Accessibility statement

01Our target

CheckPFAS aims to conform with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA — the international standard for web accessibility maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Level AA covers contrast, keyboard accessibility, screen-reader compatibility, predictable navigation, and several dozen other criteria.

We do not currently undergo formal third-party WCAG conformance audits. The claim on this page is based on our own internal testing using browser accessibility tools (Axe, WAVE) plus manual screen-reader testing with VoiceOver and NVDA.

02What we've built for

• Semantic HTML: proper heading hierarchy, list elements, landmark roles. Screen readers can navigate the page structure predictably.
• Keyboard accessibility: every interactive element (links, form fields, accordion toggles, share buttons) is reachable by Tab and operable by Enter / Space. Focus rings are visible by default.
• Color contrast: body text meets WCAG AA contrast against the paper background. Risk badges (red, amber) are paired with text labels — never color alone.
• Resizable text: layout reflows at 200% browser zoom without horizontal scrolling on standard viewports.
• Reduced motion: the few animations on the site (hover transitions, accordion expansion) are short and decorative. We respect prefers-reduced-motion where applicable.
• Alt text: images carry meaningful alt attributes; decorative images use empty alt or are CSS backgrounds.
• No autoplay media, no carousels, no flashing content.

03Known limitations

We're being honest about the gaps:

• National heatmap (`/pfas-heatmap/`): the interactive map uses canvas rendering and is not fully accessible via keyboard or screen reader. The underlying data is available in tabular form via the per-state pages (`/states/`).
• Cross-state search (`/search/`): the search results update via client-side JS without an ARIA live region announcement. We're aware and will add one in a follow-up. Browse-by-state (which is server-rendered) is fully accessible.
• Compound-bar visualizations on ZIP pages: the visual bars are decorative; the underlying numbers (compound name, measured ppt, MCL, % of MCL) are all rendered as text and read by screen readers. The visual exceedance "→ 2.4× MCL" sigil also has a corresponding numeric percentage in the text label.

04How to report an issue

If you encounter an accessibility barrier on CheckPFAS — anything that prevents you from using the site as effectively as anyone else would — please email [email protected] with:

• The URL of the affected page
• A description of the issue and how it prevented use
• Your assistive technology setup (screen reader, browser, OS) if relevant

We aim to acknowledge accessibility reports within 5 business days and to ship a fix or workaround within 30 days, depending on complexity. If you'd prefer to escalate beyond email, our editorial standards page documents our corrections process.

05Why this matters

PFAS exposure is a public-health issue that affects everyone in the United States regardless of disability status. A tool that surfaces EPA data on whose water is contaminated needs to be usable by everyone — not just sighted readers on a desktop browser. We're not there 100% yet, but we're committed to the work, and we want the gaps documented publicly rather than hidden.