Accessibility in a Design System

Overview

Atlassian's design blog frames accessibility as foundational and describes integrating it into the design system foundations and workflows. The accessibility foundation page reinforces the mechanism: use design system components because they have inbuilt accessibility features. Benefit: more consistent experiences for users of assistive tech across products. Lesson: system-level accessibility is a structural investment that scales.

Why it matters

When accessibility is optional, it becomes inconsistent across pages and teams. Shared components and interactions lessen cognitive load and make experiences work regardless of assistive technology. The benefit is predictability, critical for screen-reader and keyboard workflows. Call to action: make the accessible path the default path via shared components, linting, and review gates.