Accessible Astro Starter is an open-source starter template for Astro 6+ that bakes accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA, European Accessibility Act) and SEO into a static site generator workflow, shipping with Tailwind CSS 4, a semantic component library, and a command launcher.
What is Accessible Astro Starter?
It is a ready-to-use project skeleton for building inclusive, high-performance static websites. Developers clone the repository or scaffold a project through the create CLI, then add their own Markdown/MDX content and configuration. The output is a fully static HTML/CSS/JS site with optional dynamic blog and portfolio pages. The template is maintained by incluud, the team behind the Accessible Astro ecosystem, and has more than 1,100 GitHub stars.
Key Features
- Tailwind CSS 4 integration — Ships with Tailwind 4.1+ support, a modern OKLCH color system that auto-generates a palette from primary/secondary colors, and SCSS utility classes.
- Accessible component library — Includes
Header,Footer,Navigation,SkipLinks,ResponsiveToggle,ColorContrast,Form,Input,Textarea,Checkbox,Radio,Fieldset,BlockQuote,BreakoutImage,Logo,SocialShares,PageHeader,FeaturedPosts, andFeaturedProjectscomponents with semantic HTML and ARIA attributes. - Command launcher — Built-in keyboard-driven launcher (Cmd/Ctrl+K) for quick access to preferences and navigation, plus a styled
kbdelement for documenting shortcuts. - Preference toggles — Dark mode, high contrast, and reduced motion toggles with system preference support;
prefers-reduced-motiondisables animations for users with that preference. - SEO and dynamic pages —
SiteMeta.astrofor custom metadata,[post].astroand[...page].astrodynamic routes, breadcrumbs, pagination, social sharing, and automatic XML sitemap generation via@astrojs/sitemap. - Form validation — Enhanced
Form,Input,Textarea,Checkbox,Radio, andFieldsetcomponents with WCAG 2.2-compliant validation, custom patterns, error handling, and screen reader support. - Developer tooling — TypeScript with path aliases and content collections, Prettier with
prettier-plugin-astroandprettier-plugin-tailwind, ESLint with stricteslint-plugin-jsx-a11yaccessibility settings, and high Lighthouse/PageSpeed scores.
Who is it for?
Front-end developers who want a WCAG-compliant starting point without configuring accessibility from scratch. Freelance web designers and agencies can use the portfolio preset to build client sites faster, while content teams and bloggers benefit from built-in MDX support, pagination, and SEO metadata handling. It is also a practical learning resource for developers who want to see how an accessible Astro site is structured, since every component is open source.
What can you do with Accessible Astro Starter?
- Build a blog with dynamic post routes, breadcrumbs, pagination, social sharing, breakout images, and a full MDX writing experience.
- Create a portfolio using featured projects and the combined blog/portfolio preset, with featured images, author details, and social sharing.
- Ship a company website with a contact page that demonstrates accessible form validation and a thank-you page for submissions.
- Prototype accessible UI patterns using the included component library, color contrast checker page, and accessibility statement template.
How does the template work?
Scaffold a project by running npm create accessible-astro-starter@latest, then choose a preset: full, blog, portfolio, minimal, or barebones. The CLI sets up the project directory, site name, and optional Accessible Astro launcher. After installing dependencies with npm install, run npm run dev to start a local dev server at localhost:4321, or npm run build to generate a production build in ./dist/.
Pricing
Free and open source. The project is funded through optional Open Collective sponsorships, and all source code is available on GitHub.
FAQ
Is Accessible Astro Starter free?
Yes, it is an open-source starter template on GitHub, free to use for personal and commercial projects. Optional sponsorships through Open Collective support ongoing development and maintenance.
What Astro version does it require?
The template targets Astro 6.1.1 and later, and includes Tailwind CSS 4.1+ support. The build commands are standard Astro commands (npm run dev, npm run build, npm run preview).
What presets does the CLI offer?
The create CLI presents five presets: full, blog, portfolio, minimal, and barebones. The full preset includes the launcher and all components; barebones strips down to a minimal starting point.
Does this template support blogs and portfolios?
Yes, it includes dynamic blog and portfolio page templates, with examples for featured posts and projects, pagination, breadcrumbs, and social sharing. The CLI lets you scaffold directly into blog or portfolio presets.
What accessibility standards does it follow?
It targets WCAG 2.2 AA and the European Accessibility Act (EAA), with skip links, semantic landmarks, focus indicators, ARIA attributes, reduced motion support, and a color contrast checker page.
