Collinsville Daily News Community Calendar Accessibility
Version 1.0. Last updated September 19, 2026.
We want the calendar to work for everyone in Collinsville, including people who use a screen reader, navigate by keyboard, need larger text, or find low-contrast type hard to read. This page says what we have done, what we know is not right yet, and how to tell us when something does not work.
What we aim for
We build the calendar against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.1, at level AA. That is the standard most people mean when they talk about an accessible website, and it is the one United States courts and the Department of Justice look to.
We do not claim the calendar is perfect. Anyone who tells you their website is fully accessible is telling you something nobody can check. What we can tell you is what we test, what we found, and what we fixed.
What we have done
- Every page can be used with a keyboard alone, and there is a link at the top of each page to skip past the heading straight to the content.
- Headings run in order, so a screen reader can move through a page by structure rather than by guessing.
- Text meets the contrast levels the guidelines ask for. We check this automatically on every page before we publish.
- Buttons and links have names that make sense when read aloud on their own, rather than "click here".
- The calendar does not block zooming, so you can make the text as large as your phone or browser allows.
- Every photo either has a description or is marked as decoration, so a screen reader does not read out a filename.
- The calendar works without JavaScript for reading the documents, and the event list degrades to plain text rather than an empty page.
- Nothing flashes, moves on its own, or plays sound.
What we know is not right yet
- The map view shows events as pins. Pins are hard to use without sight, and the same events are always available as a list, which is the view we test hardest. If the map is the only way you can find something, tell us and we will fix that.
- Some event descriptions come from other organizations' websites exactly as they wrote them. We tidy spacing and formatting, but we do not rewrite someone else's words, so the reading level and the punctuation are theirs.
- Photos gathered from other websites carry whatever description that site gave them, which is sometimes nothing useful. Photos posted directly to us are reviewed by a person.
- We test with automated tools and by keyboard on every release. We have not yet had the calendar tested by a person who uses a screen reader daily, and automated testing only catches about a third of what matters. If you use one and something is wrong, your report is worth more than any tool we own.
Telling us about a problem
Email info@collinsvilledailynews.com. Tell us the page, what you were trying to do, and what happened. If you use a particular screen reader or browser, saying which one helps us reproduce it.
We will reply, and we will tell you either when it is fixed or why it is going to take a while. If something on the calendar is stopping you from getting information you need, say so and we will send you that information directly in the meantime.
The documents