Accessibility

Our approach

The site is built from plain, static HTML pages with no pop-ups, no autoplaying media and no scripts needed to read the content. The target is WCAG 2.1 level AA, published by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. Accessibility is checked as part of each build rather than added afterward.

What we do

• Contrast. Body text is near-black on an off-white background at about 15:1 contrast, and secondary text is above 7:1; colors used for text all exceed the 4.5:1 minimum.
• Structure. Each page has one main heading, ordered section headings, a skip-to-content link, and a table of contents on longer guides.
• Images. Every photo and infographic has alternative text; infographic descriptions state each label and number shown in the image. Drawings are captioned as illustrations.
• Keyboard and focus. Menus, questions and answers use native HTML elements that work with a keyboard, and a visible focus ring marks the current link.
• Tables. Data tables use header cells, and on small screens each row is shown with its labels.
• Motion. Animations are turned off for readers whose device asks for reduced motion.
• Videos. Some guides include a YouTube video. Nothing plays on its own: the page shows a thumbnail with a labeled play button that works with a keyboard, the video has a text caption naming its title and channel, and the player loads only when the reader presses play. YouTube's player provides its own captions, where the channel has them.
• Language. Pages are marked as US English and written in short, plain sentences.

Known limits

Some linked sources, such as utility water quality reports and agency PDFs, are hosted elsewhere and may not meet the same standard. Infographics are images, so their full text is repeated in the alternative text, and the key figures also appear in the page's own text. The site has no contact form; pages are reviewed at each update, and problems found are fixed then. The About page explains who runs the site.