Our Commitment to Accessibility
At NutritionWise, we are dedicated to ensuring that our website is accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities. We believe that all users should have equal access to the information and services we provide, regardless of their abilities or the technology they use. This commitment is deeply rooted in our mission to empower healthy choices for all residents of San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area.
We are continuously working to improve the accessibility of our website and strive to adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA. These guidelines outline best practices for making web content more accessible to people with a wide range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, cognitive, motor, and speech impairments. Our team, led by our Head of Web Development, Maria Rodriguez, regularly reviews and updates our website to meet these standards.
Accessibility Features
We have implemented several features to enhance the accessibility of our website:
- Keyboard Navigation: Our website is fully navigable using a keyboard. Users can easily move through the site using the Tab key to navigate between links, form elements, and other interactive components. We have ensured that the focus order is logical and intuitive.
- Screen Reader Compatibility: We have optimized our website to work effectively with screen readers such as JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver. We use semantic HTML, provide alternative text for images, and ensure that all interactive elements have appropriate ARIA attributes.
- Alternative Text for Images: All images on our website have descriptive alternative text (alt text) that provides a textual description of the image's content and purpose. This allows users who are blind or visually impaired to understand the information conveyed by the images. For example, the image at the top of this page has the alt text: "Abstract image representing accessible design with overlapping shapes and clear typography."
- Color Contrast: We have carefully chosen color combinations to ensure sufficient contrast between text and background colors. This helps users with low vision or color blindness to easily read the content on our website. We regularly use contrast checking tools to verify that our color choices meet WCAG guidelines.
- Clear and Consistent Navigation: Our website has a clear and consistent navigation structure that makes it easy for users to find the information they are looking for. We use a consistent menu structure and provide breadcrumb navigation on all pages.
- Resizable Text: Users can easily resize the text on our website using their browser's zoom functionality. This allows users with low vision to increase the text size to a comfortable reading level. We have designed our website to be responsive, so the layout adapts gracefully to different screen sizes and text sizes.
- Form Accessibility: All forms on our website are designed to be accessible to users with disabilities. We provide clear labels for all form fields, use ARIA attributes to provide additional information about form fields, and ensure that form errors are clearly communicated.
- Video Captions and Transcripts: All videos on our website include captions and transcripts. This allows users who are deaf or hard of hearing to access the audio content of the videos.
Specific Accessibility Considerations
We have addressed the following specific accessibility considerations:
-
Semantic HTML:
We use semantic HTML elements such as
<article>,<nav>,<aside>,<header>,<footer>, and<main>to structure our content. This helps screen readers understand the organization of the page. -
ARIA Attributes:
We use ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes to provide additional information about the purpose and state of interactive elements. For example, we use
aria-labelto provide descriptive labels for links and buttons. - Focus Indicators: We provide clear focus indicators for all interactive elements. This helps keyboard users to see which element is currently focused.
- Consistent Link Styling: We use consistent styling for all links on our website. This helps users to easily identify links and understand their purpose. Links are underlined and change color on hover and focus.
- Error Handling: We provide clear and informative error messages for form validation errors. These messages are displayed in a prominent location and are associated with the relevant form fields using ARIA attributes.
Ongoing Efforts and Future Improvements
We are committed to continuously improving the accessibility of our website. We regularly conduct accessibility audits and user testing to identify areas for improvement. Our future accessibility efforts include:
- Implementing a more robust accessibility testing process.
- Providing accessibility training for our content creators.
- Conducting user testing with individuals with disabilities.
- Exploring the use of assistive technologies to further improve accessibility.
- Ensuring that all new content and features are accessible from the outset.
Conformance Status
The NutritionWise website strives to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. We are committed to making our website as accessible as possible, but we recognize that there may be some areas where we can improve. We are working to address these issues and ensure that our website is fully accessible to all users.
Feedback and Contact Information
We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of our website. If you encounter any accessibility barriers or have suggestions for improvement, please contact us:
- Email: accessibility@nutritionwise.com
- Phone: (415) 555-0100 (Please ask for the Accessibility Coordinator)
- Address: NutritionWise, Accessibility Department, 555 Market Street, Suite 1200, San Francisco, CA 94105
We are committed to responding to accessibility feedback promptly and making the necessary changes to improve the accessibility of our website. We appreciate your help in making NutritionWise a more inclusive resource for the San Francisco community.
Third-Party Content
Some of the content on our website is provided by third parties. While we strive to ensure that all content is accessible, we cannot guarantee the accessibility of third-party content. We encourage third-party content providers to adhere to WCAG guidelines and we will work with them to improve the accessibility of their content whenever possible.
This Accessibility Statement
This accessibility statement was last updated on October 26, 2023. We will review and update this statement regularly to reflect our ongoing efforts to improve the accessibility of our website.