Accessibility assessment
Review date: November 9, 2026. Target: WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
Assessment status and scope
This is an engineering review of the rebuilt website candidate. It records test coverage and remediation work. It is not a completed Accessibility Conformance Report, DHS certification of the website, or evidence that the candidate has been deployed to production.
Scope includes the main website, local interactive demonstrations, standalone brand and portfolio guides, certificate transcripts, public PDF documents and the films page. Externally hosted applications linked from case studies require their own evaluations. An image of an application is not an evaluation of that application. Five legacy video assets remain at historical URLs and are not embedded in current pages; their caption and description equivalence has not been evaluated. They require review before reuse and are excluded from any conformance claim.
Methods and evidence
- Automated Lighthouse accessibility, best-practices, SEO and performance reports, with individual route results retained in the review evidence.
- Manual browser checks of navigation, skip links, keyboard focus, carousels, pause controls, enlarged text, reflow and text spacing.
- Source and interaction review of local forms, labels, errors and dynamic status regions. No external inquiry or booking was submitted.
- PDF structure inspection, current field-guide remediation, HTML certificate transcripts and film text/audio alternatives.
Automated checks only cover the rules they can evaluate. Browser accessibility-tree inspection is not a screen-reader usability test. PDF tags alone do not prove correct reading order or complete document accessibility.
Required acceptance work
- Complete and retain the Trusted Tester 5.1.3 process on the exact release candidate in a validated environment, with the required testing tools and a certified tester's review. Windows browsers and macOS Safari are among the environments specified by the process.
- Complete assistive-technology acceptance, including screen-reader operation of every complete interactive process, document reading order and film description/caption accuracy.
- Retest production after release, including actual delivery headers, links, externally hosted experiences and third-party booking destinations in their own scope.
Christopher Carter's individual Trusted Tester credential is documented on the certificate transcript. It is distinct from a signed test result for this website.
WCAG 2.2 A and AA coverage
The following 55 success criteria come from the W3C recommendation. Entries describe this review's evidence and limits. They are not ACR “Supports” ratings. The earlier WCAG 2.0/2.1 parsing criterion is tracked separately when using the Section 508 Trusted Tester process.
1.1.1 Non-text Content Level A
Manual acceptance required. Local image alternatives and diagram labels were inspected; the capability network now has a readable 14-item connections legend. Full equivalence review of every portfolio screenshot and PDF figure remains open.
1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded) Level A
Manual acceptance required. Films have adjacent descriptive transcripts and described audio alternatives. Complete human comparison of the alternatives against every visual and sound is required.
1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) Level A
Manual acceptance required. Native video and interactive reels have caption alternatives. Browser operation and generated timing checks are recorded separately from human caption-accuracy acceptance.
1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) Level A
Manual acceptance required. Descriptive transcripts and audio-described film versions were added. A complete visual-to-alternative equivalence review remains required.
1.2.4 Captions (Live) Level AA
Not present in scope. No live synchronized media is provided in the reviewed website candidate. Externally hosted services are outside this assessment.
1.2.5 Audio Description (Prerecorded) Level AA
Manual acceptance required. Audio-described alternatives preserve the original video sequences. Human listening for accuracy, timing, speech clarity and complete coverage remains required.
1.3.1 Info and Relationships Level A
Manual acceptance required. Headings, forms, tables, disclosure states and document structure were inspected. Corrected dynamic heading levels, field/error associations and PDF figure wrappers. Complete assistive-technology and PDF reading-order acceptance remains open.
1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence Level A
Manual acceptance required. Browser content order and keyboard traversal were sampled. Screen-reader linear reading of every page, interactive process and PDF remains open.
1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Reviewed instructions use named controls, stages and labels. The diagram connections are available as text rather than only spatial or hover instructions. Full content acceptance remains open.
1.3.4 Orientation Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. Reviewed pages reflow between portrait and landscape viewport sizes; no orientation lock was found. This does not evaluate linked third-party applications.
