Hi there.

My name is Aaron Gustafson and I work on the web.

I am a long-time web developer who is now in charge of Microsoft’s $25m AI for Accessibility grant program. Prior to this role, I was a web standards & accessibility advocate on the Edge browser team, focused on Progressive Web Apps (PWAs).

When not wearing my Microsoft badge, I help organizations elegantly tackle the challenges presented by all the crazy devices and screens you see everywhere using progressive enhancement via my own consultancy, Easy Designs, and Rosenfeld Media. You might also catch me presenting at conferences and running workshops across the globe.

I sit on the W3C’s Web Applications Working Group, where I’m an editor of several PWA-related specifications and the author of numerous feature proposals. In an effort to bring more designers and developers into the standards process, I created the Web We Want. I also co-founded several events, including PWA Summit, Code & Creativity, and Retreats 4 Geeks. In previous roles, I managed the Web Standards Project (WaSP), published Web Standards Sherpa, and founded and ran the Chattanooga Open Device Lab.

I wrote the web design book Jeffrey Zeldman calls a “modern classic” and Jeremy Keith calls “the clearest, most beautiful explanation of progressive enhancement I’ve ever read”: Adaptive Web Design. I’ve also contributed to numerous other titles and have written dozens of articles. I’ve also helped shape countless others’ written work as Editor in Chief of the esteemed magazine “for people who make websites,” A List Apart.

I live and work in beautiful Seattle, WA with my lovely and talented partner Kelly McCarthy and our amazing son Oscar.

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