Open Source Accessibility Playbook

The primary target audience of this playbook is maintainers of open source software (OSS) projects. The objective of the playbook is to help maintainers improve the accessibility of their projects from the perspective of three stakeholders:

1. contributors;
2. consumers; and
3. end users.

Contributors

Contributors are people who contribute to OSS (Open Source Software) projects.

What can you do to empower contributors with disabilities to contribute to your project?

• Include a welcoming statement in your contributing.md. Clearly state that contributors with disabilities are welcome. Invite them to contact you if they need accommodations.
• Ensure project documentation is accessible.

Consumers

Consumers are people and organizations who consume open source projects within their projects.

What can you do to empower consumers to meet the accessibility requirements of their projects?

• Some consumers have hard accessibility requirements. They need a clear statement about the accessibility of your project so they can evaluate supply-chain risk.
• Consumers need an easy way to review existing accessibility bugs and submitting new ones.

End Users

End users are people with disabilities who actually use the results of open source projects. That use may be direct or indirect. An example of indirect use is when an open source library is used within a commercial website.

What can you do to improve accessibility for end users with disabilities?

• Use accessibility and coding standards to create content;
• Use accessibility tooling to check your work as you go;
• Use accessibility personas as part of the design process;
• Use accessibility personas as part of the design process;

An accessibility statement for end users that communicates current level of accessibility, known bugs, links to doc about accessibility features, how to provide feedback, etc. Additional items TBD.