FAQ: accessibility
This page answers the accessibility questions that procurement panels and accessibility officers in public bodies ask about Exponential. Every answer is backed by Accessibility standards; the status words used there ("Partly complies", "Unverified") are kept exactly.
Note This page describes features and common practice; it is not legal advice. Check the law that applies to your organization with your legal counsel.
Contents
- Does Exponential conform to WCAG 2.2 AA?
- Is there a VPAT or Accessibility Conformance Report?
- What about EN 301 549 and Section 508?
- Can staff with disabilities use the administration?
- Will our public website be accessible?
- Is the online editor accessible?
- Does Exponential help editors write accessible content?
- Is there an accessibility statement template?
- How is accessibility tested?
Does Exponential conform to WCAG 2.2 AA?
Not as a whole, and the project does not claim it. The admin4 and admin4l administration designs are built and regression-tested against WCAG 2.2 AA criteria; their status is Partly complies. That is not a conformance claim: there is no full audit of every page and no assistive technology test log (Accessibility standards).
Is there a VPAT or Accessibility Conformance Report?
No. There is no VPAT and no Accessibility Conformance Report for Exponential, and no WCAG-EM evaluation report (Accessibility standards). If your rules require one, ask the bidder to commission an evaluation of the site they deliver.
What about EN 301 549 and Section 508?
Both are Unverified. EN 301 549's web clause incorporates WCAG 2.1 AA, which the admin4 work covers in substance, but no evaluation against the standard has been made and its authoring tool clause has not been reviewed. Section 508 incorporates WCAG 2.0 AA; there is no VPAT (Accessibility standards).
Can staff with disabilities use the administration?
The admin4 design is the best choice for them: a skip link, landmarks, labeled controls, keyboard support for tabs and menus, error summaries, color tokens checked for contrast in light and dark mode, targets of at least 24 by 24 pixels, and support for forced colors and reduced motion (Accessibility standards). The classic administration and admin3 have had fewer fixes. See Keyboard shortcuts.
Will our public website be accessible?
That depends on the design built for you and on your content. The project's public designs are not audited; their accessibility is the site builder's responsibility (Accessibility standards). Make WCAG 2.2 AA a requirement for the delivered site, with testing (Accessibility for site builders, Testing accessibility).
Is the online editor accessible?
Unverified. The TinyMCE integrations were not audited for WCAG; the editor engine's own accessibility is that of the TinyMCE project (Accessibility standards). Test it with your staff's assistive technology during evaluation.
Does Exponential help editors write accessible content?
Partly. Image fields offer an alternative text field, but nothing forces editors to fill it. Training covers accessible content (Editors 201, Module 8). If you use Exponential Intelligence, it can suggest alternative text as a draft for an editor to review (Exponential Intelligence).
Is there an accessibility statement template?
No. The EU Web Accessibility Directive requires public bodies to publish one; Exponential ships no template (Accessibility standards). The W3C has guidance and a generator at w3.org/WAI/planning/statements.
How is accessibility tested?
Design tests in the design suite check template and stylesheet sources: labels, landmarks, keyboard patterns,
contrast, focus and more. Automated axe checks are run by hand during reviews, not in CI, and are recorded in the
changelog (Accessibility standards).
Related pages
- Government FAQ
- Accessibility checklist
- Accessibility standards
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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