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FrançaisAccessibility Statement
Our commitment to making CountryReports usable for everyone.
CountryReports welcomes readers of every ability. This statement sets out the standards we work toward, the assistive technologies we aim to support, the features already built into the site, the limitations we are still working on, and how to let us know if something is getting in your way.
1. Our Commitment
CountryReports is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We are continually improving the user experience for every visitor and applying the relevant accessibility standards to the way we design, build, and publish the site.
Our audience includes students, teachers, researchers, and parents in classrooms and libraries around the world. Accessibility is central to that mission: educational content is only useful when every learner can reach it, read it, navigate it with the tools they rely on, and understand it in the language they speak at home.
2. Conformance Status
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the recognized international standard for digital accessibility. They are published by the World Wide Web Consortium and are referenced by accessibility laws in the United States, the European Union, and many other jurisdictions.
CountryReports targets conformance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. Partial conformance means some parts of the content do not yet fully conform.
WCAG 2.1 Level AA — Partially conformant
We are working toward full Level AA conformance across the site. Some older content and third-party components do not yet meet every success criterion.
3. Standards We Follow
CountryReports references several international and regional accessibility standards when designing and reviewing the site. The list below names the standards our team tracks.
WCAG 2.1 Level AA
The international baseline for web accessibility, published by the World Wide Web Consortium.
Section 508
United States federal requirement for information and communication technology procured or used by federal agencies.
EN 301 549
European accessibility standard referenced by the EU Web Accessibility Directive for public-sector and digital services.
ADA Title III
United States non-discrimination requirements applied as an ongoing best practice to our public-facing content.
ATAG (Authoring Tools)
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines applied to our internal content management system used by editors and translators.
4. Assistive Technologies Supported
The site is built to be compatible with the major screen readers and assistive tools on the operating systems and browsers our audience uses most. We are actively working to add formal test coverage for the combinations listed below.
5. Accessibility Features of the Site
The features below are already in place across the site. We continue to extend them to older pages and third-party embeds as part of our ongoing review.
Accessibility widget
A floating accessibility button sits in the lower-right corner of every page. Opening it reveals a panel of reader-controlled settings that take effect immediately and persist between visits. The current controls are:
- Three-step text size (default, larger, largest)
- High-contrast mode (pure black on white, darker links)
- Dyslexic-friendly font (OpenDyslexic, Latin-script pages)
- Underline all links so they stand out from body text
- Sepia reading background for long sessions
- Pause animations, transitions, and motion across the site
- Wider letter and line spacing tuned to APH recommendations
- Reading guide bar that tracks the cursor down the page
- Bigger cursor with high-contrast outline
- Hide images for distraction-free, text-only reading
- Reset to defaults in a single click
Listen to articles
Long-form articles, blog posts, and global topic pages include a Listen button that reads the page aloud using the device’s built-in voice. Playback supports play, pause, resume, stop, and a speed control. The voice automatically matches the page language; whether a non-English voice is available depends on which voices the reader has installed in their operating system. The feature is free and works offline once the page has loaded.
Preferences saved to your account
Signed-in members can save their accessibility settings to their account. The next time they sign in on any device, the same preferences apply automatically. Visitors who are not signed in still keep their settings on the current device through local browser storage.
Built-in structural accessibility
- Skip-to-main-content link on every page
- Semantic HTML landmarks (header, nav, main, aside, footer)
- Meaningful heading hierarchy on every page
- Visible focus indicators on every interactive element
- Sufficient color contrast (4.5:1 body text, 3:1 large text)
- Resizable text without loss of content or function
- Consistent navigation across the site
- Form labels and plain-language error messaging
- Operating-system reduced-motion preference is honored automatically
- No auto-playing media with sound, no keyboard traps
- ARIA used sparingly and only where native HTML does not suffice
6. Known Limitations
We would rather be honest than overstate where we are. The following are items our team is aware of and is working to improve.
- Archived article images. Some archived articles from earlier years may have images without ideal alt text. Our internal alt-text audit tool now scans the library nightly, and editors are clearing the backlog in priority order.
- Third-party video embeds. Embedded YouTube players may not always expose full keyboard and screen-reader controls that match the rest of the page.
- Complex charts. Charts in the Compare Countries section provide summary tables as text alternatives, though deeper data-point navigation remains a work in progress.
- Translated content. Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, and French translations may carry minor grammatical variance. Please report issues so we can correct them.
7. Assessment and Review
Internal audits combine automated tooling (axe-core, Lighthouse, and WAVE) with periodic manual testing using the screen readers listed earlier. Reviews run at least annually and after every significant release.
A dedicated alt-text audit dashboard in our content management system surfaces every image missing an alt attribute across articles, blog posts, global topics, and lessons. Editors work through the dashboard so reported gaps close on a measurable schedule.
A third-party accessibility audit is planned prior to the production launch of the redesigned site.
8. Reporting a Barrier or Sending Feedback
If you come across a page, feature, or piece of content that is difficult to use, we want to hear about it. Your feedback helps us prioritize fixes and shapes the accessibility roadmap going forward.
The fastest way to reach the accessibility team from any page is to open the accessibility widget in the lower-right corner and click “Report a barrier on this page.” The form opens with the page URL already filled in. You can also use our contact form.
9. Formal Complaints
Users in the European Union and European Economic Area may have the right to escalate a complaint to their national accessibility supervisory body if they are not satisfied with how we respond, in accordance with the EU Web Accessibility Directive. Users in the United States interacting with federal services may contact the relevant agencies under Section 508. We acknowledge these rights and will cooperate fully with any review process.