Equalify Hub

The central hub for the Equalify project – organizing documentation, open-source repositories, contribution guides, KPI reports, and support resources in one accessible place.

Live at: https://equalify.uic.edu

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Table of Contents

• What is Equalify Hub?
• Deploy Your Own Instance

• Prerequisites

• Environment Variables

• Local Development

• AWS Lambda Deployment
• Configuration
• Tech Stack
• Contributing
• Project Ownership

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What is Equalify Hub?

Equalify Hub serves multiple audiences:

For the Transition Team

• Support documentation – Centralized place for Equalify support (not just bugs)
• KPI dashboards – Track development progress and key metrics
• Issue tracking – Aggregate view of issues across all repositories

For End Users

• User documentation – Learn how to use Equalify effectively
• Support resources – Find help and guidance

For Contributors

• Technical documentation – API docs, code structure, architecture diagrams
• Contribution guides – How to contribute to Equalify projects
• Repository overview – Browse all EqualifyEverything repos

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Deploy Your Own Instance

Equalify Hub is designed to be deployed by other institutions running their own Equalify instance. Follow these steps to deploy your own Hub.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ and Yarn
• AWS account with Lambda and DynamoDB access
• A running Equalify application instance

Environment Variables

The Hub uses environment variables for configuration. Copy .env.example to .env for local development, or set these as Lambda environment variables for production:

Variable	Required	Default	Description
EQUALIFY_APP_URL	Yes	https://app.equalify.uic.edu	The URL of your Equalify application. "Sign into Equalify" buttons will link here.
SITE_NAME	No	Equalify Hub	The display name for your Hub instance.
GITHUB_ORG	No	EqualifyEverything	The GitHub organization to display repos/issues from.
FAVICON_URL	No	{EQUALIFY_APP_URL}/favicon.ico	Custom favicon URL.
ORG_LOGO_URL	No	GitHub org avatar	Custom organization logo URL.

Local Development

• Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/EqualifyEverything/equalify-hub.git
   cd equalify-hub

• Install dependencies

yarn install

• Configure environment

cp .env.example .env
   # Edit .env with your configuration

• Start development server

yarn start

This builds Tailwind CSS and starts the local server with hot reloading.

• Build for production

yarn build:css  # Build CSS only
   yarn build      # Full build and deploy to Lambda

AWS Lambda Deployment

1. Set up AWS resources

You'll need:

• Lambda function – Node.js 18+ runtime
• DynamoDB table – For feature requests and user data
• API Gateway – HTTP API or Function URL for web access

2. Configure Lambda environment variables

In the AWS Lambda console, add these environment variables:

EQUALIFY_APP_URL=https://your-equalify-instance.com
SITE_NAME=Your Organization Hub
GITHUB_ORG=YourGitHubOrg

3. Configure AWS CLI profile

Update package.json to use your AWS profile:

{
  "scripts": {
    "sso": "aws sso login --profile your-profile",
    "build": "... --profile your-profile ..."
  }
}

4. Deploy

# Authenticate with AWS
yarn sso

# Build and deploy
yarn build

This will:

• Build Tailwind CSS
• Bundle the application with esbuild
• Create a Lambda deployment package
• Upload to your Lambda function

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Configuration

Customizing the Sign-In Link

The "Sign into Equalify" button appears throughout the Hub. To point it to your Equalify instance:

# In .env (local) or Lambda environment variables (production)
EQUALIFY_APP_URL=https://your-equalify-instance.com

Customizing the Site Name

The site name appears in the header, footer, and page titles:

SITE_NAME=Acme Accessibility Hub

Connecting to Your GitHub Organization

To display repositories and issues from your organization:

GITHUB_ORG=YourOrgName

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Tech Stack

• TypeScript – Type-safe development
• Hono – Lightweight web framework
• AWS Lambda – Serverless deployment
• DynamoDB – NoSQL database for feature requests
• Tailwind CSS – Utility-first styling
• esbuild – Fast bundling

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Contributing Documentation

Helen's team and other contributors can easily add documentation:

• Sign in with GitHub – Must be part of the EqualifyEverything organization
• Create/edit Markdown files – Standard markdown format
• Submit via GitHub – Basic git operations only

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Project Ownership

Owned by Christopher Aitken as part of UIC's Digital Accessibility initiative.

Key Contacts:

• Christopher Aitken – Technical lead, Equalify Hub
• Jemma Ku – Oversight & integration with internal accessibility projects
• Blake & Trey – Equalify leadership

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License

MIT License – see LICENSE for details.