Accessibility

Accessibility Statement

Last updated:

Our commitment

Suncoast Local is committed to making suncoastlocal.com usable for everyone, including people who rely on screen readers, keyboard navigation, voice control, magnification software, or other assistive technologies. We design and build every page from scratch, which gives us direct control over the markup, contrast, focus order, and semantic structure that determine whether the site actually works for assistive tech.

Conformance target

We target WCAG 2.2 Level AA as our baseline. This is the conformance level required by the U.S. Department of Justice's 2024 ADA Title II rule and recommended for commercial websites under Title III. Many individual elements on the site meet AAA criteria where it's straightforward to do so without compromising design.

What we do

  • Semantic HTML5 throughout — proper headings, landmarks, lists, and form labels
  • Visible keyboard focus indicators on every interactive element
  • "Skip to main content" link as the first focusable element on every page
  • ARIA labels and roles where native semantics aren't enough (mobile nav, FAQ accordions, chatbot widget)
  • Color contrast checked against WCAG AA thresholds (4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text)
  • Reduced-motion support — animations respect prefers-reduced-motion
  • Form fields have visible labels, error messages, and programmatic name/role associations
  • Images carry meaningful alt text; decorative images are marked aria-hidden
  • The site is fully responsive and usable at 200% zoom without horizontal scrolling on the main content
  • Video and audio content (when present) include captions or transcripts

Known limitations

We're a small team and we deploy continuously. The following are areas we know have room to improve:

  • The AI chatbot widget at the bottom-right of every page is keyboard-accessible but its message log doesn't yet announce new replies via aria-live polite regions on every screen reader / browser combo. Workaround: the contact form at /contact and the audit form at /audit are fully accessible alternatives.
  • Some embedded third-party content (e.g. analytics scripts, future scheduling embed) may not fully match our conformance target. We evaluate each third-party addition for accessibility before integrating it.

Testing methodology

Pages are tested with a combination of automated tools (axe-core, Lighthouse accessibility audits, WAVE) and manual checks (keyboard-only navigation, VoiceOver on macOS and iOS, NVDA on Windows). We re-run the full suite before every production deploy that touches site structure or styles.

Report a barrier

If you encounter content on this site that's hard to use with your assistive technology, please tell us — we treat accessibility issues as urgent and typically fix or respond within two business days.

When you write to us, please include the URL of the page, a description of the issue, and (if you can) which assistive technology you were using. We may follow up with a few clarifying questions before shipping a fix.

Enforcement

If you've reported a barrier and you're not satisfied with our response, you have the right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice ADA Information Line. We'd much rather hear from you first so we can fix the problem directly, but you should know the formal escalation path exists.

Standards we reference

Last reviewed: by Mike Ferreira.