Accessibility.

PEP/NEWS targets WCAG 2.2 Level AA. The site is built as static HTML with semantic landmarks, keyboard-navigable controls, and high-contrast typography. This page describes what we've done, what we know is imperfect, and how to report a barrier.

Conformance target.

We aim for full conformance with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.2, at Level AA. We do not claim a third-party audit certification — this is a self-declared target. If you find a place we fall short, see the reporting section below.

What we've shipped.

Semantic landmarks. Every page uses real <header>, <main>, <article>, <section>, <footer> elements — not generic <div> wrappers.
Skip link. The first focusable element on every page is "Skip to content," which jumps to <main>.
Alt text on every image. Hero, feature, and masthead images all carry descriptive alt attributes. Decorative wrappers around clickable images use aria-hidden="true" so screen readers don't announce them twice.
Headings make a real outline. One <h1> per page, then <h2> for major sections, then <h3> for individual stories. No skipped levels.
Color contrast. The broadsheet theme uses warm near-black text on parchment (~13:1 contrast). The dark editorial pages use light text on warm-black (~14:1). Both clear AAA.
Keyboard navigability. All interactive elements (links, the video-modal close button, the modal overlay itself) are keyboard-reachable. Escape closes the video modal.
Focus visibility. Every focusable element has a visible 2px oxblood (or accent) outline on :focus-visible.
No autoplay sound. YouTube embeds open in a modal on click only; nothing plays automatically without user action.
Respects reduced motion. The single horizontal-scroll element (the stat ticker) honors prefers-reduced-motion.

Known limitations.

A few things we know aren't perfect:

The YouTube embed iframe inherits YouTube's own player controls and accessibility tree, which we don't control. Users who need an alternative experience can follow the headline link to the video's source page outside our modal.
The masthead wordmark and the broadsheet typography are intentionally large and stylized; if you've configured a minimum font size in your browser higher than ours, the layout may compress.
We do not yet provide transcripts for embedded videos. Source videos on YouTube generally have YouTube auto-captions; for now, that is the available transcript path.

Report a barrier.

If something on PEP/NEWS is not accessible to you, please file an issue on our public repository: github.com/researchvialsus-stack/pep.news/issues. Include the URL, what you were trying to do, and what assistive technology you were using. We aim to respond within seven days.

Standards we follow.

Beyond WCAG 2.2 AA, the site uses HTML5 semantic elements, ARIA roles only where the semantics are not already conveyed by the underlying element, and the platform accessibility primitives (:focus-visible, aria-label, aria-hidden) per the WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices.

Last reviewed: 2026-05-09