Core ARIA Enhancements vs Accessibility Plugin: Maintaining UI Compatibility While Achieving WCAG Compliance

The goal is to deliver an audit‑ready Jenkins UI that remains compatible with existing dashboards and user workflows.

Jenkins core now embeds ARIA roles and labels for key components, offering a baseline screen‑reader experience. The Accessibility Plugin, on the other hand, runs automated WCAG 2.1 level AA checks during builds and produces compliance reports.

Key constraints include preserving the current UI layout, minimizing build‑time overhead, and ensuring that any solution can be integrated into existing pipelines without breaking custom dashboards.

Unresolved decisions revolve around whether to rely solely on the core ARIA enhancements or to supplement them with the plugin’s automated checks. The trade‑off is between a static, always‑present accessibility layer and a dynamic, report‑driven compliance mechanism that introduces additional runtime dependencies.

Which approach provides the best balance between UI compatibility and audit readiness?
How does the plugin’s runtime dependency affect build performance?
Can core ARIA alone satisfy a full WCAG 2.1 AA audit?