Accessibility Statement
Effective Date: March 21, 2026
Standard: WCAG 2.1 Level AA
Prepared by: Web Team, ACS Division of Organic Chemistry
Our Commitment
The ACS Division of Organic Chemistry is committed to ensuring that organicdivision.org is accessible to the broadest possible audience, including individuals with disabilities. We recognize our site as a professional and educational resource for the organic chemistry community, and we take seriously our responsibility to make it usable by members, students, faculty, and institutional visitors regardless of ability or assistive technology.
We are actively working to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Current Compliance Status
We have completed a systematic accessibility audit and remediation of the site’s theme, templates, and interactive components as of March 2026. The following criteria have been specifically addressed:
| WCAG Criterion | What We Fixed |
|---|---|
| 1.1.1 Non-text Content | All theme-generated images now carry descriptive alt attributes. Banner images, author profile photos, page thumbnail widgets, and logo sliders all have meaningful or appropriately empty alt text. Post thumbnails fall back to the post title if no media description is provided. |
| 1.3.1 Info and Relationships | Page structure uses semantic HTML5 landmarks (<main>, <nav>, <header>, <footer>, <section>, <article>). Every page now has a single top-level <h1> heading — pages that suppress the visible title display a screen-reader-only <h1> so heading navigation remains intact. Section titles in multi-section home page areas use <h2> as appropriate. |
| 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) | Body text is dark on white, well above the 4.5:1 minimum. Footer administrative navigation separators were corrected from insufficient contrast. Home page slider captions now display over a semi-transparent dark overlay, ensuring white caption text meets contrast requirements over any background photograph. |
| 1.4.4 Resize Text | Base font size is expressed in rem units, allowing full browser text-size scaling without loss of content or function. |
| 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast | Interactive UI components (buttons, form inputs) meet the 3:1 contrast requirement for their boundaries and focus indicators. |
| 2.1.1 Keyboard | All interactive elements — navigation, modal dialogs, carousels, event cards, and form controls — are operable by keyboard. Widget carousels previously using outdated markup have been updated to use proper <button> elements with visible labels. |
| 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide | The home page slideshow includes a persistent pause/play button. The carousel also automatically pauses when any element within it receives keyboard focus, and resumes when focus leaves. |
| 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks | A “Skip to main content” link is the first focusable element on every page. |
| 2.4.6 Headings and Labels | All form fields carry visible labels. Page and section headings describe the content they introduce. |
| 2.4.7 Focus Visible | All focusable elements display a visible focus indicator. The site does not suppress browser default outlines. |
| 2.5.3 Label in Name | Interactive elements where the visible label and accessible name previously differed have been corrected so the accessible name always contains the visible text. |
| 3.1.1 Language of Page | The lang attribute is set on the <html> element for every page. |
| 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value | Event cards previously used non-semantic markup for interactive behavior. These are now proper <button> elements. All icon-only controls carry accessible labels. Modal dialogs use Bootstrap 5’s built-in ARIA modal pattern with dynamic labeling. |
| Reduced Motion | A prefers-reduced-motion media query disables all CSS transitions and carousel animations for users who have indicated this preference in their operating system. |
Known Limitations and Ongoing Work
We are candid that full WCAG 2.1 AA conformance is an ongoing commitment, not a one-time certification. The following areas remain under active review:
- Legacy page content. Some older post and page content created in the visual editor may contain images uploaded without alt text, tables used for layout, or low-contrast styled text. We are auditing this content incrementally.
- PDF and document files. Linked PDFs, Word documents, and slide decks published on the site (e.g., meeting minutes, award forms, symposium materials) may not individually meet PDF/UA or document accessibility standards. Authors submitting materials are encouraged to use the accessibility checking tools built into Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Office before uploading.
- Embedded video content. Videos hosted on YouTube and Vimeo and embedded on the site depend on those platforms for captioning. We encourage caption review for any embedded conference or educational video.
- Navigation plugin. Primary navigation is managed by Max Mega Menu Pro. We rely on the vendor’s ARIA implementation for dropdown keyboard behavior and will update as the plugin releases accessibility improvements.
For Universities and Institutional Partners
If your institution requires a formal VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) or a written accessibility accommodation confirmation letter for procurement or course adoption purposes, please contact us directly. We are willing to work with disability services offices and IT accessibility coordinators to support your compliance review process.
Feedback and Assistance
If you encounter any barrier to accessing content on this site, or if you require content in an alternative format, please contact:
ACS Division of Organic Chemistry
Email: support@organicdivision.org
Web: organicdivision.org/contact
We aim to respond to accessibility inquiries within 5 business days and to resolve or provide an accommodation for substantive barriers within 10 business days.
Technical Approach
This site is built on WordPress Multisite using a custom Bootstrap 5 theme. All external libraries are loaded via CDN with Subresource Integrity (SRI) hashes. There is no custom JavaScript framework dependency. Accessibility testing has been performed using:
- Manual keyboard navigation review
- Screen reader testing (NVDA/Firefox, VoiceOver/Safari)
- Automated scanning with browser developer tools and axe DevTools
- W3C Markup Validation
This statement reflects the state of the site as of March 2026 and will be reviewed and updated at least annually, or following any major redesign.