Accessibility

Last updated: 1 October 2026.

The Xplorion is designed to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA, and we are working toward WCAG 2.2 AA conformance. Our current conformance status is “partially conformant” — we meet most criteria and we actively work on the rest.

What we have done

  • Semantic HTML throughout, with correct heading hierarchy and ARIA landmark roles
  • Visible focus states on every interactive element (buttons, links, form fields)
  • Keyboard-navigable menus, dropdowns, forms and modal dialogs
  • Alt text on all editorial images; decorative images marked role=”presentation”
  • Colour contrast at least 4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text, in both light and dark themes
  • Form fields with associated <label> elements, error messages announced via aria-live
  • Captions on all video content we produce ourselves
  • Respect for the prefers-reduced-motion media query — animations are reduced for users who have asked their OS to minimise motion
  • Skip-to-content link at the top of every page
  • Minimum touch target size of 44 x 44 CSS pixels
  • No autoplay audio or video
  • Readable text up to 200% zoom without horizontal scroll

Testing

We test with the following tools and techniques on every major release:

  • Automated axe-core scans (DevTools and CI pipeline)
  • Lighthouse accessibility audits
  • Keyboard-only navigation testing
  • VoiceOver on macOS and iOS
  • NVDA on Windows
  • JAWS on Windows (quarterly)
  • Zoom testing at 200% and 400%
  • Colour-blind simulation (deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia)

Known gaps

  • Some embedded third-party videos (YouTube, Vimeo) may not have captions — we add our own transcripts where we can
  • A small number of legacy archive articles (pre-2020) still rely on inline styles that may not scale perfectly at 200% zoom
  • Some PDF documents in our archive may not have proper tagged structure — contact us if you need an accessible alternative
  • Our comment system (powered by a third-party plugin) does not fully meet WCAG 2.2 target size criteria on mobile; we are evaluating alternatives

Legal basis

This accessibility statement is prepared in accordance with:

  • The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and its 2024 Title II web rule
  • Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act
  • The European Accessibility Act (Directive EU 2019/882) and transposing national laws
  • The Equality Act 2010 (United Kingdom)
  • The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)

Reporting an issue

If you find an accessibility problem, email [email protected]. Please include the URL where you encountered the issue, your operating system, assistive technology (if any), and a short description. We aim to acknowledge within 2 working days and fix within 15 days. For urgent issues that prevent you using a core feature of the site, we aim to respond within one working day.

Enforcement

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may escalate to the appropriate regulator in your jurisdiction — for US users, the Department of Justice ADA.gov complaints portal; for EU users, your national equality or accessibility body.

Alternative formats

If you need any article in an alternative format (large print, audio, Braille, plain-text), email us and we will produce it within 15 working days at no cost.

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