Accessibility statement

Last reviewed: May 9, 2026.

MyTapWater.us is built so that anyone can find out what is in their drinking water, regardless of how they use the web. We treat accessibility as a core requirement, not a polish step.

Conformance target

The site targets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. Every page is checked against this standard automatically (axe-core and Pa11y) on every code change before it ships.

What we do

• Every page begins with a "Skip to main content" link as the first focusable element so keyboard and screen-reader users can bypass navigation.
• Semantic HTML landmarks (header, nav, main, footer) on every page. One h1 per page. Heading levels never skip.
• Body text contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background. Health-status colors (safe / caution / concern) are always paired with an icon and a text label so meaning is never carried by color alone.
• Every interactive element is reachable by keyboard with a visible focus ring. Touch targets are a minimum of 44 by 44 pixels.
• All images carry alternative text. Decorative images use empty alt text and are hidden from assistive technology.
• Animations and motion respect the user's prefers-reduced-motion setting.
• Forms include visible labels (no placeholder-as-label), required fields are marked with both the required attribute and a visible indicator, and errors are linked to inputs via aria-describedby and announced to screen readers via a live region.
• Tables include captions and use th scope attributes. Wide data tables scroll horizontally on mobile with a visible cue.
• Pages render without JavaScript. Interactive features use progressive enhancement.

Compatible assistive technologies

The site is tested against:

• VoiceOver on macOS (latest Safari) and iOS
• NVDA on Windows (Firefox and Chromium)
• Keyboard-only navigation in all modern browsers
• Browser zoom up to 200 percent without horizontal scrolling

Known limitations

We are not aware of any conformance gaps at the time of the last review. If you encounter one, please report it; the email above goes directly to the editorial team and corrections to accessibility issues are prioritized over feature work.

How accessibility is enforced in our build

• Pa11y CI runs against every page on every push. A single Level AA violation fails the build and blocks deployment.
• Lighthouse CI requires a perfect 100 accessibility score on every sampled page. Any drop blocks deployment.
• Every change that touches the user interface gets a manual keyboard-only walkthrough and at least one screen-reader pass before it ships.

Standards beyond WCAG

Although this site is not subject to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (we are not a federal agency), we follow Section 508 best practices wherever they extend WCAG, including text alternatives for data visualizations and keyboard reachability for all functionality.

Get in touch

Accessibility feedback: hello@mytapwater.us. Please include the page URL and what assistive technology you were using when you ran into the issue. The more specific the report, the faster we can fix it.