Research is no use to a person who cannot read it.

Research is no use to a person who cannot read it. This site is built to be usable with a keyboard alone, with a screen reader, at a large text size, and without animation.

We do not claim a conformance level, because we have not been audited against one. Claiming AA without testing for it would be a claim rather than a fact. What follows is what is true today, including what is not yet good enough.

• A skip link, first in the tab order on every page, so a keyboard user is not walked through the header and the navigation before reaching the article.
• Real landmarks and headings, so a screen reader can move by structure rather than by reading everything.
• Every image carries alternative text, and images that are decoration are hidden from assistive technology rather than described.
• A visible focus ring on everything you can reach with a keyboard.
• Everything that moves respects the reduce-motion setting in your operating system, and the site works with it turned on.
• Text is real text. Nothing you need to read is inside an image.
• Every article is available as HTML, not only as a PDF, which is what makes it readable at your own text size and by a screen reader.

Three of the greys this site used for secondary text fell short of the 4.5:1 ratio WCAG 2.1 AA asks for at the sizes we use them: secondary text at 3.8:1, captions and labels at 2.9:1, and links in running text at 4.3:1. The whole ladder has been raised rather than the lowest values nudged, because nudging them would have left two steps of the hierarchy indistinguishable.

Body text

8.2:1 against white, 7.8:1 on a panel.

Secondary text

6.2:1 against white, 6.0:1 on a panel.

Captions and labels

4.7:1 against white, 4.6:1 on a panel.

Links in running text

5.3:1 against white, 4.8:1 on a panel.

Text on a dark ground

6.3:1 at its lowest step, 12.9:1 at its highest.

These are measured rather than estimated, on both the white and the light panel this site uses, and at the lowest step of each scale rather than the most flattering one. Text on a dark ground previously had no scale at all and was set at ten different opacities; it now uses the same three steps.

Write to info@caravelpress.com and tell us what you were trying to do and what stopped you. If you need an article in a different format, ask and we will send it.