Context Management

Context Management for Long Accessibility Audits

When running comprehensive accessibility audits, conversations can accumulate context quickly. VS Code's /compact command helps manage this.

When to Use /compact

• Web audits: After Phase 6, if still analyzing issues
• Document audits: After processing 3+ documents
• Markdown audits: After reviewing 20+ files
• General rule: When conversation has 7+ turns and analysis is ongoing

What to Include in Compact Summary

Keep your summary focused on three elements:

1. Issues Found (by Severity)

Brief count organized by severity level:

CRITICAL: 2 issues
- Missing ARIA on custom widgets (2 instances)

HIGH: 8 issues
- Low contrast text (5 instances)
- Missing alt text (3 instances)

MEDIUM: 12 issues
- Focus order issues (7 instances)
- Heading hierarchy (5 instances)

LOW: 2 issues
- Inconsistent button sizing
- Minor label improvements

2. Key Patterns (Recurring Issues)

Identify issues that repeat across pages or documents:

PATTERNS DETECTED:
- Interactive components lack ARIA labels (recurring)
- Images in CMS missing alt text template (systemic)
- Focus management broken in navigation menu (template issue)

3. Next Steps (Remediation Priorities)

Top 3 things to tackle, and any blockers:

NEXT PRIORITIES:
1. Fix ARIA labels on custom widgets (blocks full widget testing)
2. Batch alt text updates for CMS images (can parallelize)
3. Review focus order in navigation (affects all pages)

BLOCKERS:
- Need CMS admin access for template changes
- Custom widget library documentation incomplete

How to Resume After Compaction

1. After /compact completes, the conversation resets with your summary at the top
2. Continue from "Next Steps" - agent will remember context
3. If needed, reference specific findings: "Remember the 2 Critical ARIA issues from the summary?"
4. Agent can continue analyzing, fixing, generating reports, or comparing audits

Examples by Audit Type

Web Audit Compaction

When: After phase 6 (Remediation Prioritization), with 8+ conversation turns

Include:

• Breakdown of issues by page
• Which pages have Critical/High issues
• Framework-specific patterns (React hooks issues, Vue template patterns, etc.)
• Top 3 pages to fix first

Example:

WEB AUDIT SUMMARY (8 turns)

ISSUES: 34 total
- 2 Critical (widgets without ARIA)
- 8 High (contrast failures)
- 12 Medium (focus order)
- 12 Low (minor improvements)

PAGES AFFECTED:
- /dashboard: 12 issues (most critical)
- /checkout: 8 issues (e-commerce priority)
- /login: 6 issues
- / (home): 5 issues
- Navigation menu: 3 issues (affects all pages)

KEY PATTERNS:
- React custom components missing ARIA (fix once, fix everywhere)
- Focus management in modals broken (form-related)
- Images lacking alt text (template missing)

NEXT STEPS:
1. Fix widget ARIA (blocks accessibility)
2. Color contrast in checkout (revenue impact)
3. Navigation keyboard access (affects all users)

Document Audit Compaction

When: After processing 3+ documents, with 6+ turns

Include:

• Document count and format breakdown
• Which documents have Critical/High issues
• Most common issue (fix once = fix everywhere)
• Compliance status by document type

Example:

DOCUMENT AUDIT SUMMARY (6 turns)

DOCUMENTS SCANNED: 12
- Word: 5 documents (3 with errors)
- Excel: 4 documents (2 with errors)
- PowerPoint: 2 documents (both have errors)
- PDF: 1 document (has errors)

ISSUES: 47 total
- 3 Critical (missing table headers)
- 9 High (low contrast in tables)
- 18 Medium (missing alt text for images)
- 17 Low (heading hierarchy)

MOST COMMON ISSUE:
- Missing alt text for images (found in 8 of 12 documents)
- Fix once in template = fix all future documents

COMPLIANCE BY TYPE:
- Word: 2 compliant, 3 need work
- Excel: 2 compliant, 2 need work
- PowerPoint: 0 compliant, 2 need work
- PDF: 0 compliant, 1 needs work

NEXT STEPS:
1. Fix table headers (Critical - affects readability)
2. Add alt text template to Word/Excel templates
3. Bold PowerPoint compliance (0% current)

Markdown Compaction

When: After scanning 25+ files, with 6+ turns

Include:

• File count and scan coverage
• Most common accessibility issue
• Link/anchor validation status
• Auto-fixable vs human-judgment items

Example:

MARKDOWN AUDIT SUMMARY (6 turns, 35 files)

FILES SCANNED: 35
- Site documentation: 18 files (4 have issues)
- API docs: 10 files (3 have issues)
- Guides: 7 files (2 have issues)

ISSUES: 23 total
- 1 Critical (broken anchor links)
- 5 High (ambiguous link text like "click here")
- 8 Medium (missing table descriptions)
- 9 Low (emoji in headings, em-dash inconsistency)

MOST COMMON:
- Ambiguous links "read more" / "learn more" (5 instances)
- Missing table descriptions (8 tables)
- Emoji in headings (broken outline navigation)

AUTO-FIXABLE: 9 issues
- Emoji removal: 4
- Em-dash normalization: 5

HUMAN-JUDGMENT: 14 issues
- Link text improvement: 5
- Table descriptions: 8
- Anchor validation: 1

NEXT STEPS:
1. Fix broken anchor links (blocks navigation)
2. Auto-fix emoji and dashes (9 quick wins)
3. Improve ambiguous link text (user experience)

When NOT to Compact

• Audit is in Phase 1-2 (still discovering issues) - premature
• Conversation is under 5 turns - not needed yet
• About to generate detailed report - better to keep full context for thoroughness
• Pre-compaction: ask agent if now is a good time

Best Practices

Timing

• Good time: After each major phase completes (Phase 2, Phase 4, Phase 6)
• Bad time: In the middle of Phase 1 (discovery is ongoing)
• Indicator: When agent mentions "context is accumulating" or similar warning

Format

• Be specific: "2 Critical ARIA issues" not "some accessibility problems"
• Include counts: Helps agent prioritize accurately
• Flag patterns: Agent can plan bulk fixes better
• Call out blockers: Prevents wasted effort on things that are blocked

Follow-up

After compaction, agent has the summary. You can:

"Remember the 2 Critical issues from the summary? Let's fix those first."
"Can you generate a batch script for the 8 auto-fixable issues?"
"What's the best order to fix the 34 issues we found?"
"Compare this audit to the previous one we did."

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See also:

• Web Accessibility Wizard - guidance per-phase
• Document Accessibility Wizard - document-specific
• Markdown Accessibility - markdown audits