You can build a complete Joomla 5 template without touching a Joomla install

I ran a full accessibility audit on my Joomla template using the AI. It found twelve WCAG violations I'd missed. Colour contrast on muted text, missing aria-labels on nav toggles, keyboard focus indicators that blended into the background.

Accessibility is one of those things everyone knows matters but nobody prioritizes until a client mentions it. Having the AI catch it automatically is actually huge. It's like having a QA team that never sleeps.

I set up a prompt template for accessibility reviews. 'Audit this CSS for WCAG AA contrast violations. List all failing colour pairs with their actual ratios.' Takes about thirty seconds. Does what an accessibility consultant charges thousands for.

Thousands might be overstating it. But the point stands. The AI catches the mechanical stuff. The human focuses on the experiential stuff -- does the site actually feel good to use? Does the navigation make intuitive sense?

I tried the Signal Dark template and the dark theme accessibility was surprisingly solid. Good contrast ratios out of the box. Someone clearly thought about it during development.

That's what happens when you iterate with AI. Each round catches things the previous round missed. By version twenty of your CSS, you've addressed issues you wouldn't have found manually until launch day.