Accessibility statement

Our commitment

Accessibility is part of how this project serves the public, not a box we check. Everyone who uses this site — including people with disabilities, people using assistive technology, and people whose attention, memory, vision, hearing, or motor abilities differ from any “average” — has the same right to read, understand, and act here with dignity and independence.

What we conform to

  • This site targets WCAG 2.2 Level AAA — the highest published conformance level.
  • We treat AAA as our floor, not a ceiling: an accessibility-focused site should demonstrate the standard it advocates.
  • The U.S. legal baseline under DOJ Title II is WCAG 2.1 AA; we exceed that in every respect we can test and verify.

AAA criteria we actively implement

  • Enhanced contrast — SC 1.4.6 (7:1 for normal text)
  • Images of text — SC 1.4.9 (logotype exception applies to the logo)
  • No keyboard traps — SC 2.1.3
  • No timing — SC 2.2.3
  • Low or no flashing — SC 2.3.2
  • Location awareness — SC 2.4.8
  • Link purpose from text alone — SC 2.4.9
  • Section headings — SC 2.4.10
  • Focus appearance — SC 2.4.13 (3px outline, 3:1 contrast)
  • Accessible authentication — SC 3.3.7 / 3.3.8
  • Reading level — SC 3.1.5

In practice

  • Navigate entirely by keyboard.
  • Use a screen reader on every page.
  • Zoom or resize text up to 400% without breaking layout.
  • Experience reduced motion if you prefer it (prefers-reduced-motion).
  • Pages use semantic landmarks (header, main, footer, nav), a single h1, programmatic heading order, a working skip link, and high-contrast text.

How we test

Accessibility is verified using a layered toolchain so no single gap slips through:

Automated — every build

  • Playwright + axe-core — headless browser audit using @axe-core/playwright and alfa (Siteimprove) against WCAG 2.2 AAA rules on every build. Violations block the build.
  • Playwright + alfa — a second automated engine with separate rule coverage from Siteimprove. Both must pass.
  • All issues found by automated tools are automatically remediated before release. Results are published on the accessibility audit page.

Manual — each release

  • Accessibility Insights for Web — structured guided assessment following the Fast Pass and Assessment workflows.
  • Axe DevTools — browser extension used for quick spot checks during development.

Automated unit / integration testing

  • vitest — component-level accessibility assertions (role, label, focus behavior) run on every commit.

Planned

  • Screen reader testing — NVDA + Firefox on Windows, VoiceOver on macOS and iOS, TalkBack on Android. Will be added to the release checklist for future versions.

Where we know we fall short

  • We do not claim perfection. Known issues and planned fix dates are tracked on the accessibility audit page.
  • If a barrier is blocking you right now, contact us — we will help you complete your task by another route while we fix the underlying problem.

Tell us

If anything here creates a barrier, contact A11y Equitas via a11yequitas.org. Government and nonprofit entities are especially encouraged to reach out — feedback directly shapes future versions of the model and site. We aim to respond within five business days.

Last reviewed: 2026-05-23.