GitHub is honored to take the Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) Pledge, reaffirming our commitment to improving accessibility in open source software. Through our work, our aim is to empower people with disabilities to contribute to open source, increase the availability of open source Assistive Technologies, and enhance the accessibility of mainstream open source projects.
Joe Devon initially proposed the idea for GAAD in a 2011 blog post because he was frustrated by the lack of information about accessibility for developers. With the help of accessibility advocate Jennison Asuncion, Joe’s proposal led to the first GAAD in May 2012, which has since evolved into an annual global event that reaches millions of people. In 2020, the GAAD Foundation launched the GAAD Pledge to incorporate accessibility into the core of open source projects, and now, GitHub is proud to join this important initiative.
Our pledge
Our pledge will focus on the following interdependent goals:
- Empower people with disabilities to contribute to open source
- Increase the availability and adoption of open source assistive technologies
- Increase the accessibility of mainstream open source projects
Read on for how we plan on executing these goals:
Empower people with disabilities to contribute to open source
Given that technology is a ubiquitous and essential part of modern life, and approximately 16% of the human population, or 1.3 billion people, have a disability, it is critical that people with disabilities are able to contribute to the development of the technology that is used by all of humanity. When people with disabilities contribute, we increase the probability that the resulting technologies will be usable by everyone.
For example, consider the story of Becky Tyler. Becky is a bright, engaging, and tenacious young woman with quadriplegic cerebral palsy who interacts with her computer exclusively by using her eyes. Becky started off simply wanting to play Minecraft, but accessibility barriers led her down a path beyond mining ore and into the world of open source software where she began learning to code. She now attends the University of Dundee, where she studies Applied Computing.
We need to build more inclusive open source communities that better represent the rich diversity of humanity. In order for everyone to contribute, we need to remove barriers that block people with disabilities from development platforms and tools. Those barriers include a a lack of keyboard operability, insufficient color contrast, and incompatibility with assistive technologies such as screen readers. Removing accessibility barriers will enable every developer to keep exercising their craft.
Increase the availability and adoption of free and open source Assistive Technologies
Many people with disabilities require Assistive Technology to access a computer or perform the basic functions of daily living. According to the Assistive Technology Industry Association, assistive technology is, “any item, piece of equipment, software program, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities.”
The challenge is that proprietary Assistive Technology products can be very expensive. That challenge is exacerbated by the fact that people with disabilities are less likely to be employed and less likely to have earned an advanced degree, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
On GitHub, anyone can create assistive technologies that improve access for people with disabilities. There are no financial or bureaucratic hurdles. In addition, open source licenses allow anyone to use those assistive technologies. They also enable like-minded individuals to form communities that support and improve the assistive technologies.
For example, Jamie Teh and Michael “Mick” Curran created the NVDA screen reader, a free, high-quality screen reader for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Over the past 15 years, they have built a community that includes hundreds of blind developers and contributors, as well as more than 250,000 users.
We need more free and open source assistive technologies like NVDA. We also need to increase the awareness of those alternatives within both the global community of people with disabilities and people who support them, such as care-givers, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and other forms of assistive technology and rehabilitation professionals.
Increase the accessibility of mainstream open source projects
The world runs on open source software. For example, ninety percent of companies use open source1, 97% of codebases contain open source2, 70-90% of the code within commercial tools comes from open source3, and the value of OSS globally is estimated to be $8.8 trillion4.
It is absolutely essential that computing infrastructure, frameworks, and libraries are designed with accessibility in mind so downstream consumers of those projects can also access them. Investment in upstream open source projects not only makes it possible for consuming applications to be accessible, those investments can make an exponential impact on the accessibility of downstream projects. On the other hand, if accessibility is not embedded in upstream projects, it can be impossible or very expensive for downstream projects to support accessibility.
There are additional benefits beyond the accessibility of the projects themselves. Popular open source projects set trends for the entire software industry. When those communities include accessibility as a core requirement, they raise expectations and educate developers across the industry.
