ONWARD ACCESSIBILITY · 2026
POUR for Agents.
Context engineering for web accessibility workflows.
Dylan Isaac
Founder, Enablement Engineering
BUFFALO, NY · ENABLEMENT.ENGINEERING
01 · WHAT AN AGENT IS
A language model wired up to tools.
Reads files. Inspects code. Runs tests. Calls APIs. Parses whatever the environment hands back.
STRENGTH
Fast.
Synthesizes across long inputs at a speed humans can't match.
STRENGTH
Text-native.
Code, docs, tests, terminal output — all the same medium.
WEAKNESS
Forgetful.
No durable memory unless the environment hands it back.
WEAKNESS
Pattern-hungry.
Overfits to whichever pattern is nearest. Sounds confident early.
POUR FOR AGENTS · DYLAN ISAAC
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02 · THE DEFAULT FAILURE
It looks finished.
Underneath, the semantics are thin.
The model learns to make an interface look done before it reliably learns to make it work — for keyboard, for assistive tech, for users.
CAPABILITIES ARE JAGGED.
POUR FOR AGENTS · DYLAN ISAAC
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03 · THE MEMORY MISMATCH
Humans accumulate.
Agents restart.
HUMANS
Accumulate context.
Past bugs. Deprecated components. The time axe passed and the screen reader experience was still broken.
AGENTS
Restart from zero.
Helpful, fast, tireless — with their own training-data baggage and a fresh-contractor-on-day-one vibe.
Institutional knowledge is invisible to the agent until it's encoded.
POUR FOR AGENTS · DYLAN ISAAC
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04 · POUR, AGAIN
We make the web POUR
for users.
We need to make our workflows
POUR for agents.
POUR FOR AGENTS · DYLAN ISAAC
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05 · THE INVENTORY
Inventory the surfaces the agent reads.
01
Code
Component names. File structure. JSX.
02
Docs
READMEs, pattern docs, ADRs.
03
Tests
Names that describe intent, not just status.
04
File names
Dialog.tsx teaches differently than Popper.tsx.
05
Component APIs
Props that name the contract.
06
Tool output
Logs, terminal, axe results.
07
Review notes
PR comments, decision records.
08
Schemas
The shape of correct output.
Every readable surface is an affordance — or, if we ignore it, an obstacle.
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06 · THE FRAMEWORK
POUR, turned around.
P
Perceivable
Can it see the right signals?
O
Operable
Can it act through safe handles?
U
Understandable
Can it follow our reasoning?
R
Robust
Can it check and correct its work?
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07 · WORKED EXAMPLE - W3C Alt Text Decision Tree
Alt text is a decision, not a caption.
NAIVE
image
→
caption
Pixels alone get you a description of pixels.
WORKFLOW
image
+
context
+
decision tree
→
alt behavior
The process reveals the information required to make the decision.
POUR FOR AGENTS · DYLAN ISAAC
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08 · PERCEIVABLE, FOR ALT TEXT
The image alone isn't enough context.
image
+
DOM
+
nearby text
+
page purpose
+
interaction role
Better signals, not more vibes. Pixels plus context get you closer to an accessibility decision.
POUR FOR AGENTS · DYLAN ISAAC
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09 · OPERABLE, FOR ALT TEXT
Give the agent a handle, not a vibes prompt.
01
Classify
Run the image through the decision tree.
02
Recommend
Decorative, functional, informative, complex.
03
Explain
Show the decision path, not just the verdict.
04
Flag
Route ambiguous cases to a human.
The handle encodes the workflow.
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10 · UNDERSTANDABLE, FOR ALT TEXT
Decision trees are agent context.
a11y/patterns/alt-text.md
Q1.
Does the image contain text?
→
Q2.
Is it functional — the only label inside a control?
→
Q3.
Does it carry meaning relative to surrounding content?
→
Q4.
Is it complex enough that no short alt will do?
→
Q5.
Is it decorative — redundant with nearby content?
→
The W3C version is public. What your team knows about your product is not.
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11 · ROBUST, FOR ALT TEXT
The answer must be reviewable.
01
Decision path
The why, not just the what.
→
02
Tool checks
Schema, presence, structure.
→
03
Judge review
Internal consistency, not user impact.
→
04
Human escalation
When ambiguity matters most.
Different accessibility tasks need different loops. Designing the loop for the actual task is part of the work.
POUR FOR AGENTS · DYLAN ISAAC
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12 · THE TAKEAWAY
Your expertise is the asset.
01
Inventory it.
02
Encode it.
03
Surface it.
04
Verify it.
So agents magnify expertise, instead of generating slop.
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END · Q&A
Thank you.