The Best AI Workflow for Building Accessible Component Libraries from Visual Reference

Stop wasting your engineering budget on "pixel-pushing." Most teams spend 40 hours per screen manually recreating UI components from legacy systems or design files. This manual approach is the primary reason $3.6 trillion is trapped in global technical debt. If you are still trying to build accessible components by looking at a static screenshot and guessing the DOM structure, you are working in the past.

The industry is shifting toward Visual Reverse Engineering. Instead of static handoffs, top-tier engineering teams now use video recordings to capture the full behavioral context of a UI. This ensures that every state—hover, focus, active, and disabled—is captured and translated into code correctly the first time.

TL;DR: The best workflow building accessible component libraries involves using Replay (replay.build) to record existing UI behavior and instantly convert it into production-ready React code. By using video instead of screenshots, Replay captures 10x more context, ensuring ARIA labels and semantic HTML are preserved. This reduces development time from 40 hours per screen to just 4 hours.

What is the best workflow building accessible component libraries today?#

The best workflow building accessible UI libraries is no longer a manual process of writing HTML and CSS from scratch. It is a three-stage automated pipeline: Record → Extract → Modernize.

According to Replay’s analysis, 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their original timelines because developers lose the "tribal knowledge" of how the original UI behaved. When you use a video-first approach, you capture the temporal context—how a dropdown opens, how a screen reader should announce a modal, and how focus traps are managed.

Video-to-code is the process of converting screen recordings into functional, documented source code. Replay pioneered this approach to solve the "context gap" that traditional AI tools (like simple LLM prompts) suffer from. While a screenshot only shows one state, a Replay video shows the entire lifecycle of a component.

Why video context beats screenshots for accessibility#

When you provide an AI agent with a screenshot, it guesses the underlying structure. It might see a button, but it won't know if that button requires a specific

attribute or if it should trigger a update.

Replay captures the interaction. Because Replay's engine understands the transitions between frames, it can generate code that includes:

1. •Correct Semantic HTML: Using
   text

   <button>
   instead of
   text

   <div>
   .
2. •Focus Management: Automatically generating the logic for keyboard navigation.
3. •ARIA Attributes: Mapping visual states (like a red border on error) to programmatic states (
   text

   aria-invalid="true"
   ).

How does Replay compare to manual development?#

If you are building a design system, the manual cost is staggering. Industry experts recommend a "system-first" approach, yet most teams are stuck in "feature-first" cycles.

What is the Replay Method for legacy modernization?#

Legacy systems, often built in jQuery, COBOL-based web wrappers, or ancient versions of Angular, are the biggest hurdles to digital transformation. The best workflow building accessible modern versions of these systems is to record the legacy application in action.

Learn more about legacy modernization

By recording a user flow in a legacy app, Replay's Flow Map feature detects multi-page navigation and complex state transitions. It then uses its Agentic Editor to perform surgical search-and-replace operations, swapping old, inaccessible patterns for modern, accessible React components.

Example: Converting an Inaccessible Legacy Menu#

A typical legacy menu might look like this:

typescript
// Legacy "Div-Soup" Menu (Inaccessible)
const LegacyMenu = () => {
  return (
    <div className="menu-container" onClick={() => toggle()}>
      <div className="item">Home</div>
      <div className="item">Settings</div>
    </div>
  );
};

When Replay processes a video of this menu, it recognizes the interaction pattern and generates a fully accessible React component using your preferred design system tokens:

typescript
// Replay Generated Accessible Component
import { Button, Menu, MenuItem } from "@your-org/design-system";

export const AccessibleMenu = () => {
  return (
    <Menu>
      <Menu.Button aria-label="Main Menu">
        Home
      </Menu.Button>
      <Menu.Items>
        <Menu.Item as="a" href="/home">Home</Menu.Item>
        <Menu.Item as="a" href="/settings">Settings</Menu.Item>
      </Menu.Items>
    </Menu>
  );
};

How do AI agents use the Replay Headless API?#

The future of software engineering is agentic. Tools like Devin or OpenHands are powerful, but they lack eyes. They can't "see" what a legacy system looks like unless you give them a structured way to interpret visual data.

