Accessibility Statement

We build this site toward the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1, Level AA. That is the benchmark most people mean when they talk about an accessible website.

We are not claiming the site meets it perfectly. Accessibility is something you keep working at, and an honest list of the gaps is more useful to you than a promise. The gaps we know about are further down this page.

• Every page can be operated with a keyboard alone, and there is a visible outline showing where you are.
• A skip to main content link is the first thing you reach with the Tab key, so you do not have to walk through the whole menu.
• Every page has one main heading, and the headings below it go in order without skipping levels.
• Every image has alternative text, and images that are purely decorative are marked so a screen reader skips them.
• Every form field has a real label attached to it. The grey hint text inside a box is only an example, never the label.
• Form errors are announced, are tied to the field they belong to, and always say what is wrong in words rather than only turning something red.
• The mobile menu can be closed with the Escape key, keeps the keyboard inside it while it is open, and puts you back on the menu button when it closes.
• If your device is set to reduce motion, animation and smooth scrolling on this site stop.
• Buttons and links that show only an icon have a name that a screen reader can read out.
• A link sitting inside a sentence is underlined, so you do not have to be able to tell red from black to find it.

These are real and we measured them. We are listing them rather than hiding them.

Our brand red does not have enough contrast for small text

Our brand red measures 3.9 to 1 against a white background. For text at this size the target is 4.5 to 1. It affects the small capitalized labels above headings, the wordmark next to our logo, some link text, and the asterisk that marks a required form field. On our light grey panels the same red measures 3.7 to 1, and on the pale red badge behind a label it measures 3.6 to 1.

We decided not to change the brand color, because changing it would mean redesigning the organization’s identity rather than fixing the website. Where that red marks a required field, the word required is not carried by the color alone, the field is also marked in the page code so a screen reader announces it.

Our red buttons do not have enough contrast either

White text on our red buttons measures 3.9 to 1, and the target for text that size is 4.5 to 1. This affects the Donate buttons and the main call to action buttons.

Every action on one of those buttons can be reached another way. You can donate by emailing or calling us, both of which are written out in plain text on the donate page, and every button also exists as an ordinary text link elsewhere on the site.

The online donation checkout

Our Donate buttons open a checkout page run by our payment processor. We do not control that page or its accessibility. If it gives you any trouble, you can give by email, phone, or mail instead, and the details are on the donate page.

The video on our home page

Our home page embeds a video published by a federal agency, using a third party video player. We do not control that player or its captions. Whether captions are available, and how good they are, is set by the agency that published the video and by the platform hosting it. We have linked to the original video so you can watch it with that platform’s own accessibility settings.

Please tell us. This is the most useful thing you can do, and we would rather hear about a problem than not know.

Email contact@coalitionforgeoengineeringresearch.com or call (509) 551-8777. If you can, tell us the page, what you were trying to do, and what you use to browse, such as a screen reader, magnification, or keyboard only. We aim to reply within one business day.

If a page is in your way and you need what is on it now, tell us and we will read it to you on the phone or send it in another format.

We check this site with the keyboard alone, and we measure color contrast and page structure in a real browser rather than trusting an automatic score. Automated checkers catch some things and miss others, so a person walks through the site as well.

We do not use an accessibility overlay widget. Those tools sit on top of a site and claim to fix it automatically. They do not work well, many screen reader users turn them off, and we would rather fix the page itself.