The A11Y Project

The Accessibility (A11Y)(link is external) Project is an Open-source, community-driven effort to make digital accessibility easier.

Contributing

You can learn about helping this project by reading our Code of Conduct(link is external), Contributor documentation(link is external), and Content Style Guide(link is external). Please familiarize yourself with them before submitting content.

This README is focused on the technical side of the project. If you are interested in contributing information like Posts or Resources, please refer to our Contributing Guidelines(link is external).

Development

Technology

The A11Y Project uses Eleventy(link is external) to manage its content. Eleventy relies on Markdown(link is external), Sass(link is external), Nunjucks(link is external), and JSON(link is external) to function.

It may be helpful to familiarize yourself with these technologies, depending on what you want to do. For more information, check our our Contributor documentation(link is external).

Requirements

You'll need access to the following programs and technology in order to get the website running on your computer to work on:

1. A command line application such as Terminal.
   
   • If you want to learn more about working in the command line, Wes Bos offers a great free course(link is external).
   • If you are using Windows, Hyper(link is external) is a good, free command-line application you can download, install, and run.
2. Git(link is external) version control and a GitHub account(link is external).
   
   • You can check to see if Git is already installed on your computer by typing git --version into your command line application. If it is installed it will list the currently installed version (e.g. git version 2.18.0).
   • If you prefer to use a GUI to work with version control, GitHub offers a free desktop app(link is external).
3. Node.js(link is external), a programming environment powered by JavaScript.
   
   • You can check to see if Node.js is already installed on your computer by typing node -v into your command line application. If it is installed it will list the currently installed version (e.g. v16.4.0). The A11Y Project requires a minimum version of 16.0.0.
   • It may also be helpful to use a program such as nvm(link is external) to help manage your Node.js versions. This will ensure that the version of Node.js your computer uses to run various things won't conflict with an updated version. For Windows users, you could use coreybutler/nvm-windows(link is external).

Installation

Once you have met the prerequisites, follow these steps to install the website on your computer:

1. Clone this repository by entering this command into your command line application: git clone https://github.com/a11yproject/a11yproject.com.git. It will create a version controlled copy of the website in the directory you entered the command in.
2. Navigate into the project's root directory(link is external) by typing cd a11yproject.com in your command line application.
3. Install the project's Node.js modules by typing npm install into your command line application. A list of these modules should be displayed after they are downloaded and installed.

Running the website

After cloning and installing project Node.js modules, type npm start into your command line application. This will tell Node.js to compile the project and turn it into a website.

Your command line application will then display some information about Eleventy, including a line that starts with Local:. You can copy the URL it points to (it should read something like http://localhost:3000(link is external)) and paste it into a browser tab. This will load a local copy of the website that you can interact with to preview your changes.

You can also use the External URL to preview the local copy on another device connected to the same network, which helps you check to see how the site looks and functions on things like smartphones. This is done via Browsersync(link is external).

Updating the website

Saving project files will make Node.js regenerate the website to reflect the changes you made. Your command line application will display some new messaging to reflect this, including any errors you might accidentally make. Don't worry! Since the site uses version control, you're not in danger of seriously breaking anything. If you fix the error, Node.js should continue to run.

Make sure you edit the files in the src/ subdirectory. Any edits made in the dist subdirectory will be overwritten by the next change to any file in src/ and all your hard work will be lost!

Quitting

You can tell Node.js to stop running by pressing the Control and C keys at the same time in your command line application, or by closing the command line application window or tab.

Code Tour

If you use Visual Studio Code(link is external) as your code editor, you can take an introductory tour of the repository via the CodeTour extension(link is external).

Troubleshooting

Please refer to our Troubleshooting documentation(link is external) for help with issues running the site.