A home in a seaside forest where we're building kinder tools and a kinder web, together.
Comfort Commons is an open-source community creating tools that make the web actually comfortable for real people with real needs. We're developers, designers, researchers, writers, and advocates who believe the internet should feel good to use—not just check compliance boxes.
We bring together people who experience the web in different ways: those who need higher contrast, those who get dizzy from certain animations, those who navigate by keyboard, those who use screen readers, and those who just want the web to stop being so overwhelming. Together, we're building tools that let everyone adjust their experience to what works for them.
Everything we build is open-source, free, and built by this community. Including you, if you'd like.
Here's the question driving everything we do: Can we build a web where people control their own comfort, instead of one-size-fits-all solutions?
Most accessibility work focuses on minimum compliance—meeting legal standards, hitting WCAG checkboxes. Those matter, but they often miss the human part: the actual experience of using the web every day.
We're trying something different. We start with real struggles that real people share with us. We research together (no PhD required). We build practical tools that actually help. We test with the people who'll use them. And we keep improving based on what works in real life, not just what looks good on paper.
What it does: Takes your beautiful color palette and makes tiny, nearly invisible tweaks so everyone can actually read your content. You keep your design vision, and your users can read what you wrote. Win-win.
The challenge it solves: Designers want gorgeous colors. Users need enough contrast to read comfortably. These don't have to be enemies. CM-Colors handles the technical requirements so you can focus on making things beautiful and readable.
We're currently investigating:
- How certain color combinations affect people with vestibular challenges
- Why developers struggle to adopt accessibility tools
- How color meaning and accessibility needs vary across cultures
- Performance impact of real-time accessibility adjustments
We follow a cycle that keeps real people at the center:
- Someone shares a real problem they're experiencing or witnessing
- We research it together using academic sources, community wisdom, and lived experience
- We build something practical that fits into real workflows
- We test with actual humans to see if it helps
- We improve based on honest feedback about what works and what doesn't
Everything happens in the open. You can watch, participate, or just lurk. All are welcome.
Whether you've never contributed to open source before or you're an experienced developer, there's a place for you here.
- Brand New? Read our Getting Started guide or browse good first issues.
- Researcher/Writer? Check our Research Hub.
- Developer? Browse our repositories and read our Technical Setup Guide.
- Designer? Share insights and help us understand design constraints.
You don't need permission to participate. Comment on an issue, ask a question, share an idea. That's contributing.
Making the web softer for everyone, one small improvement at a time