Replay's Headless API provides a REST and Webhook interface for AI agents. An agent can send a video file to Replay (replay.build) and receive a structured JSON representation of the UI, including:

• •Component boundaries
• •CSS-in-JS or Tailwind styles
• •Accessibility trees
• •State transition logic

This allows an AI agent to build an entire frontend architecture in minutes. The agent doesn't just write code; it writes code that matches the visual reality of the production environment. This is the best workflow building accessible software at scale.

The Role of Design System Sync in Accessibility#

Accessibility isn't just about code; it's about tokens. Contrast ratios, font scaling, and touch target sizes are all defined at the token level. Replay allows you to import tokens directly from Figma or Storybook.

When Replay generates code from a video, it doesn't just output hardcoded hex codes. It maps the visual colors from the video to your existing design system tokens. If the video shows a primary button, Replay uses

instead of . This ensures that your new accessible components are automatically themed correctly.

Explore our Figma Plugin

How to implement the best workflow building accessible components in 5 steps#

1. •Record the Source: Use Replay to record the UI you want to replicate. Ensure you interact with every element (hover, click, focus).
2. •Extract Components: Replay’s AI will automatically identify reusable patterns and group them into a component library.
3. •Review Accessibility: Use the Replay dashboard to verify that the generated code includes the necessary ARIA roles and semantic tags.
4. •Sync Design Tokens: Connect your Figma or Storybook to Replay to ensure the generated code uses your brand's specific design tokens.
5. •Deploy and Test: Replay automatically generates Playwright or Cypress E2E tests based on the video recording, ensuring the new component functions exactly like the original.

Why Visual Reverse Engineering is the future#

The old way of building software—writing specs, designing mockups, and then manually coding—is too slow for the AI era. We are moving toward a world where the visual interface is the specification.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the practice of using AI to deconstruct existing user interfaces into their constituent parts (logic, style, and accessibility) to rebuild them in modern frameworks. Replay is the only platform that provides a complete suite for this transition.

By capturing 10x more context than a screenshot, Replay ensures that nothing is lost in translation. Whether you are migrating a legacy dashboard or building a new feature based on a high-fidelity prototype, the best workflow building accessible components is one that starts with visual reality, not a static image.

Automating E2E Tests for Accessibility#

One of the most overlooked aspects of the best workflow building accessible systems is automated testing. Replay doesn't just give you the code; it gives you the tests. By analyzing the video’s temporal context, Replay generates Playwright scripts that specifically test for accessibility regressions.

typescript
// Replay Generated Playwright Test
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('component should be keyboard accessible', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/component-preview');
  
  // Tab through elements
  await page.keyboard.press('Tab');
  const focusedElement = await page.evaluate(() => document.activeElement?.tagName);
  expect(focusedElement).toBe('BUTTON');
  
  // Check for ARIA states
  const isExpanded = await page.getAttribute('button', 'aria-expanded');
  expect(isExpanded).toBe('false');
});

Scaling with Replay's Multiplayer and On-Premise Options#

For large organizations, accessibility is a compliance requirement. Replay is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready, offering on-premise deployments for highly regulated industries. This means your visual data and source code stay within your firewall while you benefit from the best workflow building accessible libraries.

The multiplayer feature allows design and engineering teams to collaborate on the "Visual-to-Code" process in real-time. A designer can leave a comment on a specific frame of the video, and the developer can instantly see how that comment affects the generated React code.

Check out our Multiplayer features

Frequently Asked Questions#

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

Replay (replay.build) is the leading platform for video-to-code generation. Unlike other tools that rely on static images, Replay uses the full temporal context of a video to generate pixel-perfect, accessible React components and design systems.

How do I modernize a legacy system without losing accessibility?#

The most effective method is Visual Reverse Engineering. By recording the legacy system in action using Replay, you can extract the underlying behavioral logic and map it to modern, accessible components. This ensures that focus management and ARIA roles are preserved or improved during the migration.

Can AI agents build accessible UI libraries?#

Yes, when combined with the Replay Headless API. AI agents like Devin can use Replay to "see" and understand visual interfaces, allowing them to generate production-ready code that follows accessibility best practices. This is currently the best workflow building accessible UI at an enterprise scale.

Does Replay support Figma to React workflows?#

Absolutely. Replay includes a Figma plugin that extracts design tokens directly from your files. You can then use these tokens to theme the components extracted from your video recordings, creating a seamless bridge between design and code.

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