Figma introduces accessibility tokens and automated contrast checks for design systems

Design · 5 min read

Design teams have long relied on color and spacing tokens to keep interfaces consistent, but accessibility metadata often lived outside the design file. Figma’s new accessibility tokens let designers attach semantic information—contrast ratios, preferred text size thresholds, and motion sensitivity flags—directly to tokens so that those attributes travel through handoff.

The update includes an automated contrast auditor that highlights token pairs that fail WCAG thresholds, suggests alternative accessible palettes, and simulates low-vision conditions. Teams can embed these checks into file templates and branch rules, catching accessibility drift before tokens are published to libraries.

Crucially for engineering handoff, Figma added export mappings that transform accessibility tokens into platform-ready formats (CSS custom properties, iOS asset catalogs, Android resources) while preserving intent metadata. The company says the goal is to reduce guesses at implementation time and make accessibility a visible part of component decisions.