August 2026 Development Report

Reporting period: Jul 13 – Aug 5, 2026 Sources: #640, #641, #642, #643, #644, #646, #647 Contributors: B. Bertuccelli-Booth, C. Aitken, T. Daniel

Executive Summary

August prioritized platform accessibility and user management, with 26 tasks completed across 71 code commits at a 58% completion rate. The team delivered a comprehensive set of screen reader accessibility fixes informed by external audit feedback, implemented a self-registration request flow with administrative approval.

Highlights

• Developed comprehensive Terraform scripts which allows external users and organizations to deploy Equalify Dashboard on their own AWS account
• Deployed comprehensive screen reader accessibility improvements addressing audit report navigation, chart labeling, focus management, and view selector announcements based on external accessibility audit findings
• Implemented self-registration with admin review, allowing new users to request accounts with administrator approval before access is granted
• Added mobile-responsive breakpoints, ensuring the platform renders properly across device sizes
• Improved browser navigation support, enabling back-button functionality and persisting user interface preferences across page reloads

Key Metrics

Completed Work

Team

• Delivered mobile-responsive breakpoints for improved display across device sizes.
• Completed site onboarding features, including the Lambda-based crawling service, Build Audit workflow integration, external linked CSV support for WordPress plugin URL synchronization, and CSV-based user import.
• Resolved multiple screen reader accessibility issues identified in an external audit, including: correcting the card/table view selector labeling, improving chart view selector language to direct users appropriately, eliminating repeated header announcements in table view, restoring focus after date range changes, restructuring heading hierarchy in the audit report, refactoring the summary/detailed tab for screen reader clarity, and adding percentage data to chart labels.
• Requested a new external accessibility audit and added the next audit to the project roadmap with a quarterly cadence.
• Published the June 2026 development report.
• Updated CSV download language based on feedback from the July 15 Service Team meeting.

T. Daniel

• Created initial Terraform scripts for infrastructure provisioning.
• Produced a version 1 deployment configuration.
• Obtained a clean AWS account for testing infrastructure-as-code deployments.

C. Aitken

• Completed follow-up work on remote CSV feed synchronization for audits (issue #628).
• Completed database schema version control and Hasura metadata version control implementation.
• Implemented a self-registration request flow with administrative review and approval.

Notable Events

• Jul 23: Deployed multiple screen reader accessibility fixes addressing issues reported through the external accessibility audit, including view selector labeling, focus management, and heading structure corrections.
• Aug 4-5: Investigated a reported color contrast findings discrepancy; the issue could not be reproduced, and the reporting user confirmed results now appear as expected after the most recent scan.
• C. Aitken and T. Daniel each took 1 week of PTO this month.

Risks & Blockers

• Hono framework integration deferred: After evaluation, the team determined the Hono framework addition is not worthwhile at this time and has postponed it to the next major update cycle.
• FOSS deployment scripts in progress: Infrastructure-as-code build scripts remain the primary outstanding deliverable; dependent on continued access to the clean AWS testing environment.
• Anomalous scan behavior under investigation: A reported scan issue (issue #645) is being investigated by C. Aitken.
• KPI dashboard: Development of platform usage KPIs requires alignment on metrics for active UIC usage and external contributions.

In Progress & Upcoming

Development

• Continue testing and debugging across the platform. (T. Daniel)
• Investigate and resolve reported anomalous scan behavior (issue #645). (C. Aitken)
• Review and refine the Terraform provisioning process, update scripts, and add documentation. (C. Aitken)
• Hand off Equalify Extension design context and documentation to T. Daniel. (C. Aitken)
• Implement routing and back-button support application-wide, particularly on the audit screen. (T. Daniel)
• Add links from Summary View items (Most Common Blockers, URLs with Most Blockers) to filtered detailed views. (T. Daniel)
• Improve email notification content to include URL/blocker counts and summary information, and evaluate additional notification triggers such as scan completion. (T. Daniel)
• Develop KPIs for the platform dashboard focused on active UIC usage and external contributions.
• Plan and scope the Error Explanation Sprint to improve data interpretability for end users.
• Publish the July 2026 development report.

Operations

• Integrate database schema and Hasura metadata version control into the CI/CD pipeline. (C. Aitken)

Newly Identified Work

• Write infrastructure-as-code build scripts to provision all required components (Lambdas, database, service relationships) for an Equalify instance.
• Determine deployment strategy for pushing code updates to provisioned infrastructure.
• Produce technical documentation for provisioning and deployment.
• Create a developer-focused introduction and high-level usage guide for the platform.
• Store the Audits screen filter (My Audits vs. All Audits) in application state so it persists across sessions.

Development Activity

Contributor Activity

Active Repositories

Recent Commit Highlights

• Implemented a self-registration request flow with administrative review and approval, allowing new users to request access with controlled onboarding.
• Deployed multiple screen reader accessibility fixes, including corrected view selector labeling, improved chart descriptions, and updated CSV download language for clarity.
• Added browser back-button support and screen reader announcements for audit summary/detailed mode transitions and blocker table pagination.
• Persisted user interface preferences (card/table view and "Created by" filter selections) across page reloads using local storage.
• Fixed remote CSV URL synchronization to correctly associate URLs with users and to sync remote CSVs before fetching URLs during audit rescans.
• Improved Equalify Iris session reliability by implementing atomic session claims before work begins, surfacing failed specialist dispatch errors, and removing references to non-existent phases and fields.
• Refined Iris authentication to request minimal GitHub token scopes and documented the plaintext token storage approach.
• Hid archived repositories from public Hub pages to reduce clutter for external visitors.

Planned Sprints

FOSS Deployment Sprint (1-2 weeks)

This sprint focuses on making Equalify deployable by any institution on AWS. The team will create Terraform-based build and deployment scripts for provisioning all required infrastructure components, determine how code updates are pushed to provisioned environments, and produce both technical deployment documentation and a developer-focused introduction to the platform.

Design and Maintenance Sprint (1-2 weeks)

This sprint will establish a cohesive visual direction for the platform, including alignment on an overall palette, branding guidelines, a component design system for interface consistency, and general code and style cleanup. The sprint will also include planning discussions for roll-up reporting across multiple audits and more fine-grained user-to-audit group permissions.