Accessibility is one of the easiest ways to stand out in a frontend interview, simply because so many candidates skip it. In UI rounds, a lot of people build a working component with divs and click handlers, and never mention keyboard users or screen readers.
Interviewers at larger companies often notice, because their products have to work for everyone (and often have legal requirements to). Here are the accessibility questions that come up, the checklist I run in every UI round, and code for the components interviewers like to ask about.
The checklist I run on every UI question
Once my component works, I spend about two minutes on these five checks and say them out loud. Even if I don’t have time to implement everything, naming what I’d add earns credit.
1. “Why use a button instead of a div with onClick?”
This is the most common accessibility question, and the answer goes deeper than “semantics”.
A native <button> gives you, for free:
- It’s focusable with Tab.
- It activates with Enter and Space.
- Screen... premium content.
