The A11Y Project: what the site is, and how to run it locally

What the A11Y Project publishes, and who it is written for

The repository describes itself as "a community-driven effort to make digital accessibility easier." That effort takes the form of a website, not a library. The README points contributors at three documents before they submit anything: a Code of Conduct, Contributor documentation, and a Content Style Guide. The existence of that third document is the clearest signal about the audience. This is a project for people who write accessibility guidance, not only for people who consume it.

The topics listed on the repository are a11y, accessibility, eleventy, inclusive-design and user-experience. The package keywords add community. So the site sits at the intersection of editorial content and front-end engineering: posts, resources and patterns published through a static site generator. If you are an engineer looking for a component library that makes a form accessible, this is the wrong repository. If you are looking for a reference site whose content you can read, cite, or contribute to, it is the right one.

The licence is Apache-2.0, and the repository carries a LICENSE-APLv2 file at the top level. That matters for anyone who wants to reuse structure or content in their own project.

How Eleventy, Nunjucks and Gulp fit together in this repository

The README states that Eleventy manages the content, and that Eleventy relies on Markdown, Sass, Nunjucks and JSON. The package.json confirms the shape of the build. There is a single runtime dependency, normalize.css, and the rest of the tooling sits in devDependencies, including @11ty/eleventy.

The scripts reveal a two-part pipeline. Eleventy handles templating and content: the eleventy-build script runs eleventy, eleventy-watch runs eleventy with the --incremental and --watch flags, and eleventy-debug runs it with DEBUG=* set. Gulp handles the asset side: gulp-build runs gulp, gulp-watch runs gulp watch. The start script chains the watch tasks together. The publish script runs eleventy and gulp without watching, which is what a deploy would use.

The directory layout matches that split. There is a src/ directory, an .eleventy.js config file, a gulpfile.js, and a netlify.toml for deployment. The README is explicit that edits belong in src/ and that anything written into dist will be overwritten by the next change to a file in src/. That is the single most important operational fact in the documentation, because it is the mistake a new contributor is most likely to make.

Deployment is configured through netlify.toml, so the published site is built by Netlify rather than by a server process in this repository.

Installing The A11Y Project and running it on localhost

The README lists three prerequisites: a command line application, Git with a GitHub account, and Node.js. It states that the project requires a minimum Node.js version of 16.0.0, and package.json repeats that as an engines field of node >=16. There is also an .nvmrc file at the top level, which is the conventional place to pin a version for nvm users.

Installation is three commands. Clone the repository, move into it, and install the Node modules:

git clone https://github.com/a11yproject/a11yproject.com.git
cd a11yproject.com
npm install

After npm install finishes, the README says a list of the downloaded modules is displayed. Then you start the development server. On macOS and Linux the command is npm start. On Windows the README gives a different command, because the single start script does not work the same way there:

npm start

npm run eleventy-watch & npm run gulp-watch

The first block is the macOS and Linux path, the second is the Windows path. After either one runs, the terminal prints Eleventy output including a line beginning with Local:. The README says that URL typically reads http://localhost:3000, and that pasting it into a browser loads a local copy of the site. There is also an External URL, served through Browsersync, for previewing the site on another device on the same network. That second URL is the practical way to check how the site behaves on a phone without deploying.

Saving a file regenerates the site, and errors appear in the terminal. The README notes that version control means you are not in danger of seriously breaking anything, and that fixing the error lets Node.js continue. To stop the process, press Control and C together. If something goes wrong, the README points to a TROUBLESHOOTING.md file in the repository root rather than repeating fixes inline.

The dist/ trap and other ways the local build bites back

The clearest failure mode is documented rather than hidden. The README warns that edits made in the dist subdirectory are overwritten by the next change to any file in src/, and that the work will be lost. If you are used to editing built output directly, this repository will silently discard that effort. The fix is to treat dist as disposable and to make every change under src/.

The second issue is platform-specific. The start script in package.json is a shell chain using &, and the README does not present it as the Windows command. Windows users are told to run the two watch tasks separately. This is a real friction point: the documented command differs by operating system, and a contributor following the wrong one will see only one half of the pipeline running, which usually shows up as missing styles rather than an obvious error.

The third limitation is scope. Nothing in the repository makes your own site accessible. It publishes guidance; it does not audit your markup, generate a report, or fail a build on a contrast violation. If what you need is automated checking wired into continuous integration, this project does not provide that, and no amount of reading its content changes that. The same applies to legal questions: the site is a reference, not a compliance certification.

Finally, the release history is thin. The most recent release listed is 1.5.0 from 2021-02-01, while package.json declares version 1.5.1. The content site keeps moving through commits, but tagged releases are not the project's rhythm. If your process depends on versioned artifacts, plan around that.

How The A11Y Project compares with axe-core and other testing tools

The nearest thing to a competitor is not another content site but an automated accessibility engine such as axe-core. The difference is categorical. axe-core is a library you install and run against rendered pages; it returns violations with rules, selectors and impact levels, and it is designed to be embedded in tests or browser extensions. The A11Y Project is a static site built with Eleventy, Nunjucks, Sass and JSON, and its output is written guidance and reference material.

That distinction decides your choice. If you need a build to fail when an image lacks alternative text, an engine is the tool. If you need a shared vocabulary for what alternative text should say, or a style guide that keeps a team's accessibility writing consistent, a content project is the tool. The A11Y Project's own Content Style Guide is a good example of the second kind of artifact: it governs how accessibility is described, which is a problem no linter solves.

The two are complementary rather than substitutes. An engine tells you that a heading level was skipped. A style guide tells you how to write the heading. Teams that only have the first often produce technically passing pages with unreadable structure. Teams that only have the second ship untested markup. If you are choosing one to adopt this quarter, pick based on whether your bottleneck is detection or description.

Maintenance, contribution cost and what Apache-2.0 means here

The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-08-31. That is recent enough that the project is being touched, but the tagged release cadence tells a different story: 1.5.0 in February 2021, 1.4.0 in October 2020, 1.2.0 in August 2020. Anyone tracking versions rather than commits should expect content changes to arrive as ordinary commits, not as releases.

Upgrade cost is low by construction. There is one runtime dependency, normalize.css, and the toolchain is pinned through package-lock.json. The main upgrade pressure comes from Eleventy itself, which sits at ^1.0.0 in devDependencies, and from the Node.js floor of 16 in the engines field. When you bump Node.js, check the .nvmrc file and the engines field together, because they are separate declarations of the same constraint.

Contributing has a non-technical cost that the README makes explicit. Before submitting content you are asked to read the Code of Conduct, the Contributor documentation and the Content Style Guide. That is more process than a typical open source repository, and it is deliberate: editorial consistency is the product here.

The Apache-2.0 licence permits commercial use, modification and redistribution, and it includes an express grant of patent rights from contributors. It also requires that you preserve copyright and licence notices and state significant changes. This is a description of the licence text, not legal advice; if you plan to redistribute modified content, have your own counsel review the notice requirements.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt it if you want a documented, Apache-2.0 licensed Eleventy site whose content you can extend, or if you are writing accessibility content and want to see how the project structures posts, resources and patterns. Do not adopt it as a WCAG conformance checker or a drop-in audit tool; it is a content site, not a testing engine. Before you start, verify that your Node.js version satisfies the engines field, which requires Node.js 16 or later, and read TROUBLESHOOTING.md if npm start fails on Windows, since the README gives a different start command there.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. a11yproject/a11yproject.com on GitHub
2. License: Apache-2.0
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases