Contributing

Thanks for your interest in improving the Inclusive Emergency Readiness Guide.

We welcome contributions from the community, especially from:

Your feedback helps ensure this guide remains practical, inclusive, trustworthy, and grounded in real-world emergency response.

[!IMPORTANT] We deeply value participation from people with disabilities. Lived accessibility experience is essential to the quality of this work. You are welcome to contribute without disclosing personal disability status.

About This Guide

This is a community-driven guide that aspires to be comprehensive, accurate, and trustworthy. We do not claim to have all the answers. We are building this together, learning from:

This guide needs your expertise to grow and improve.

Ways to Contribute

Share Your Experience

Improve Content

Test and Validate

Standards and Research

Contribution Principles

Clarity and Accessibility

Evidence-Based Guidance

Inclusive Language

Emergency Context

Start Now, Improve Always

We embrace progressive improvement over paralyzed perfectionism.

When contributing:

🤖 Working with the Copilot Coding Agent

This repository is designed to work with the GitHub Copilot Coding Agent. The agent can handle repeatable, well-scoped tasks — readability fixes, link rot repairs, Easy Read drafts, alt text generation — freeing human contributors for work requiring lived experience and community judgment.

The agents guide emphasizes: the quality of the issue determines the quality of agent output.

Finding Agent-Ready Issues

Filter issues by the agent-task label to see tasks that are ready for the Copilot Coding Agent. These issues have:

Writing an Issue the Agent Can Tackle

Use the Agent Task issue template when creating new issues for the agent. The template enforces all required fields. Key principles:

  1. One goal per issue. Keep scope narrow enough to complete in one PR.
  2. Name exact files. Vague paths like “update the docs” are not actionable.
  3. Binary criteria only. “Looks good” is not a criterion. “File exists at path/to/file.md” is.
  4. Reference the relevant AGENTS.md rule (reading level, page weight, WCAG requirement).
  5. Name the CI check that validates the result (e.g., readability-check.yml).

Reviewing Agent-Generated PRs

When a PR is opened by the Copilot Coding Agent:

Assigning an Issue to the Copilot Coding Agent

  1. Open any issue labeled agent-task
  2. Click Assignees → search for Copilot
  3. Select Copilot — GitHub will create a new branch and open a draft PR automatically

For more detail, see the Getting Started with Agents guide.

Labels for Agent Work

See our Start Now Framework for how this mindset applies to emergency preparedness.

When reviewing contributions:

In disasters, a simple solution deployed today saves more lives than a perfect solution deployed next month.

Pull Request Guidelines

Before Submitting

Writing Standards

For Code or Templates

Documentation Updates

Involving People with Disabilities

We actively encourage participation from people with disabilities in all aspects of this project:

Your Expertise is Valued

Accessibility Accommodations

If you need accommodations to participate (e.g., alternative formats, extended time, asynchronous communication):

  1. Open an issue labeled accessibility-accommodation
  2. Describe what would help you contribute more effectively
  3. We will work with you to implement reasonable accommodations

We recognize that people with disabilities are the experts in identifying accessibility barriers and solutions.

Emergency Management Professionals

We need your expertise. If you have experience building emergency tools or managing disaster response:

Your practical experience is invaluable for keeping this guide grounded in reality.

Testing with Assistive Technologies

Contributors using assistive technologies are especially valuable for validating:

When Reporting Test Results

Please include:

Quick Testing Approaches

15-Minute Keyboard Test:

  1. Tab through the page - verify focus is visible and logical
  2. Activate all interactive elements (Enter/Space)
  3. Check for keyboard traps
  4. Verify you can reach all emergency information

15-Minute Screen Reader Test:

  1. Navigate by headings (H key) - verify structure
  2. Navigate by landmarks (D key) - verify page regions
  3. Read emergency instructions - verify clarity
  4. Test any forms or templates - verify labels

Code of Collaboration

Community Values

This project is built on the principle that:

“The most accessible information is the information that actually reaches the user when everything else fails.”

We value:

Getting Help

Project Governance

For technical standards and automated checks, see:

Recognition

Contributors are recognized in project documentation and commit history. You may:

License

By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under:

Thank you for helping make emergency information accessible to everyone.