1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. Public inquiry submission is disabled in this candidate. Local demonstration fields were reviewed separately; confirm input-purpose requirements for any future form collecting the visitor's own details.
1.4.1 Use of Color Level A
Manual acceptance required. Demonstration statuses use text labels and review states alongside color. The diagram has a text legend. Full grayscale and chart-meaning acceptance remains open.
1.4.2 Audio Control Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Films start from user-operated playback controls. No automatic audio was found in the inspected website paths.
1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) Level AA
Manual acceptance required. Lighthouse text-contrast results are retained per route. A separate photo-background analysis found white homepage body text below 4.5:1; the hero actions now have a solid navy backdrop with white text at 14.14:1. Complete state-by-state and PDF content contrast acceptance remains open.
1.4.4 Resize Text Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. Actual Chrome browser zoom at 200% was checked on eight representative page types. The visually hidden carousel heading was excluded from a clipping heuristic after inspecting its intentional screen-reader-only styling.
1.4.5 Images of Text Level AA
Manual acceptance required. Portfolio screenshots show the interfaces being discussed; certificates and logos have text alternatives. A complete review of essential-image exceptions and image-text equivalence remains open.
1.4.10 Reflow Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. All 81 public HTML surfaces were checked at 320 CSS pixels. Historical table content has its own keyboard-focusable horizontal scroll region; ordinary page content must remain within the viewport.
1.4.11 Non-text Contrast Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. Removed text-field focus suppression and strengthened dark control borders. Computed browser inspection found almost invisible inherited focus colors on the announcement bar, dark brand tiles, portfolio contact, mission diagrams and dark case-study closing actions; those contexts now set explicit light focus tokens. Film controls and screenshot links use two-color indicators. Complete state-by-state acceptance remains open.
1.4.12 Text Spacing Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. All 81 initial page views were checked with line height 1.5, paragraph spacing 2em, letter spacing .12em and word spacing .16em at 320 CSS pixels. Overflow findings and their retests are retained; this does not cover every possible dynamic state.
1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. A keyboard-focused mega menu now persists when the pointer leaves; Escape dismisses it and restores trigger focus. Custom diagram hover text was replaced with a persistent text legend and native SVG titles.
2.1.1 Keyboard Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Keyboard checks include menus, carousels, tab controls, disclosure controls and local demonstration workflows. Individual flow evidence describes the actions performed; complete certified acceptance remains open.
2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. The mobile menu traps focus while open and releases it on Escape, restoring the trigger and page scrolling. No trap was found in the sampled local flows.
2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts Level A
Not present in scope. No single-character keyboard shortcuts were found in the reviewed website components. Arrow, Home, End and Escape handling is scoped to its relevant controls.
2.2.1 Timing Adjustable Level A
Not present in scope. No user-facing time limit was found in the reviewed public website or local synthetic workflows. Inactive intake code and third-party scheduling destinations are not active tested processes.
2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Added pause/play controls to the older capability network and method diagram. Carousels, the code ticker and globe/network illustrations have motion controls or static reduced-motion behavior.
2.3.1 Three Flashes or Below Threshold Level A
Manual acceptance required. No intentionally flashing interaction was identified in source review. Complete film/animation flash-threshold analysis has not been performed; no criterion-level pass is issued.
2.4.1 Bypass Blocks Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. The first keyboard stop exposes the skip link; activating it focuses the main-content target. Repeated navigation has separate landmarks.
2.4.2 Page Titled Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Unique document titles and canonical metadata were checked in the exported HTML inventory, including standalone transcripts and the new SITREP pages.
2.4.3 Focus Order Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Corrected Portal stage transitions and disclosure close actions so focus reaches the resulting content or returns to the originating control. Broader traversal evidence is recorded separately.
2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Navigation and case-study links have descriptive names or nearby project context. Certificate and historical-report alternatives are explicitly labelled HTML or PDF.
2.4.5 Multiple Ways Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. Public pages are reachable through navigation, relevant landing-page groups and contextual links. Sitemap coverage is checked separately; no site search is required for this combination.
