Open Source Assistive Technology Hackathon

GitHub is committed to improving the accessibility of open source software and empowering people with disabilities to actively contribute. In partnership with NV Access, the Center for Accessibility and Open Source and the Northwest Center for Assistive Technology Training, we’re hosting an “Open Source Assistive Technology Hackathon” focused on empowering participants to build skills and make real contributions to the assistive technology tools people rely on every day.

New to open source? No problem! We’ll walk through core GitHub contribution workflows (including NVDA and keyboard-only navigation), so you can practice navigating repositories, issues, pull requests, and code reviews with confidence. Whether you’re new to contributing or ready to level up, you’ll leave with practical experience and a clearer path to ongoing open source involvement.

Ready to contribute? Join us to contribute to one of our featured open source AT projects!

Featured projects:

1. NVDA - you’ll also have a special opportunity to collaborate with members of the NVDA team, who will join remotely to help you get set up, answer questions, and review contributions to NVDA.

We’ll send a brief pre-event survey to gauge interest in each featured project, which will help us plan teams and allocate resources.

We’re seeking additional projects to feature! If you maintain (or contribute to) an AT project and would like your project to be part of the hackathon - whether it needs docs improvements, triage support, testing, or small starter issues - please reach out to Maria Lamardo.

Got a new idea you want to work on? Bring it and work on it with accessibility and technology experts! No need for technical skills!

Event Details:

• Cost: Free!
• Dates: May 21 - 22
• Location: GitHub headquarters in San Francisco (88 Colin P Kelly Jr St, San Francisco, CA 94107)
• Food: Expect light breakfast options each morning, catered lunch on both days, and dinner on Day 1. More details will be found in the agenda closer to the event.
• Services provided: ASL interpretation and CART captioning.

Who Should Attend

• People with lived experience who want to innovate on assistive technology
• Developers with disabilities
• Developers with a desire to help improve and customize assistive technologies
• Professionals working in the field of special education, rehabilitation engineering, biomedical engineering, and other fields that can benefit from free open source assistive technology
• Open source AT maintainers

We’d love your participation in this event. Sign up for the event using this form.

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Slack

Join us on the Open Source Accessibility Slack; look for the hackathon-open-source-assistive-tech channel for this event.

Info: Arrive, check in, meet fellow participants, and grab some breakfast before we kick things off.

Info: Refocusing Accessibility Hackathons on Expert Mentorship

Our hackathon starts off with an exciting keynote from Dr. Joshua Miele, who reveals how expert mentorship by individuals with disabilities is the secret ingredient to making long-term, meaningful change in accessibility. The success of an accessibility hackathon is measured far more by what we teach and learn than by what we are able to build and boast about.

Info: We’ll review the event goals, walk through the agenda, and set expectations for what we’re here to build and learn together.

Info: Featured projects will give quick overviews (e.g., starter issues, docs, testing, triage, or feature ideas). Individuals can also pitch tasks or ideas they want to work on.

Info: Lunch will be catered at the office - we’ll share additional details about meals closer to the event.

Info: Collaborate with your team to design and implement your project. If you’d like, you can also use Copilot to help brainstorm ideas and speed up development.

Info: A two day hands-on workshop where we guide learners through learning Github principles with the capstone of ending up contributing to an open source project and creating AI-based accessibility agents.

Info: Join us for a tour of GitHub headquarters! Get a behind-the-scenes look at the office and discover our secret room. We’ll split into two groups with tours starting at 4:00 PM and 4:30 PM.

Info: Dinner will be catered at the office - we’ll share additional details about meals closer to the event.

Info: We’ll regroup to share quick progress updates, highlight any blockers or asks for help, and preview what to expect on Day 2.

Info: Arrive, check in, meet fellow participants, and grab some breakfast before we kick things off.

Info: Day 1 projects will give a quick recap of where they left off, including suggested starter issues (docs, testing, triage, and feature ideas). Participants can also pitch tasks or new ideas they’d like to work on.

Info: Form teams based on interest, skills, and lived-experience perspectives. You can also choose to join the GitHub Learning Room instead of a project team.

Info: A two day hands-on workshop where we guide learners through learning Github principles with the capstone of ending up contributing to an open source project and creating AI-based accessibility agents.

Info: Lunch will be catered at the office - we’ll share additional details about meals closer to the event.

Info: Collaborate with your team to design and implement your project. If you’d like, you can also use Copilot to help brainstorm ideas and speed up development.

Info: Each project will have 5 minutes to share what they built (the problem, contributions made, and impact on users), then close with next steps for anyone who wants to stay involved (key resources, links to issues/PRs, and what’s next).

Info: We’ll wrap up with next steps for staying involved: how to continue contributing after the event, and which community channels to join for ongoing support and updates.

Info: Collaborate with your team to design and implement your project. If you’d like, you can also use Copilot to help brainstorm ideas and speed up development.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

88 Colin P Kelly Jr St, 88 Colin P Kelly Junior Street, San Francisco, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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