Accessibility

Effective 30 July 2026.

MaudeDash aims to be usable by everyone, including people using screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, magnification, or high-contrast settings. The target is WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

What is implemented

• Keyboard navigation throughout. Every control is reachable and operable by keyboard; a skip link jumps past the header; the analysis tabs use standard tab semantics; sortable table headers respond to Enter and Space; the type-ahead pickers support arrow keys, Enter and Escape.
• Visible focus indicators on interactive elements, not suppressed.
• Semantic structure — real headings in order, landmark regions, labelled form controls, and aria-sort on sortable columns so a screen reader announces the current ordering.
• Colour is never the only signal. Signal status is shown with text labels (“EMA”, “IC”) as well as colour; unreliable strata are marked with an asterisk and explained in text; warnings carry an icon and a written explanation.
• Contrast. Body and interface text meets or exceeds the 4.5:1 ratio in both light and dark themes.
• Light and dark themes, following your operating system preference by default with a manual override that persists.
• Responsive and zoom-tolerant layout. Text reflows to 400% zoom without horizontal page scrolling; wide tables and charts scroll within their own container rather than forcing the page sideways.
• Reduced motion. The interface uses almost no animation; what exists is brief and non-essential.
• No time limits, no flashing content, no autoplaying media, and no CAPTCHA.

Known limitations

Stated honestly rather than claimed away:

• Charts are the weakest area. Plots are rendered by a third-party charting library as SVG. Data points expose hover labels, but the charts are not fully navigable by screen reader. Mitigation: every chart in the tool is accompanied by the same figures as a real data table, or can be downloaded as CSV, so no information is available only in graphical form. If you rely on a screen reader, the tables and CSV export carry the complete result.
• The choropleth map is decorative relative to the country table beside it, which contains every value including codes the map cannot plot.
• Dense statistical tables are inherently demanding to navigate linearly. Column headers are marked up correctly, but a table of several hundred problem codes is slow to traverse. Narrowing the cohort reduces it, and CSV export allows review in your own tool.
• JavaScript is required. The analysis engine runs in the browser, so the tool cannot function without it. The landing page, methods, terms, privacy and this page are all readable without JavaScript.
• Large cohorts can take several seconds to compute. A status indicator is shown, but there is no audible completion cue.

Assessment

This statement is based on self-assessment during development, including keyboard-only navigation and contrast checking. It has not been subjected to a formal third-party audit, and no claim of certified conformance is made.

Reporting a barrier

If any part of MaudeDash is difficult or impossible for you to use, that is a defect worth fixing. Please open an issue describing what you were trying to do, what happened, and the assistive technology and browser you were using. If a barrier prevents you from obtaining a result, describe the cohort and the figure you need and it can be provided directly.