--- name: journal-011-reviewer-pass2 title: Journal 011 — The Reviewer — Pass 2 Session Close type: journal state: in-flight workstream: mtg-artefact date: 2026-06-01 related-ids: [The-Reviewer, The-Vault-v0.47, Pass-2-Findings] aliases: [Journal 011, Reviewer Pass 2 Journal] --- # Journal 011 — The Reviewer — Pass 2 Session Close **Session:** Reviewer Session 2 — Pass 2 (Mobile + accessibility) **Build under audit:** `The_Vault_v0.47_banner_swap_2026-06-01_1626.html` **Filed:** `Reviewer_Findings_Pass2_MobileAccessibility_v1_2026-06-01_1735.md` --- ## Movement One — The day in the round Pass 2 opened on Paul's nod, immediately after Pass 1 closed and the Reviewer-to-Bob PASS-ON was filed. The audit covered phone and tablet breakpoints, touch-target sizing, modal touch behaviour, scroll behaviour, WCAG 2.1 AA compliance (contrast, semantic HTML, ARIA, keyboard navigation, forms), cross-browser sanity, the print stylesheet, performance, and reduced-motion handling. Method: code-grounded inference from source — media queries, computed CSS, declared ARIA, focus management, computed colour-contrast ratios (Python `srgb_to_linear` luminance calculation against the build's CSS variable palette), modal patterns. Real-device behaviour, live screen-reader announcement, and Lighthouse / axe metrics deferred — flagged in the findings document's honest perimeter. Three Reds emerged: gold accent fails AA contrast as link text on light backgrounds (computed 2.89:1 vs required 4.5); single 800px breakpoint with no phone-specific tuning; reduced-motion preferences not respected. Seven Ambers support, mostly single-block CSS fixes. Twelve Greens distributed — semantic HTML, native `` for chat, ARIA used purposefully, skip-link, focus-visible, modal scroll-lock, mutually-exclusive panel pattern. The findings document was filed at 17:35 UTC. This journal closes the session at 17:40 UTC. --- ## Movement Two — What was built - **Pass 2 findings filed.** `Reviewer_Findings_Pass2_MobileAccessibility_v1_2026-06-01_1735.md`. Frame, three headline findings, ten section-level findings (six WCAG dimensions × four browser/print/performance/motion dimensions), ten ranked priorities, five open questions for Paul, honest-perimeter close. - **Computed contrast table.** Eight colour pairs from the build's CSS variable palette through standard sRGB-linear luminance arithmetic. Numbers ground the contrast finding in fact, not impression. Table reproduced in the findings document. - **Single 480px breakpoint proposed.** Specific structural recommendation: stack the five-panel strip to two columns; bump small-font sizes to ≥0.75rem; bump dialog control-button padding. - **Single `prefers-reduced-motion` block proposed.** Five-line CSS, drop in. Closes the WCAG 2.3.3 gap with no register impact. - **Doc-modal pattern migration proposed.** Native `` matching the chat-dialog pattern; or hand-rolled focus management. My read: native. --- ## Movement Three — What was caught - **Computed accent contrast fails AA at 2.89:1 on cream.** Previously unflagged. The gold register works visually on dark surfaces (5.75:1 on dark-band — passes) but fails as text on the room's light surfaces. The token strategy — `--accent-text` separate from `--accent` — keeps the visual register intact while closing the AA gap. - **The Method's "honest perimeter" was incomplete on motion.** No reduced-motion handling means a vestibular-sensitive visitor sees the ticker continue to scroll even when their OS pref is set to stop. The room's honesty depends partly on respecting the visitor's stated preferences. - **The doc-modal is not native.** Chat-dialog is ``; doc-modal is a `