2.4.6 Headings and Labels Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. Page titles, headings and labels were inspected; corrected Evaluation result heading hierarchy and contextual disclosure/field names.
2.4.7 Focus Visible Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. Removed the shared rule hiding input/textarea keyboard outlines. Menu items and options now receive focus indicators too; representative light and dark controls are retested visually.
2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. Focused controls were checked against sticky-header bounds in keyboard samples. The skip link overlays the header deliberately and is visible; it is not treated as an obscured control by the geometry heuristic.
2.5.1 Pointer Gestures Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Carousel navigation has buttons and keyboard alternatives to swipe gestures. No multipoint-only or path-only operation was found in the reviewed website controls.
2.5.2 Pointer Cancellation Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Reviewed button actions activate on click, and carousel pointer cancellation restores a settled slide. Complete pointer-device acceptance remains open.
2.5.3 Label in Name Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Visible control labels and accessible names were inspected in the tested flows; the appearance toggle has a stable label with a pressed state.
2.5.4 Motion Actuation Level A
Not present in scope. No device-motion actuation is used in the reviewed website candidate.
2.5.7 Dragging Movements Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. Carousels provide previous/next and slide-selection controls, so dragging is not the only way to navigate them. No other dragging-only task was found.
2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) Level AA
Manual acceptance required. Mobile navigation controls were measured, including the 44-pixel menu trigger. Full pointer-target and spacing exception review across every dynamic state remains open.
3.1.1 Language of Page Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. The public HTML inventory declares its page language. PDF language entries and HTML certificate alternatives were inspected separately.
3.1.2 Language of Parts Level AA
Manual acceptance required. The reviewed website copy is English, with product names and proper names retained. A full editorial language-of-parts review remains open.
3.2.1 On Focus Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Reviewed focus and navigation handlers do not submit forms or navigate solely on receiving focus. Tab activation changes its associated panel within the same page.
3.2.2 On Input Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Filters update their local result region; review/record/release steps require named buttons. No external form was submitted during this assessment.
3.2.3 Consistent Navigation Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. The shared website navigation is consistent across content routes; local demonstration navigation is consistently grouped within its own application context.
3.2.4 Consistent Identification Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. Shared controls and repeated service/project links use consistent identification in the reviewed components.
3.2.6 Consistent Help Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. The website contact destination and accessibility feedback address are consistently available; local demo help remains in its application context.
3.3.1 Error Identification Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Corrected empty Evaluation question validation and Supply field-specific errors. Local workflow evidence records validation behavior; no public inquiry was transmitted.
3.3.2 Labels or Instructions Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Reviewed forms have visible labels, required/optional instructions and synthetic-data context. Complete assistive-technology review remains open.
3.3.3 Error Suggestion Level AA
Engineering evidence recorded. Error messages identify the field and corrective action in the tested local flows; validation focus is moved to the relevant field.
3.3.4 Error Prevention (Legal, Financial, Data) Level AA
Not present in scope. No real legal commitment, financial transaction or persistent user-data deletion is performed by the reviewed website. Portfolio release/reset actions affect synthetic local demo state.
3.3.7 Redundant Entry Level A
Manual acceptance required. Local multi-step workflows were reviewed for retained values and required re-entry. Complete end-to-end acceptance of every conditional path remains open.
3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) Level AA
Not present in scope. No authentication process is provided by this public website candidate. Linked external applications and third-party booking services require separate evaluations.
4.1.2 Name, Role, Value Level A
Engineering evidence recorded. Inspected control names, roles and selected/expanded/pressed states. Corrected Recovery disclosure state and preserved carousel inactive-panel inert semantics. Full assistive-technology acceptance remains open.
4.1.3 Status Messages Level AA
Manual acceptance required. Corrected Portal eligibility feedback, Evaluation benchmark status and local workflow announcements. Live-region markup and DOM updates were inspected; actual screen-reader announcement acceptance remains open.
Report an accessibility barrier
Email chris@newtonandcarter.com with the page, task and what prevented you from completing it. Include your browser and assistive technology if you wish.