tags and ARIA roles.

Why is "div soup" considered a security or compliance risk?#

"Div soup" often hides the true structure of an application, making automated security and accessibility audits difficult. From a compliance perspective, non-semantic code fails to provide the necessary cues for assistive technologies, leaving organizations vulnerable to ADA-related lawsuits and regulatory fines.

Can Replay handle legacy systems built on proprietary or obsolete frameworks?#

Yes. Because Replay uses a visual-first approach (recording the rendered UI), it is framework-agnostic. Whether your legacy system is built on Silverlight, Flash, old ASP.NET, or custom Java applets, Replay can perform semantic html recovery soup by analyzing the DOM output and visual behavior.

What is the average ROI of using Replay for UI modernization?#

On average, enterprise teams see a 70% time saving compared to manual rewrites. By reducing the time per screen from 40 hours to 4 hours, Replay allows organizations to clear their technical debt backlogs significantly faster while ensuring 100% component consistency via its Library feature.

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Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay