Accessibility initiatives at Adobe

Accessibility in product development

Accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed, developed, and tested so that people with disabilities can use them in a manner that is equivalent to those without disability.  At Adobe, we design internal processes and tools to make our user interfaces more accessible to help remove barriers, while providing capabilities so our tools and services can be used by more people.  Our internal Digital Accessibility Guide, for example, provides an ever-evolving wealth of information to employees about how to address accessibility at Adobe. The goal is to make it the main resource for product teams on how to effectively address accessibility. Additionally, we’ve developed React Spectrum Libraries, a public collection of libraries and tools that help build adaptive, accessible, and robust user experiences.

 

Engineering and design

Adobe’s accessibility engineers and product managers, together with teammates across the company, have created:

  • An internal Digital Accessibility Guide, providing Adobe product teams with accessibility resources and implementation guidance.

  • Spectrum, Adobe’s design system, which incorporates accessibility and improves the process of creating accessible user interfaces.

  • Blueline annotations that illuminate the user interface exposed to assistive technologies, as well as keyboard and keyboard equivalents that benefit users of all abilities.

 

Accessibility training and resources

We offer general awareness and engineering-specific accessibility trainings for employees, including:

  • General Disability Awareness — Providing an overview of the definition and types of disability, as well as how to respectfully communicate with, and about, people with disabilities.

  • Accessibility White Belt — Understanding user needs, accessibility standards, and Adobe’s process for accessibility.

  • Accessibility Blue Belt — Teaching engineering-specific techniques to create accessible user interfaces.

  • Blueline annotations — Helping to illuminate the aspects of the user interface exposed to assistive technologies as well as keyboard and keyboard equivalents that benefit users of all abilities. 

  • Accessibility testing — Teaching product team members how to perform and interpret tests, including automated, keyboard, color, assistive technology, and other test types.

 

Additionally, we provide public accessibility training and resources, like our webinars and tutorials on creating accessible PDFs, to help users create more accessible content.

Standards and policy

We continue to evolve our approach and collaborate across industries and sectors to further enable transformative change. By sharing best practices and developing technology responsibly, we can help build a more inclusive and trustworthy digital space. 

 

Our continued collaboration with other industry leaders has helped define industry standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for the web and PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1) for digital documents. We work with government groups, trade associations, and user communities to promote and advance accessibility-related policies and regulations.

 

For a full list of accessibility compliance standards and reports, visit the Accessibility section of the Adobe Trust Center compliance list.

Questions? Contact us.