Accessibility statement

CIV.IQ should work for everyone, including people who use a screen reader, a keyboard instead of a mouse, browser zoom, or high-contrast settings.

Target

Our target is WCAG 2.2 Level AA. The site does not meet that target yet. The problems we know about are listed below. We will not claim conformance until a test shows it.

How we tested

• Automated scan. axe-core 4.13.0, WCAG 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 Level A and AA rules, in Chrome at 1280px wide, on the live site. We scanned the home page, a representative profile, a bill, a district, a state, the developer page, and the results of a full-address lookup.
• Keyboard and screen-reader tests. The project's automated browser tests. Most failures came from out-of-date tests; two point to real problems, listed below.
• Not yet done. Automated tools catch only part of what matters. There has been no full manual audit and no testing with screen-reader users.

Known issues

1. 1. Low-contrast text

   The blue used for links, breadcrumbs, tabs and buttons has a 2.86:1 contrast ratio on white; Level AA needs 4.5:1 for normal text. It accounts for 263 of the 593 failing elements. Light gray captions, white text on blue buttons, amber warning text and party labels on tinted backgrounds also fall short.

   WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum), AA · Every page tested

2. 2. Links inside text are shown by color alone

   Source links and "See methodology" links have no underline, and their color is too close to the surrounding text.

   WCAG 1.4.1 Use of Color, A · Home, representative profile, district, address lookup results

3. 3. ARIA attribute not allowed

   The search box in the site header sets aria-expanded without a combobox role, so screen readers may misreport it. A dropdown container on some pages has the same problem.

   WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value, A · Every page tested

4. 4. Demographic bar labels are unreliable

   The race and ethnicity bars put labels on plain elements that screen readers may ignore.

   WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value, A · District pages

5. 5. Location status is not announced

   After "Use my location" is pressed, "Finding your location…" appears inside the button but is not in a live region, so screen readers may not read it.

   WCAG 4.1.3 Status Messages, AA · Home page search

6. 6. Spinner keeps moving when reduced motion is on

   The loading spinner ignores the reduced-motion setting. This is beyond our AA target and is listed for completeness.

   WCAG 2.3.3 Animation from Interactions, AAA · Home page search

Report a problem

If something on CIV.IQ stops you from using it, please tell us:

• Open an accessibility issue on GitHub, or
• email contact@civdotiq.org if you do not use GitHub.

Please include the page address and, if you can, the browser and assistive technology you use.