Atlassian embeds accessibility in design system work

Atlassian has detailed how it has built accessibility into its design system work, spanning audits of shared components, updates to design tokens, and workflow tooling intended to help product teams catch issues earlier.

The approach centres on treating accessibility as a baseline for foundations and components, rather than a task performed after interface work is complete. The company said this includes changes to colour, typography, motion, and reusable UI elements that are consumed across its applications.

Team setup

The company said a dedicated accessibility team was created within the Atlassian Design System two years ago, with a remit that covers foundations, workflows, and tooling used by designers and engineers.

It described three principles used to guide the work: accessibility by default, tooling and automation, and maker empowerment. The intent is for components and foundations to meet accessibility-defined standards from the outset, with systems that surface issues during delivery.

Component audit

Atlassian said it ran a system-wide audit to establish a baseline across components, assessing visual clarity, interaction design, and assistive technology support. It said the audit identified recurring problems in contrast, focus management, and validation consistency.

The company said it prioritised components that are used most frequently across its apps, so changes would have a wider effect. It also described design-led remediation, where audit findings were used to adjust component designs to address accessibility gaps.

Design tokens

The company said accessibility outcomes are heavily determined at the foundation layer, where tokens for colour, typography, and motion can either support or undermine accessible UI patterns at scale. It said it updated colour tokens to meet accessibility guidelines for contrast in light and dark themes, while maintaining brand colour hierarchy.

It also said it adjusted typography size and weight to improve legibility across different densities and scaling preferences, and it emphasised that token-level changes allow future components to inherit fixes automatically.

Separately, the Atlassian Design System documentation says its components ship with built-in accessibility features, including keyboard support and ARIA usage, while noting teams still need to review patterns, content, and interactions end-to-end.

Workflow tools

Atlassian described building design-time tooling in Figma to help designers consider accessibility earlier in the process.

Examples included a custom library for accessibility annotations, contextual guidance that links designers to documentation where they work, and shared annotations and specifications intended to reduce ambiguity between design and engineering teams.

The company framed this as a workflow problem as much as a standards problem, with tooling intended to reduce the effort of identifying issues late in delivery.

Picker redesign

Atlassian singled out its date time picker as a priority project after the audit surfaced repeated barriers in a component used across applications. It said issues included border colours that failed contrast requirements, inconsistent focus management, and keyboard navigation that required more than 52 keystrokes to switch years.

It also said people using assistive technologies faced confusing behaviour because the calendar opened automatically on focus, which disrupted input flow.

The company said it redesigned the component around semantic structure and interaction logic. It said changes included a new semantic layout with proper labels, keyboard input reduced from 52 to 12 keystrokes, consistent validation patterns with descriptive error messaging, fewer live region announcements, and updated border colours and focus rings to achieve at least 3:1 contrast across themes.

Culture change

Atlassian said it has tried to shift accessibility from individual responsibility to shared organisational practice, supported by a community of Accessibility Design Specialists and recurring office hours, demos, and reviews.

It also said accessibility has been embedded into growth profiles, OKRs, and career development for design roles, as part of making it a core part of design practice.

Measured impact

Atlassian said the changes have resolved over 6,000 accessibility issues between June 2024 and June 2025, which it attributed to its foundation-driven approach.

"Accessibility isn't a separate track of design; it defines its quality. That's why accessibility is integrated into the Atlassian Design System at every level: to ensure our apps work for everyone by default.," said Hendrik Petsch, Senior Product Designer for Accessibility, Atlassian.