Site accessibility

We try to make the site usable with a keyboard, with a screen reader and at an increased zoom level. Below is an honest list of what has already been done and what is still in progress. We do not claim conformance with any particular standard (WCAG 2.1 AA, for example): this is a developer’s own check, not an independent audit.

What has already been done

• The first tab stop on every page is a hidden “skip to content” link that bypasses the navigation.

• Visible focus on every interactive element: an accent-coloured outline when reached with Tab, not only when clicked with a mouse.

• The sections panel behaves as a dialog: Esc closes it and returns focus to the button that opened it; while it is open, Tab does not move focus to the page underneath.

• Section headings are tied to the sections themselves (aria-labelledby) — a screen reader can move through the page section by section, not only line by line.

• Every form field has a label; an error marks the field (aria-invalid) and moves focus to the first one left empty; the submission status and the error text are announced by the screen reader immediately, without re-reading the page.

• Touch targets — buttons, links, fields — are no smaller than 44 pixels on touch screens.

• The “reduce motion” system setting is respected: section splash screens show a single still frame instead of an animation.

• The region map on the “Matrix” page is duplicated by a plain table of links beneath it: the map itself is drawn on a canvas and is invisible to a screen reader, so the data must not exist only inside the drawing.

• Secondary light-grey text smaller than 16 pixels (captions, monospaced figures) has been raised one step in contrast so that it does not blend into the background.

• The print version of a page switches to a light colour scheme — a dark screen background is unreadable on paper.

What is still in progress

• A separate “reduce motion” switch next to the language selector — at present only the browser/OS system setting is taken into account.

• Re-checking at 200% page zoom and in Windows high contrast mode — carried out as new sections are added to the site, not once and for all.

• An independent external audit for WCAG conformance — has not been carried out.

Report a problem

If some element of the site does not work the way it should, write to bilalova@bcguz.com describing the page and what happened. We fix what genuinely gets in the way of using the site, rather than rewriting the list above to reach a prettier number.