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Serving Sa11y Locally in Drupal Without Breaking Accessibility Workflows

· 2 min read
Victor Jimenez
Victor Jimenez
Software Engineer & AI Agent Builder

The biggest takeaway: serving Sa11y CSS/JS locally in Drupal gives you more predictable accessibility checks, especially when external asset delivery is unreliable or restricted.

Why I Built It​

I wanted a safer accessibility integration path for Drupal sites that run in locked-down environments, strict CSP setups, or government networks where third-party asset delivery can fail silently. Accessibility tooling is only useful when it is consistently available; if your script host blips, your QA confidence drops with it.

The Solution​

The practical pattern is simple: download Sa11y assets, ship them with your module/theme, and attach them as local libraries instead of relying on remote URLs.

warning

Local assets improve reliability, but they also shift maintenance to you. If you forget to update Sa11y versions, you can drift behind upstream fixes.

Gotchas I’d watch:

  • Works best when your deployment process already handles static asset versioning.
  • Falls over when teams assume “local” means “never update” and stop tracking upstream changes.
  • Can conflict with aggressive caching unless you have clear cache-busting rules for library updates.

The Code​

No separate repo. This was an implementation review and integration pattern study based on upstream Drupal discussion, not a standalone build.

What I Learned​

  • Local-first asset delivery is worth it when compliance or network controls make CDN usage fragile.
  • “Stable loading” beats “latest by default” for editorial accessibility workflows.
  • If you self-host accessibility tooling, treat upstream updates as a recurring maintenance task, not a one-time setup.
  • CSP-heavy environments are a strong signal to prefer local libraries from day one.

References​