Access to the site, and access to the ground

The site

Plain HTML, one stylesheet, two small scripts. A deliberate choice, and the reason most of the following needs no special effort.

• Everything is reachable with a keyboard, and focus shows as an outline in the rose accent at all times.
• One press of Tab from the top leaves the masthead behind and lands in the page.
• Heading levels never skip, so the spoken outline matches the printed one.
• Photographs carry alternative text that describes the frame instead of listing words.
• The letter form uses real labels bound to real fields, and a failed check prints its reason next to that field in words rather than in colour alone.
• The look up is a proper combobox: arrow keys move the list, Enter takes a row, Escape closes it, and whichever row is live gets read out.
• No element starts moving by itself, nothing is laid over the reading, and neither a carousel nor a video exists here.
• Reading text sets at 17 pixels, leads at 1.63, and holds together when a browser is pushed to double size.
• Contrast was checked against WCAG 2.2 level AA. Deep water on limestone and ink on limestone both clear it, and the rose is used for marks and focus rather than for reading.
• Asking the system for reduced motion switches the small fade off completely.

What is still awkward

• The route index that opens the front page is a four column line on a wide screen and folds to three on a phone, which puts the distance above the district rather than beside it.
• The look up is nine fields, and on a small screen that is a long form. The mitigation is that no other part of the site needs it.
• The tables inside records scroll sideways on a narrow screen. Columns of measurements defeated the alternatives, so the prose around each table repeats the numbers.

Anything else, write to shade@travelpetadventures.com. A person reads it and answers within two working days.

The ground

Every record ends with a box, and four of its rows are access rows.

• Surface is named exactly: limestone shelf, decomposed granite, packed dirt, root, loose gravel, asphalt. Loose gravel and root are the two that decide whether a route works on wheels.
• Gradient is described in usable words: flat, a long shallow pull, a short steep pitch, steps.
• Steps and gates are counted where they exist, and a record says plainly when a route cannot be completed without them.
• Shade is stated as a fraction and an hour, which for some readers is a comfort question and for others an access one.
• Water means water that can actually be reached from the path.
• Best hours exist on every record from May to September, because in that window the hour is the constraint and not the distance.

A record that omits something a reader depended on has failed at its job. Send a note and the missing line goes in, dated like every other correction.

The standard

The bar aimed at is WCAG 2.2 at level AA, and the testing done here says the bar is cleared. That testing was done in house by the same person who wrote the markup, so it proves diligence rather than compliance, and nobody outside has been engaged to check the work. You will find no seal or badge on these pages for the same reason.