Accessibility

The standard we work to

We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.1, at Level AA. That is the benchmark the United States Department of Justice adopted for public sector websites and the one the industry treats as the working target, so it is the one we hold Spatia to.

Where we actually stand

Spatia is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Parts of the site meet the standard, and parts of it do not yet. We are not claiming full conformance, because we have not tested every route against every success criterion and because some content on the page comes from third parties we do not control.

What we have done

• Real HTML. Pages are built from ordinary headings, lists, links and buttons rather than from interactive widgets improvised out of generic elements, so browsers, screen readers and keyboards get something they already understand.
• Headings in order.One h1 per page, and heading levels that descend without skipping, so a screen reader’s outline matches the page you can see.
• Alt text on every image. Every image inside a post carries a written description of what it shows, not a filename and not a keyword string. Images that are purely decorative are marked as decorative so assistive technology skips them.
• Keyboard operation. Navigation, links, the newsletter form and the reader notes form can all be reached and used with the Tab key and Enter, and the browser focus outline is left intact rather than styled away.
• Contrast.Body text and link text on the site’s main background were measured against the 4.5 to 1 minimum for normal size text, including the burnt orange accent we use for links.
• Text that reflows. Type is set in relative units, so browser zoom and larger default font sizes enlarge the page instead of clipping it, and layouts reflow to a single column on narrow screens.
• Link text that says where it goes. Links are written to make sense read on their own, rather than as “click here” or “read more”.
• Page language and page titles. The site declares English as its language, and every route has its own title, so tab lists and screen reader announcements are distinguishable.
• Information in text. Instructions, measurements and figures are written in the body text rather than baked into an image.

What we know is still broken

• Advertising. Spatia carries third party ads, which arrive in iframes we do not author. We cannot control their markup, their colour contrast, their focus order or whether they animate, and an ad can add tab stops that make no sense in the surrounding page. We can control placement, and we keep ads out of the middle of a sentence and out of the way of the reading column.
• Embedded media.Video or other media embedded from another platform comes with that platform’s own player and its own keyboard behaviour. Captions depend on what the platform provides, and we cannot add them to someone else’s player.
• Reader notes are written by readers. The form and the thread are ours, but the words in a note are not edited by us, so a note may be hard to follow or may link somewhere inaccessible.
• No independent audit, and older posts are less checked. No external accessibility specialist has assessed the site. Our own checks concentrate on the templates and on recent posts, so an issue in an older post may have gone unnoticed.

How we check

On September 30, 2026 we ran an automated pass over eleven representative pages, covering the home page, every policy page, a category archive, a section hub and an article. It checked for a language attribute, a page title, a single top level heading, heading levels that do not skip, alternative text on every image, link text that is not empty or generic, labelled form fields, and the presence of a skip link. We separately measured the contrast of every text and background pair in the palette, in both the light and dark themes. Automated checks catch only part of what matters, so treat this as a floor rather than a verdict.

This statement reflects the state of the site as assessed on September 30, 2026.

Tell us what is broken

If something on Spatia is hard or impossible for you to use, we want to hear it, and it is the fastest way for it to get fixed. Email workplace@studiodidit.com with the page address, what you were trying to do, and what happened. Telling us the browser and any assistive technology you use helps, but it is not required.

We reply within five business days. Our team works in Pacific Standard Time, so a message sent in the North American afternoon is usually read the following morning. If you would rather use a form, the contact page reaches the same inbox.