Accessibility

Accessibility

The Bellingham Heritage Centre Wiki aims to be accessible to as wide an audience as possible, regardless of technology or ability. We recognise that users access the site in many different ways and may have different visual, motor, cognitive, or situational needs.

This page explains the accessibility features available on the site, how we test accessibility, and how to provide feedback.

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Accessibility statement

The Bellingham Heritage Centre Wiki **aims to conform to WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards**.

We are committed to improving accessibility and usability and strive to follow recognised best practice and relevant accessibility guidelines appropriate to a community-run heritage website.

On Lighthouse the site's currently accessibility score on both desktop and mobile is 94 on randomnly tested pages long and short. This is the 'Green Tier' (top tier) (90-100): meaning the website is highly accessible. Whilst this reflects only aitomated testing we have also undertaken a lot of manual testing to support this.

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Measures to support accessibility

To support accessibility, this site includes a built-in **Accessibility Toolbar**, available on every page.

Using this toolbar, users can:

• Enable a high-contrast display in two choices of colour scheme. Links are t he same colour as the text but underlined for visibility.
• Increase or decrease text size
• Adjust text spacing
• Underline links
• Enable a reading ruler
• Use a high-visibility cursor in two choices of colour

These tools are designed to work independently or in combination, depending on individual needs.

Accessibility preferences are saved locally in your browser so that chosen settings persist between visits on the same device.

The site also includes:

• Keyboard-accessible navigation throughout
• Visible focus indicators for keyboard users
• Skip links to allow users to bypass repeated navigation
• Screen-reader-friendly markup and ARIA attributes where appropriate

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Testing and evaluation

Accessibility has been evaluated using a combination of:

• Manual testing, including:
  • Keyboard-only navigation
  • Visual inspection of focus visibility, contrast, and readability
  • Screen-reader testing using macOS VoiceOver
• Automated testing, including:
  • Chrome Lighthouse accessibility audits

Recent Lighthouse audits score the site highly for accessibility, both with accessibility tools enabled and with the default presentation.

Testing has been carried out in current versions of major browsers, including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Opera.

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Known limitations and design choices

We are working with the base MediaWiki site build, which in itself may have some accessibility challenges. We have not worked to remedy these if they exist or are aware of them. Some automated accessibility tools may report warnings that do not represent barriers for users.

In particular:

• Navigation and tool lists are ordered logically rather than alphabetically.

 Lists are structured to reflect editorial or task-based priorities rather than alphabetical order. WCAG does not require alphabetical ordering, only that content is presented in a logical and meaningful sequence.

• Link colour contrast warnings may appear in automated tests.

 In high-contrast modes, links are underlined and use the same colour as surrounding text. This approach avoids reliance on colour perception alone and follows established high-contrast accessibility patterns used by operating systems and assistive technologies. Manual testing confirms that links are clear and usable for both sighted users and screen-reader users.

• Editor toolbar in high-contrast mode

  When high-contrast mode is enabled, most of the site switches to a black background with yellow text for maximum readability or black background with white text depending on the user's choice. The page editor toolbar (for example, Bold, Italic, Link, Image and related controls) uses a mixture of icons and system styling provided by MediaWiki. To avoid disrupting the editor’s behaviour or hiding important controls, these toolbar icons are not recoloured in high-contrast mode. In this area, text labels and tabs may retain their original colours to preserve legibility and usability. This ensures: * editor controls remain visible and functional * keyboard and screen-reader access is unaffected * the editor behaves consistently across browsers

Screen readers announce all editor controls correctly, and full keyboard access is supported.

This approach prioritises reliability and accessibility over visual uniformity. These design choices are intentional and are reviewed periodically.

   The accessibility gadget is designed to work across skins, but the high-contrast mode requires skin-specific overrides for the site chrome. Since Timeless will be the default skin, we will prioritise full support for Timeless and ensure Vector remains functional as a fallback.

If you report any issues to us will will endeavour to fix them. Thank you.

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Browser and assistive technology support

The site is designed to work with modern web browsers and commonly used assistive technologies, including screen readers and keyboard navigation.

While the site should function in other environments, explicit testing has focused on current desktop browsers.

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Feedback and contact

If you encounter any accessibility barriers or have suggestions for improvement, please contact us via the site’s contact page or speak to a member of the Heritage Centre team.

Feedback is welcomed and helps guide future improvements to the site.

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This accessibility statement is reviewed periodically and updated as the site evolves.

Accessibility help

This wiki includes simple accessibility options from the menu screen.

Screen readers: The toolbar is keyboard navigable and labelled for screen readers.

What’s remembered?

The following settings are 'remembered' on your device - these are stored in local storage and not cookies.

• High Contrast Yellow, High Contrast White and Contrast Reset
• Underline of links on/off
• Text spacing setting
• (Large) Cursor Yellow or Cursor White selected or Cursor reset
• Reading ruler on/off
• Text size

Settings are saved locally. Some browsers, e.g. Firefox, may cache interface styles aggressively; a refresh may be required after updates.

Keyboard use:

• Esc closes the accessibility panel
• Tab / Shift+Tab to move between controls
• Enter to activate a button
• Reveal navigation: use on-screen arrows (or ←/→ if enabled)

Skip links: appear at the top when you Tab (Content / Navigation / Search / Accessibility).

Accessibility options

• Text size and spacing controls change readability on the menu and overlays.
• Contrast provides options for standard and high-contrast modes. Links are shown in blue and underlined to ensure they are clearly distinguishable from body text.
• Two different large cursors options (white or yellow) can make the pointer easier to see.
• Horizontal reading ruler to guide the user on the screen.
• Underline links for clarity.

Selected controls are retained between pages and site visits for the individual user.

Reset

The reset button in the accessibility gadget clears all current settings back to their default states.

Access Keys

The Timeless skin for MediaWiki uses the standard MediaWiki access key system, which allows for fast keyboard navigation across desktop, mobile, and tablet layouts

The modifier key (usually Alt+Shift on Windows/Linux or Ctrl+Option on macOS) must be used in combination with the characters listed below.

Page Action & View Shortcuts

• e - Edit the current page (or view source)
• t - View the talk/discussion page
• h - View page history
• c - View the main content page (if in a talk namespace)
• + - Add a new section/comment to a talk page
• m - Move (rename) the current page
• d - Delete the current page
• w - Watch or unwatch the current page
• p - View the printable version of the page
• k - View pages that link here ("What links here")

Navigation & Search Shortcuts

• f - Jump to the search box
• z - Go to the main page
• r - Go to Recent Changes
• x - Go to a random page
• q - Go to the special pages index

Personal & User Tools

• . - Go to your user page
• y - Go to your contributions
• l - Go to your watchlist
• o - Log in
• o - Log out

Editing Shortcuts

• s - Save/Publish the changes you are editing
• p - Preview your edit
• v - Show changes (diff)
• b - Jump to the edit summary box
• i - Toggle the "minor edit" checkmark

How to use them

• Windows/Linux (Firefox/Chrome/Edge): Alt + Shift + [Key]
• macOS (Safari/Chrome/Firefox): Ctrl + Option + [Key]

   Note: Some browsers might require just the Alt key, or a combination of Alt and Shift.