Accessibility Statement

Our commitment

Our patrons include students, faculty, clinicians, and researchers with a wide range of abilities. We design and develop to the WCAG 2.1 AA target, test with real assistive technology, and treat accessibility defects the same way we treat security defects: they go to the top of the queue.

Accessibility features shipping today

• Semantic HTML with proper landmark regions (<main>, <nav>, <aside>) and a single h1 per page
• "Skip to main content" link as the first focusable element on every page
• Full keyboard navigation across header, browse, reader, forms, and administrative dashboards — no mouse-only interactions
• Visible focus indicators on every interactive control
• Color contrast at Level AA (4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for large text and non-text UI components) — verified across the stone / slate / amber / teal palettes
• Text alternatives for non-decorative images; decorative icons marked aria-hidden="true"
• Resizable text up to 200% without loss of functionality
• Form labels and error messages associated via <label for> or aria-labelledby
• Status messages announced via role="status" or role="alert"
• PDF and XHTML reader supports keyboard pagination, TOC sidebar, search-in-document, and system-level dark mode / reduced motion

Known limitations

We are tracking the following gaps against the Level AA target. Each has a tracking entry in our accessibility backlog:

• Some admin-only dialogs still use the native confirm() browser prompt for destructive actions. These are keyboard-accessible but not reachable via screen-reader virtual cursor; replacement with proper role="dialog" modals is in progress.
• Some data-visualization charts (analytics dashboards) do not yet expose tabular equivalents for screen-reader users. Text summaries exist; sortable equivalents land in 2026-Q2.
• Formal VPAT 2.4 from an independent accessibility audit firm is in procurement. Until it lands, this page serves as the self-assessment.

Tested assistive technology

We test routinely against:

• NVDA (Windows, latest + prior release)
• JAWS (Windows, latest)
• VoiceOver (macOS Sonoma + iOS 17)
• TalkBack (Android 14)
• Keyboard-only (no mouse/trackpad)
• 200% browser zoom + system text-size override
• macOS / Windows high-contrast modes

Standards we target

• WCAG 2.1 Level AA — the working target on current roadmap
• Section 508 (36 CFR Part 1194) — US federal procurement compliance
• EN 301 549 V3.2.1 — European public procurement
• ADA Title II / III — as interpreted by the DOJ's 2024 final rule requiring WCAG 2.1 AA for state and local government websites

Report an issue

If you encounter any accessibility barrier — a missing alt text, an unlabeled form field, a keyboard trap, a contrast failure, anything at all — please let us know. We treat accessibility bugs with the same priority as security bugs, and we will respond within two business days.