Policies
Accessibility
A site that publishes student science is no use to a student who cannot read it. These are commitments, not aspirations, and several are checked automatically on every build.
What we commit to
- Every text and background pair meets WCAG AA contrast at minimum, in every theme. This is asserted in the build and a failure stops the deploy.
- Body text is set at 18 pixels, and nothing anywhere is smaller than the floor recorded in the design system.
- Every interactive element has a visible keyboard focus ring, and nothing on the site requires a mouse or depends on hover.
- Headings follow a real hierarchy, so a screen reader can navigate by structure.
- Every figure carries alt text, and that is one of the checks that blocks a submission.
- Motion is close to absent, and what exists respects a reduced motion preference.
- The layout works down to a 360 pixel screen and reflows rather than scrolling sideways.
- Search is an accelerator, never the only route: every record is reachable from a static list that works with scripts turned off.
Where it is weaker
Records that exist only as a scanned or image based PDF are not readable by a screen reader. Where we hold the text, we publish a full HTML version alongside the PDF, and that is the version this site is built around. Older material that arrived as a PDF only is the gap, and converting it is ordinary manual work rather than a technical problem.
Equations are rendered as text rather than pictures wherever the source allows it. Where an author supplied an equation as an image, it carries a description.
Reporting a barrier
If any part of this site is unusable with a screen reader, a keyboard, at a text size you need, or in any other way, that is a defect. Write to the contact address and describe what you were trying to do. We will tell you what we are doing about it and roughly when.