Intelligence Community Design System

You should always write and test accessible code, even in prototypes.

Fixing accessibility issues later on can be very costly in both time and effort. Not considering accessibility when coding will increase your technical debt, and make it harder for people to use your app or service.

All front-end developers should build a good foundation of web fundamentals. The most important language to get right is HTML.

CSS and JavaScript should be learnt before composite libraries or frameworks like StencilJS and React.

Common accessibility issues are avoided by following HTML, CSS and JavaScript best practices.

Spotting and fixing accessibility issues early saves time later in the development lifecycle.

Use automated browser testing tools whilst developing, in code editors, linting and CI/CD workflows.

Keyboard-only testing should be done as often as possible, especially on significant changes.

Planning for full manual testing will help address any limitations of automated accessibility testing .

The Design System and its UI Kit includes automated, manual and user-led accessibility testing. We are confident our components and patterns exceed minimum accessibility standards.

Check whether other third-party external libraries you use have been tested. Consider if the vendor or community is performing enough accessibility testing.