Sarah Higley
Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft
Seattle, Washington, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolSarah Higley is a Senior Software Engineer in Seattle with 12 years of experience specializing in front-end development and digital accessibility. At Microsoft she serves as an accessibility SME and developer for the Fluent React component library, conducts user research and testing, and contributes to the W3C ARIA working group. Her open-source work includes tangible accessibility improvements to high-profile projects like Microsoft Fluent UI and the WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices Guide, where she fixed focus behavior, ARIA attributes, and high-contrast styling. Previously she led accessibility efforts for Dojo at SitePen and built accessible web experiences for agencies, combining practitioner-level engineering with teaching and advocacy. Her background in international relations gives her a user-centered perspective that informs cross-disciplinary collaboration and clear documentation.
12 years of coding experience
4 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Arts - BA International Relations and Affairs, Bachelor of Arts - BA International Relations and Affairs at Pomona College
Github Skills (16)
accessibility10
html10
css10
ria10
acessibility10
uid10
fluentui10
javascript10
front-end-development10
ui-design10
component-design10
wai-aria10
react10
accessibilityservice10
documentation9
Programming languages (8)
Github contributions (5)
microsoft/fluentui
Feb 2020 - Jan 2023
Fluent UI web represents a collection of utilities, React components, and web components for building web applications.
Role in this project:
Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:1117 reviews, 238 commits, 767 PRs in 2 years 11 months
Contributions summary:Sarah's primary contributions focused on enhancing the accessibility and functionality of the Fluent UI web library. They modified React components to use `aria-current` for active navigation links, updated styling to meet high-contrast requirements, corrected focus behavior for elements, and added descriptions and ARIA attributes to improve the user experience. They implemented improved features in various UI components and examples.
web-componentsreact-component-libraryreact-componentsmicrosoftui-components
w3c/aria-practices
Jul 2019 - Oct 2022
WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG)
Role in this project:Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:30 reviews, 26 commits, 24 PRs in 3 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Sarah primarily contributed to the front-end development of the "WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG)" repository. Their commits focused on creating and improving various UI components and examples that adhered to accessibility standards. The contributions involved implementing and refining interactive elements, such as disclosure menus, date pickers, and listbox with multiple selection features. These changes enhance the user experience and provide practical guidance on implementing accessible web interfaces.
aria-authoring-practicesapgcssauthoringwai
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