Table of Contents

Accessibility ♿

Star Army is committed to ensuring our community is as accessible as reasonably possible to users with disabilities. On this page you'll find:

Image: Katayanagi Merna is a blind character on Star Army and carries a white cane.

Introduction

Although Star Army is not legally required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) because we are not an employer, we believe that access to the web is a human right and all websites should do their best to accommodate all users.

Accessibility Standards

There are no strict guidelines as to what makes a website accessible so we have adopted a set of norms and best practices. By adhering to good website design and the standards below, Star Army aims to provide excellent accessibility to all users.

Audio & Video Content

If Star Army makes official videos, the videos should have accurate, synchronized closed captions. For official audio files, text transcripts should be available. Audio and video should not play automatically (users should have to click something first).

Images & Alt Text

Images on Star Army should have alt text that describes what they portray. When a long description (e.g. 30 words) is needed, put it below the image and not stuffed in the alt text. If the image doesn't convey meaning or is redundant, the alt tag should be left blank. In that case the alt text should refer to the caption below the image. With the exception of logos, do not make images of text when text could be used instead. Images should not blink or flash.

Color

When color is used to convey meaning (e.g. a green dot) there must always be an alternative way to communicate the meaning. A good way to do this is to combine color and shape and also use text.

Star Army provides at least one light theme or style and at least one dark theme or style for the wiki and for the forum.

Clarity & Consistency

Page titles, headings, and links on Star Army are required to be accurate and specific.

Overall the site should aim for consistency. Since Star Army uses Xenforo and Dokuwiki and each has standard templates, this is largely taken care of by software which will do things like keep the headers and footers the same throughout the respective sections of the site.

Documents

Attached media files that are documents, such as PDF files and slideshows, should meet basic accessibility requirements.

Forms

Forms, when used, should have instructions, examples, and labels for fields (including coded labels). On the wiki this is often handled by the Bureaucracy Plugin.

Headings

Headings are required to be properly nested. Each page should start with and have only one H1 title header, and then H2 for major sections, and so forth, without skipping levels, so that pages have a sensible hierarchy. On the wiki, failure to nest headers properly will trigger an indicator in the page's quality score as rated by the Quality Plugin.

Pages on Star Army should be:

All Star Army wiki pages meet all of these.

Additionally, all Star Army wiki pages and current styles support the WAI-ARIA specification.

Pop-Ups

Star Army shall not use automatic pop-up windows or pop-ups on pages unless they provide relevant instructions or assistance (for example, search suggestions while entering a search term).

Tables

Avoid the use of huge tables, particularly those that would be difficult to understand by reading aloud.

Zoom

Pages must be readable at 200% zoom, on narrow screens (e.g. phones) and on wide screens (e.g. large desktop monitors). This is largely handled by Xenforo and Dokuwiki but users should be aware of this and not do things in user content like add images floating on the right side of the text that would squish the text into a tiny column on a narrow/zoomed view. Staff can and will edit pages to fix readability issues as the are discovered.

Known Limitations

It is important to note that Star Army is a living work created by hundreds of users and keeping the contents accessible is therefore an ongoing and never-ending process. With that in mind, Star Army will attempt to keep the site as accessible as possible but cannot guarantee accessibility for user-created pages or content.

Also currently audio content that is very long and very old (such as the old SARPtalk podcast shows SARPtalk and SARPcast) currently do not have a transcript available due to cost/time limitations. They're not required to participate in the roleplay.

Reporting Accessibility Issues

Star Army strives to ensure accessibility for all users. If you discover accessibility problems such as missing alt text or navigation problems, please provide our accessibility contact by emailing [email protected] with a brief description of the issue and the URL where the problem was encountered and we will attempt to rectify the issue in 24-48 hours and get back to you.