The 40th Ward Office is committed to providing a fully accessible website experience for all users of all abilities, including those who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers, screen enlargement software, and alternative keyboard input devices to navigate the web.
Ongoing Efforts to Ensure Accessibility
We follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 as our guiding principle for determining accessibility. These are internationally agreed-upon standards that cover a wide range of recommendations and best practices for making content useable. As we add new pages and functionality to our website, all designs, code, and content entry practices are checked against these standards.
Website accessibility is an ongoing process. We continually test content and features for WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance and remediate any issues to ensure we meet or exceed the standards. Testing of our website is performed by our team members using industry-standard tools such as the Accessibility Checker WordPress Plugin, color contrast analyzers, keyboard-only navigation techniques, and Flesch-Kincaid readability tests.
Accessibility Features On Our Website
The following is a list of items we have included in our website to improve its accessibility:
- Plain language
- Testing for color contrast issues
- Focus states on links, buttons, and forms fields
- Skip links and keyboard accessible navigation
- Semantic HTML
- Alternative text for images that are not purely decorative
Accessibility Testing Methods
- Automated and manual testing through design and development process
- Use of Web AIM and AXE tools (automated tools)
- Use of Equalize Digital’s Accessibility Checker plugin for WordPress
- Consulting and manual accessibility audit through WeCo Accessibility Services
Where We’re Improving
In our efforts to bring our website up to standard, we are targeting the following areas:
- Older blog posts may not be fully tested, we’re working through older content.
- Video content may not have captions or transcripts – we’re working on this.
- Issues with third-party plugins and applications may be beyond our capacity to address.
- AirTable embedded content may have some unlabelled content.
- Other third-party plugins in use.
This is part of our broader effort to make everyone’s experience in the 40th Ward and on our website a welcoming and enjoyable one. Please note that while we make every effort to provide information accessible for all users, we cannot guarantee the accessibility of third party websites to which we may link.
Accessibility Support Contact
We welcome comments, questions, and feedback on our website. If you are using assistive technologies and are having difficulty using our website, please email info@40thward.org or give us a call at (773) 654-1867. We will do our best to assist you and resolve any issues.