`. The asymmetry costs keyboard users. Two patterns for one role across the same build. Migrate to one. - **Five-panel strip on a 360px screen.** 5 columns × ~70px panels with letter-badge text at ~7-8px. The structural call (keep five) was ratified in Pass 1; the phone rendering needs its own breakpoint to keep the five legible. --- ## Movement Four — What drifted, where held - **The Brief specified ≤480 + 481-1024 as distinct audit zones.** The build uses one breakpoint at 800px. Held as H2 / P4. Recommended fix: add a 480px block. Tablet range (481-1024) is mostly served by the desktop layout; an explicit tablet block is optional. - **`--accent-deep #a88a2f` exists but doesn't solve contrast.** Already in the build at 2.99:1 against `--bg`. Used for hover deepening, not text contrast. A separate `--accent-text` token at ≥4.5:1 is the proposal. Trade-off — deeper bronze loses some "gold" feel. Surface to Paul for register call (Q2). - **The 8.5 MB inline payload.** Held as honest perimeter — not a hard fail, real-world UX concern on mobile data. Proposed compression (cuts ~3-4 MB). Editorial / Paul's call. (Q4.) --- ## Movement Five — Method demonstrating itself - **Honest perimeter declared again, up front.** Pass 2 named what it could not assess (real-device, live screen reader, automated audit tools, print preview, cross-browser, performance metrics) before the findings landed. The audit's own boundary is part of the deliverable. - **Flag Protocol calibrated to consequence, not observable detail.** Three Reds where the gap is binding (AA contrast, mobile breakpoint, motion). Ambers where the fix is mechanical but not blocking. Greens where the implementation is strong. No Red inflated; no Green omitted. - **Routing discipline.** All findings stay on Reviewer shore (audit → propose). Implementation routes back through Paul to Bob. Editorial / register decisions (Q2: accent-text token value; Q4: image compression) routed to Paul, not actioned cross-shore. - **Numbers ground the finding.** The contrast finding is supported by computed ratios, not eyeball impression. Reviewer's read aligns with the Analyst's discipline — numbers carry the structural claim where numbers are available. --- ## Movement Six — Continuous improvement **Reviewer's shore — the audit's own discipline:** - The "code-grounded inference" method works for WCAG contrast (computable), ARIA semantics (declared), keyboard nav (DOM order), modal patterns (visible in source). It does not work for real-device touch, live screen-reader output, or print preview. Pass 2 names the boundary; a future pass may want a complementary device-eye instance for the deferred items. **Bob's shore — the build's own discipline:** - A single `--accent-text` token (proposed) keeps the visual register intact while meeting AA. A token-based approach to contrast generally is cleaner than per-rule overrides. - One modal pattern across the build (proposed: native `` everywhere) is cleaner than two. Reduces maintenance. - A reduced-motion block is a standard a11y inclusion; carrying it forward into any Stage Two / Three build will save a re-audit. **The Visitor's shore — what the next pass forward should test:** - The mum-end test (does she find what she came for) and the Kieren-end test (does the evidence land) both remain live for Pass 3. Pass 2 confirms the structural rails carry weight; Pass 3 audits whether the wording on the rails lands at the right altitude. **The Method's shore:** - The Drawer 06 internal-vocabulary leak (Pass 1) and the doc-modal pattern divergence (Pass 2) suggest a standing pre-ship check: *does any visitor-facing text expose internal file paths or working vocabulary, and does the build hold to one pattern per role?* Carry forward as a Bob-shore end-of-session sweep. **The Fisherman's shore:** - The `--accent-text` introduction is editorial-adjacent — it changes the register slightly. Worth a one-line Fisherman ratification before Bob ships P2. --- ## Standing by - **Pass 1 PASS-ON for Bob filed; v0.48 ships on Paul's hand-off.** - **Pass 2 findings filed; eleven items in the queue, three Red, seven Amber, one Pass-3-adjacent.** - **Pass 3 (voice and copy) opens on Paul's nod.** Same pattern: audit · file · journal. Element-by-element rewrites proposed; Paul ratifies; Bob implements. - **Session 4 (optional)** — Reviewer files a consolidated handover after Pass 3 ships. — **The Reviewer** · 2026-06-01 17:40 UTC #state/in-flight #workstream/mtg-artefact #type/journal #the-reviewer #pass-2 #session-close