[lucideer]

> any indication that any amount of thought has been put into a11y issues is the opposite of a code smell to me

You're absolutely right but that's mainly just because the bar is so low.

Ultimately it does seem like code smell to me. Insofar as it indicates you're doing something toward a11y, it's what I'd call a "good problem" (the type you only encounter when things are going in the right direction), but it seems a good indicator that a11y is being applied as an addon process (where a functional product goes through a11y review before iterating) rather than an intrinsic consideration at the architecting stage.