ACCESSIBILITY

Accessibility on this site

This initiative is about participation, so a site that some people can't use would undermine the point of it. This page says what we have done, what we know is not finished, and how to tell us when something doesn't work.

The standard we're building to

This site is being built to meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA. That is a commitment about how the site is made, not a certificate — it has not yet been independently audited.

What is in place

Semantic HTML with proper landmarks — header, navigation, main and footer regions on every page.
A skip-to-content link as the first thing keyboard users reach.
One H1 per page, and a heading structure that follows the visible order of the content.
Every interactive element reachable and operable by keyboard, in a logical order.
A visible focus outline on every link, button and form field — 3px, high contrast, never removed.
Text and background colour combinations tested to meet or exceed AA contrast, including the harvest-orange buttons.
Touch targets of at least 44 by 44 pixels for all links and controls, including in the navigation and the form.
Body text at a minimum of 16 pixels, with text that scales when you zoom or enlarge text in your browser.
No horizontal scrolling at any width, tested at 390, 430 and 800 pixels.
Form fields with real, permanently visible labels — never placeholder text used as a label.
Errors described in words, listed at the top of the form, with focus moved to the summary.
No information conveyed by colour alone. Every colour-coded state also carries a word or a shape.
Each stage of the food-system diagram carries a full plain-language description directly in the page — not hidden in alt text or behind a toggle.
No animation, no motion, no autoplay and no carousels anywhere on the site.
Meaningful alternative text on every photograph and image on the site.

What we know isn't finished

No independent accessibility audit has been carried out yet, and no testing with assistive-technology users has happened.
The reports linked from Resources are PDFs produced by others. Several have not been checked for a text layer or proper tagging, and some may not be accessible.
The participation forms' error handling and confirmation behaviour have not yet been tested with assistive technology.

Telling us about a problem

If something on this site doesn't work for you, we want to know — including which page, what you were trying to do, and what happened instead. Email ncfnorthumberland@gmail.com.

Under Ontario's accessibility legislation, a public-facing site is expected to have a route for feedback. The email address above is that route.