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Include

an accessibility annotation Figma plugin

Try in Figma

Intro

The eBay Include accessibility annotation Figma plugin is a tool to make annotating for accessibility (a11y) easier — easier for designers to spec and easier for developers to understand what is required.

The plugin was developed by members of the accessibility and design teams at eBay and is released for public use on Figma. You can view and install the latest version of the plugin here.

Installation

npm i

Development

npm run dev

To open the plugin in development mode on Figma, point Figma to the manifest file at the root of the project.

File Structure

The app consists of 2 main files:

  • ui.js UI Renderer (React app the user interacts with)
  • code.js Figma Code Bridge (communicate with the Figma document)

The main methods used in this plugin to communicate with Figma are:

  • figma.once('run')

    • used to run once on plugin load: pre-load fonts and search current page for any A11y Layers
  • figma.once('selectionchange')

    • listen for frame selection (used to start an initial scan)
    • listen for Headings selection by user (accessibility step)
  • figma.once('currentpagechange')

    • if the user changes to a different page on Figma, we ask them to go back to the page they started the plugin on, or to re-start the plugin on this new page
  • figma.ui.onmessage main communication

    • this listener is used for 90% of the communication between the React App and the Figma document

Figma Layer Naming and Structure

To create and read in accessibility annotations, the plugin creates Figma layers. An Accessibility Layer is created for each Figma frame that is annotated, and it follows the following structure:

[Scanned Frame Name] | Accessibility Layer | [Web or Native]
├── Landmarks Layer
├── Headings Layer
├── Reading order Layer
├── Alt text Layer
├── Contrast Layer
├── Touch target Layer
├── Text zoom Layer
├── Responsive reflow Layer
└── Accessibility annotations Layer

[Scanned Frame Name] Text Zoom

Example:

Using Color | Accessibility Layer | Web
├── Landmarks Layer | 207:424
│   ├── Landmarks Annotations
│   └── Landmark: banner | 207:411
├── Headings Layer | 207:444
│   ├── Heading: h3 | Color Backgrounds
│   ├── Heading: h2 | How We Use Color
│   └── Heading: h1 | Using Color
├── Reading order Layer | 814:1149
│   ├── Arrow 4
│   ├── Arrow 3
│   ├── Arrow 2
│   └── Start Arrow
├── Alt text Layer | 207:410
│   ├── Alt text Annotations
│   └── Alt text: informative | alt text for image | original image name | 2:146
├── Contrast Layer | 814:1297
├── Touch target Layer | 814:1298
├── Text zoom Layer | 122:198
├── Responsive reflow Layer | 804:3055
└── Accessibility annotations Layer | 1210:1466

Using Color Text Zoom

Release Bundles

To bundle a new release, update the version number in package.json

Then run:

npm run bundle

All release bundles exist in /dist_zips/

Helpful Links

We found the following helpful during the development of this plugin.

Figma

License

Apache 2.0 - See LICENSE for more information.