Accessibility

Why this matters here

Open Doors is written for people who were never handed the unwritten rules — often the same people using older phones, shared computers and assistive technology. A site about opening doors should not have a step at its own entrance.

What is checked, and how

Every page is tested on each change against WCAG 2.1 AA using pa11y with axe-core and HTML CodeSniffer. That covers image alternatives, form labelling, ARIA usage, heading structure, landmarks and link naming. A failure stops the change.

Colour contrast is measured separately, because this site's backgrounds are gradients and automated tools cannot evaluate those reliably. A purpose-built check resolves every background layer, including transparency, and tests each piece of text against the full range of the gradient behind it. At the last run, 501 colour combinations were checked and none fell below AA.

What is in place

• Full keyboard operation, including the menu, the tabbed talks, the career explorer and every form. Focus is always visible.
• The mobile menu moves focus into itself, keeps it there while open, and returns it to the button on close.
• Every image carries a text alternative; decorative art is hidden from screen readers.
• Every form field has a real label, and errors are announced rather than shown only by colour.
• Text contrast meets AA throughout, verified as described above.
• Animation respects prefers-reduced-motion, and nothing flashes.
• Nothing on the site requires an account, a payment or a download to use.

Known limits

We would rather name these than imply perfection:

• Automated testing catches a portion of accessibility problems, not all of them. These checks are a floor, not a certificate.
• The career explorer's international tab shows text from ESCO in 28 languages; the surrounding interface is in English.
• The downloadable speaker one-sheet is a designed PDF. If you need its contents in another format, ask and it will be sent as plain text.
• Pages that link out to Amazon and other sites cannot control what you find there.

Tell us

If any part of this site is difficult or impossible for you to use, please say so through any form on the site. Describe what you were trying to do and what got in the way, and it will be treated as a bug rather than a request.