We need to increase the accessibility of mainstream open source projects from three perspectives:
- End users: so end users with disabilities can use applications and content that is built with open source software.
- Consumers: so developers and Information Technology (IT) professionals with disabilities can access the documentation, videos, and enablement materials that are required to consume open source projects and build on them.
- Contributors: so developers and other types of contributors with disabilities can join open source communities, contribute, and enjoy the benefits of learning and sharing with a like-minded group of creators.
Our strategy
We recognize that these goals are never “done.” By definition, technology evolves constantly and, as a result, we consider accessibility to be an on-going practice as much as a task that can be completed. We will use the following strategies to steward progress towards the goals going forward:
- Improve our platform
- Build partnerships
- Support open source communities
Improve our platform
Over the past three years, GitHub has invested heavily in the accessibility of our platform. We’ve integrated accessibility into our product development life cycle (PDLC) and removed many barriers that may have prevented people with disabilities from building on GitHub. For example, we have resolved more than 4,400 accessibility issues within our platform since January 1, 2022.
Going forward, we will continue to remove barriers from our platform and shift accessibility left in our PDLC, so we can increase our ability to ship new features and products that are accessible by default when they become generally available. We will also identify opportunities to improve our platform so default options are accessible and gentle nudges guide developers towards more accessible outcomes.
Build partnerships
Knowing that GitHub is just one part of the ecosystem of developer platforms and tools, this pledge is also a call to action for the entire technology industry. We invite individuals and organizations to join us as we continue to work toward a more equitable world.
We are particularly eager to partner with other organizations through their Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) across the private sector, public sector, academia, and NGOs. We have seen global accessibility regulations become stronger over the past few years. Recent examples include the European Accessibility Act and the new rule for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We expect that trend to continue in the future. As a result, organizations in every sector will benefit from improvements in open source accessibility, and we believe OSPOs are a conduit for building partnerships that can help accelerate those improvements.
We are also eager to collaborate with the global community of approximately 1.3 billion people with disabilities and the advocacy organizations that represent them. Accessibility is not something we should do “for” people with disabilities. Rather, it is something we should do “with” people with disabilities. Or, better yet, people with disabilities should have the opportunity to lead accessibility. We will invite people with disabilities to join the open source movement and contribute.
Empower open source communities
We are eager to help open source maintainers build diverse and inclusive communities with cultures that value accessibility. We recognize that open source communities themselves are diverse in size, from communities of one contributor to communities of thousands. We will continue to engage maintainers to co-create opportunities to meet open source communities where they are and help move them to the next stage of their accessibility journey.
What’s next?
Incorporating accessibility as a core principle of open source software is a journey that is already well underway, and GitHub is humbled and honored to be a part of this movement. Looking ahead, we’re excited to share that we are organizing an Open Source Accessibility Summit, which will be a space where members of the disability, accessibility, and open source communities can come together to explore our shared goals and define next steps. Stay tuned to the GitHub Blog for more details in the near future.
Are you a developer with a disability? Learn more about GitHub accessibility.
References:
1. GitHub. 2022. “Octoverse 2022: The state of open source software.” https://octoverse.github.com/2022/. & OpenUK. 2021. “State of Open: The UK in 2021.” https://openuk.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/openuk-state-of-open_final-version.pdf.
2. Blackduck. 2025. “Six takeaways from the 2025 “Open Source Security and Risk Analysis” report.” https://www.blackduck.com/blog/open-source-trends-ossra-report.html.
3. The Linux Foundation. 2022. “A Summary of Census II: Open Source Software Application Libraries the World Depends On.” https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/blog/a-summary-of-census-ii-open-source-software-application-libraries-the-world-depends-on. & Intel. 2025. “The Careful Consumption of Open Source Software.” https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/guide/the-careful-consumption-of-open-source-software.htm.
4. Harvard Business School. 2024. “The Value of Open Source Software.” https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4693148.
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