What we learned from our first accessibility conformance review

Sanity Studio conducted an accessibility conformance review to identify areas of improvement in its content editing tool, emphasizing the importance of accessibility not just for consuming but also creating web content. The evaluation followed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) rather than the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) due to the nature of Sanity Studio's function, which involves storing content as data rather than directly rendering web content. The review assessed 50 Success Criteria from WCAG 2.1, finding that Sanity Studio met 36 of them, with opportunities for improvement identified across 14 criteria. The audit serves as a baseline for making ongoing enhancements and ensuring new features are accessible. The process highlighted the role of design systems, such as Sanity UI, in reinforcing both good and bad accessibility practices and the value of using standard HTML elements for built-in accessibility features. Sanity Studio's customizable nature poses challenges in ensuring that clients' implementations remain accessible, but the company aims to influence best practices through its accessible building blocks and documentation. Acknowledging that accessibility is an ongoing process, Sanity Studio uses the review's findings to guide future developments and invites other content management systems to conduct similar evaluations to improve product accessibility.