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Our Commitment to Accessibility in Gatsby

Marcy Sutton
April 18th, 2019

As a popular and growing framework for building websites and web applications, Gatsby is in a position to make an impact for accessibility and people with disabilities. The Gatsby team is passionate about helping you create websites that work for everyone, with helpful defaults that bake in web accessibility as well as performance optimizations.

Making a lasting, positive impact with inclusive design and accessible web technology requires an ongoing commitment from all of us. In spite of the sad reality that research projects like the WebAIM One Million have shown–that despite the community’s efforts, we haven’t made much progress in the top million websites at all–there is very much an opportunity to make an impact in the web development space. Sites built with heavy JavaScript also tend to be less accessible. As Gatsby sites are built with Node and React.js, we recognize the importance of accessible defaults as well as best practices in documentation and examples.

In addition to Gatsby itself, each CMS vendor, hosting platform, design system, and consulting partner we work with is in a unique position to affect users and collaborators alike. Not including accessibility in third-party platforms can present barriers to customers, colleagues and users with disabilities, making an inaccessible product a less competitive one; especially in government, education and employment settings but also in the broader marketplace. Therefore, we encourage everyone who integrates with Gatsby to join us in this initiative to make the web more accessible to all.

To demonstrate our commitment, we’ve published an Accessibility Statement on Gatsbyjs.org with product information and resources on how we’re thinking and acting for accessibility. The statement also provides contact information and how to report issues should you encounter them. The Gatsby team has done quite a bit of work on accessibility already, including integrating @reach/router for dynamic focus management, server-side rendering by default, semantic markup and sensible CSS styling in core starters, and soon, strongly encouraging development and use of accessible Gatsby themes. We also regularly provide feedback to each other in the product and OSS development process to continuously improve.

It’s a work in progress for us and the larger ecosystem; however, Gatsby’s commitment to transparency and active improvement are our core values. If you’re new to web accessibility, we’ve included some resources for you to get started. If you or your company hasn’t tackled this subject much before, now’s a perfect time to start!

For any questions, you are welcome to contact us via email at Gatsby: accessibility@gatsbyjs.com.

Gatsby Accessibility Statement: https://www.gatsbyjs.org/accessibility-statement/

Accessibility Resources

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Lead DevRel/Community Software Engineer at Gatsby, cyclist, animal lover, pie baker.

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