Behind the screens: Accessible design is good design

This post details the integration of accessibility into Atlassian's Design System. It outlines the establishment of an Accessibility team, three guiding principles (Accessibility by default, Tooling and automation, Maker empowerment), and practical implementations including system-wide component audits, recalibration of design foundations (color, typography), and the development of Figma-based accessibility tooling. A specific case study on the date time picker redesign highlights improvements in semantic structure, navigation (reducing keyboard input from 52 to 12 keystrokes), input feedback, and visual clarity (achieving at least 3:1 contrast). The post emphasizes that accessibility is treated as a measure of design quality, not just compliance, and has led to the resolution of over 6,000 accessibility issues.