Accessibility Statement

The Digital Weekly is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We continually improve the user experience for everyone and apply the relevant accessibility standards, including WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

Our commitment

We believe that accessible journalism is better journalism. When we design for screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, low vision, and cognitive load, we end up with a site that’s faster, cleaner, and easier to use for everyone — not just readers with disabilities.

Accessibility is not a feature we ship once and forget. It’s a continuous process baked into every editorial and engineering decision we make. New articles get reviewed for plain language, alt text, and heading structure before publication. Code changes get reviewed against WCAG criteria before merge. We treat accessibility regressions as production bugs, not “nice-to-have” backlog items.

Conformance status

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 defines requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA.

The Digital Weekly is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. “Partially conformant” means that some parts of the content do not yet fully conform to the accessibility standard. We are actively working to bring all content to full conformance, with a target of full Level AA by end of 2026.

Measures we take

The Digital Weekly takes the following measures to ensure accessibility:

• Keyboard navigation — Every interactive element on the site is reachable and operable via keyboard alone. Tab order follows visual reading order. Skip-to-content link is provided at the top of every page.
• Image alt text — All editorially significant images carry descriptive alt attributes. Decorative images are marked alt="" so screen readers skip them. Our automated audit (R30) backfilled alt text on 1,306 images across our archive.
• Color contrast — Body text meets 4.5:1 ratio against background. Large text (18px+) meets 3:1. We tested every color combination in our design system against WebAIM Contrast Checker.
• Semantic HTML — Our templates use header, nav, main, article, aside, and footer landmarks. Headings follow proper hierarchy (one H1 per page, H2 for sections, H3 for sub-sections).
• ARIA labels — Icon-only buttons (share, search, theme toggle) carry aria-label attributes. Form fields are linked to their labels. Live regions announce dynamic updates.
• Focus indicators — Every interactive element shows a visible focus ring when navigated to via keyboard. We do not remove default focus styles.
• Reduced motion — We respect the prefers-reduced-motion media query. Animations and transitions are disabled for readers who request reduced motion.
• Plain language — Our editorial guidelines prefer active voice, short sentences, and concrete examples over abstract jargon. The R51 AI Article Brief feature provides a TL;DR at the top of every article for readers who need a quick summary.

Assistive technology compatibility

The Digital Weekly is designed to be compatible with the following assistive technologies. We test on at least one screen reader from each major platform before any significant template change ships.

• VoiceOver (macOS, iOS, iPadOS) — Tested on Safari and Chrome
• NVDA (Windows) — Tested on Firefox and Edge
• JAWS (Windows) — Tested on Edge
• TalkBack (Android) — Tested on Chrome
• Browser zoom up to 200% — Content reflows; no horizontal scrolling required
• Speech recognition software — All interactive elements have accessible names that match their visible labels
• Keyboard-only navigation — No mouse or touch required
• High contrast mode — Windows High Contrast and macOS Increase Contrast supported

Known limitations

Despite our best efforts, some content may not yet be fully accessible. We’re transparent about what we haven’t fixed yet:

• Archive content — Approximately 8% of our 3,646-article archive contains images with less-than-ideal alt text or missing captions. We’re working through this systematically by category.
• Third-party embeds — Some YouTube, Twitter/X, and Instagram embeds we include in articles do not fully meet WCAG AA standards. We’re advocating with these platforms for better defaults; in the meantime, every embed is preceded by a text summary of its key points.
• PDF documents — Some older PDF documents linked from articles are not fully tagged for screen readers. New PDFs we publish are tagged before upload.
• Charts and infographics — Some data visualizations in older articles do not yet have accompanying text-only data tables. New charts we publish always include a text equivalent.
• Comments section — Comment thread structure has been audited but not yet fully retrofitted for ARIA live region announcements.

If you encounter a barrier not listed here, please report it. We log every reported issue and prioritize fixes based on user impact.

Technical specifications

The Digital Weekly relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:

• HTML5 with proper semantic markup
• CSS3 with progressive enhancement
• JavaScript (the site is fully functional without JavaScript; JavaScript adds enhancements like smooth scroll and theme toggle)
• WAI-ARIA attributes where native HTML semantics fall short
• SVG icons with proper aria-hidden and aria-label attributes

These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used.

Assessment approach

The Digital Weekly assessed the accessibility of this website using a multi-layered approach:

• Self-evaluation against WCAG 2.1 AA — Every template + component is checked against the four principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) before deployment.
• Automated testing — We run axe-core on every page template during CI. We also run Google Lighthouse Accessibility audits monthly.
• Manual testing with assistive technology — Our editorial team uses VoiceOver and NVDA daily. Every significant design change is walked through with a screen reader before merge.
• External audits — We commission an external WCAG audit every 12 months. The most recent audit completed in Q1 2026.
• Reader feedback — Reader-reported issues are our most valuable signal. We respond to every accessibility report within 5 business days.

Feedback

We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of The Digital Weekly. Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers:

• Email: accessibility@thedigitalweekly.com
• Contact form: /contact/
• Response time: We aim to respond within 5 business days, often faster. Issues that block reading or critical site functionality get same-day attention.

When reporting a barrier, please include:

• The URL of the page where you encountered the barrier
• The assistive technology and browser you’re using (e.g., NVDA + Firefox, VoiceOver + Safari)
• A description of what didn’t work and what you expected to happen
• Whether the issue blocks you completely or you found a workaround

Formal complaints

If you’re not satisfied with our response to an accessibility issue, you have the right to file a formal complaint. In the United States, contact the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. In the European Union, contact your national accessibility ombudsperson. We comply with both the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the European Accessibility Act.

Dates

This statement was created on May 26, 2026 and last updated on May 26, 2026. We review and update this statement at least annually, or whenever significant accessibility improvements ship.

If you have questions about this Accessibility Statement, contact us at accessibility@thedigitalweekly.com or use our contact form.