Building a home for all developers
Through a cohesive multi-year strategy, we are working with our product, partners, employees, and the community at large to remove barriers that may block disabled developers. From training our teams on accessibility best practices and strengthening our culture of inclusion for people with disabilities, to empowering our engineering teams to lower accessibility barriers in our products, our goal is to make consistent progress toward truly being the home for all developers.
Learn more about our accessibility commitmentOur impact
Through collaboration with our partners and the open source community, we hope to expand disability inclusion in open source, grow the pipeline of developers with disabilities, and foster innovation of access technologies.
We believe there is an opportunity to help development teams foster inclusive environments that leverage the strengths and create learning opportunities for developers with disabilities. This opportunity will be realized by building on the initial success of All In. One of the group’s first major efforts was working with the Linux Foundation to identify ways to make open source more inclusive. Now, All In is expanding the next generation of open source leaders and providing training and technical support to maintainers who want to drive diversity and inclusion in their communities.
We also know growing the representation of developers with disabilities requires expanding the pipeline. K12 students with disabilities need access to more tools that enable them to learn the basic concepts of Computer Science and get excited about a career in technology. Adults with disabilities need access to informal learning resources that allow them to augment their skills or pivot towards coding for fun or for profit. Finally, Computer Science teachers need better resources to support students with various disabilities. We believe there is an opportunity for GitHub to help accelerate the skilling of future developers with disabilities, while building on our existing GitHub Education programs and with All In for Students.
Lastly, we’re inspired by the inclusive spirit of the community. For example, a search for “accessibility” returns more than 27,000 repositories that demonstrate how developers from across the globe are coming together to build next-generation access technologies. We see a tremendous opportunity to support these efforts and stimulate more innovation in these critical technologies. As more people with disabilities join the open source community, we hope they will feel empowered to build solutions for the challenges they face every day. We are eager to serve as a catalyst for this innovation.
Community spotlight
The first installment in GitHub’s “Coding Accessibility” video series features Becky Tyler, a bright, funny, and incredibly 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 the shortcomings of available accessibility tech led her down a path beyond mining ore—and into the world of open source software and collaboration. She now attends the University of Dundee, where she studies Applied Computing.
Community spotlight
The second installment in GitHub’s “Coding Accessibility” video series features Paul Chiou, a Ph.D. student at USC and developer who creates software to automatically detect and solve accessibility barriers for keyboard users. Paralyzed from the neck down, Chiou does all of this by using custom hardware and software he designed and built to act as a mouse. Meet Chiou and his collaborators, and hear how he’s working to make software more accessible to all. “I believe everyone should have the equal right to access information,” says Chiou. “It shouldn’t be limited just because the developers didn’t consider it during their design."
Community spotlight
In the third episode of GitHub's "Coding Accessibility" video series, we meet Anton Mirhorodchenko, a software developer hailing from Ukraine. Anton has cerebral palsy and, as a result, he has difficulty typing and cannot use voice-to-text software. However, Anton found that by embracing GitHub Copilot and other AI tools, he can significantly reduce the amount of code he needs to physically type. These tools not only enable him to build software efficiently but also allow him to communicate effectively with fellow developers by generating detailed comments, documentation, and project descriptions.
Strategic partners
We know that we cannot do this work alone. Together with community members, corporate partners, and key stakeholders, we’re on a mission to create a future where anyone, regardless of their background, has an equal opportunity to benefit from the power of technology.
AccessComputing
AccessComputing is a National Science Foundation funded Broadening Participation in Computing Alliance that works to increase the participation of people with disabilities in computing education and careers. The organization works directly with educators and employers to make their organizations more welcoming and accessible to people with disabilities. We’re proud to be an industry partner, working together to increase accessibility in computing education and employment.
Learn more about AccessComputing
CREATE
The Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences at the University of Washington (CREATE) has a mission to make technology accessible and make the world accessible through technology. CREATE's research is informed by a disability studies perspective, with an emphasis on translating that research to real world impact. In addition, CREATE works to develop not only new educational opportunities to learn about accessible technology creation, but also to create pathways for more individuals with disabilities to pursue careers in technology innovation.
Learn more about CREATELatest insights
Reports and resources
Together with Microsoft and our partners, we are committed to building a more accessible home for all developers. Read our progress and learn more about how to get involved.
GitHub global campus
Every student and teacher deserves the same access to GitHub Education offerings. We’re working to identify areas for improving inclusivity.
Learn about the progress
Microsoft's commitments to accessibility
Microsoft has made a commitment to expand accessibility in the technology industry at large.
View the commitments
Designing for accessibility
Design can have a significant impact on delivering accessible experiences to GitHub users. We’re prioritizing progress over perfection in order to build momentum.
View the progressContact us
If you would like to learn more about our programming, partner with us, or get in touch, contact our team today.
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