Brief:

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Article Template Accessibility Test

My Role:

Accessibility Tester

Context:

History Colorado publishes new article content on a weekly basis. To ensure accessibility was built into the publishing workflow, I conducted a comprehensive audit of this Article template to identify and remediate WCAG compliance issues. This approach allowed content managers to create and publish new content with confidence, knowing accessibility requirements were already incorporated into the template design.

Tools:

WAVE, WebAim, NVDA, WCAG 2.1 AA, manual keyboard testing, screen reader testing

Accessibility Findings:

Critical Severity

Missing first level heading

WCAG Criteria: 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels)
Context: The absence of an H1 makes it difficult for screen reader users to understand the page structure and main topic.

Name, Role, Value

WCAG Criteria: 2.4.4 (Link Purpose - In Context)
Context: Identified during Screen Reader testing. This typically means a component lacks a descriptive name or role, preventing users from knowing what it does or how to interact with it.

High Severity

Empty headings

WCAG Criteria: 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships)
Context: Contains standalone H2 tags with no content, which creates "ghost" stops for screen reader users

Link not tabbable

WCAG Criteria: 2.1.1 (Keyboard)
Context: The map link under the location section is skipped during keyboard navigation, making the map inaccessible to keyboard-only users.

Name, Role, Value

WCAG Criteria: 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value)
Context: Screen Reader testing. Similar to the critical issue, but mapped to criteria 4.1.2, focusing on the programmatically determined state and role of user interface components.

Medium Severity

Redundant alt text (9 instances)

WCAG Criteria: 1.1.1 (Non-text Content)
Context: Multiple images likely have alt text that repeats nearby text or provides no additional value, cluttering the screen reader experience.

Accessibility Improvements:

Before:

After: