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Pass California

Accessibility

Partially conformant, and this page says so

The target is WCAG 2.2 AA. The current state is partial conformance. Listing what has not been audited is more useful than a conformance claim we cannot support, particularly on a site whose whole argument is about publishing only what can be verified.

What has been done

  • Colour contrast measured, with the poppy accent marked fill-only because it fails AA for text. Text uses a deeper variant at 5.4:1 or 7.2:1.
  • Primary controls meet the 44 pixel minimum: buttons, answer options, form fields, slider thumbs, filter chips and every row in a navigation list.
  • Secondary text links, such as a source citation or a link inside a paragraph, are smaller. Those rely on the WCAG 2.5.8 inline and spacing exceptions rather than meeting 44 pixels, and they are given a 32 to 36 pixel row so the exception is comfortably rather than marginally satisfied.
  • A skip link, landmark regions, and headings in order on every page.
  • Segmented controls implemented as real radio groups with aria-checked, rather than styled buttons that announce nothing.
  • Live regions on every calculator result and every practice answer, so a screen reader announces the change rather than leaving it silent.
  • Visible focus indicators on every interactive element, using a two-pixel outline with offset.
  • Reduced motion respected: animation and transition durations collapse when the user has asked for that.
  • Mobile-first layout with zero max-width media queries. Below 832 pixels every layout is a single column, and type is fluid rather than stepped.
  • Wide tables scroll inside their own container, so the page body never scrolls horizontally.
  • Full readability with JavaScript disabled. Every page reads completely, and no content depends on script to be present.

What has not been done

  • A full keyboard traversal audit of every interactive path, particularly the search dialog and the multi-step quiz runner.
  • A screen reader pass with JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver. The markup is written to support them, and it has not been verified with them.
  • A 320 pixel viewport audit of the calculator result panels and the wider comparison tables. Automated checks confirm no page scrolls horizontally at 390 pixels, but 320 has not been walked through by hand.
  • A 400 percent zoom audit against the reflow criterion.
  • Verification that the colour choices work for users with the common forms of colour vision deficiency, particularly where the poppy accent distinguishes a bar.

Known barriers

Comparison tables scroll horizontally

Several comparison tables carry a minimum width and scroll horizontally inside their own container on a narrow screen. The page itself never scrolls sideways, and the table is reachable by keyboard, but horizontal scrolling within a region is a genuine friction for some users. It is listed here rather than hidden, because the alternative of collapsing tabular data into stacked cards loses the comparison the table exists to make.

If something does not work

Everything on this site reads completely with JavaScript disabled and with browser storage blocked. Progress tracking, the search dialog and the interactive question cards are enhancements, and nothing that carries information depends on them.

If a page is unusable for you, that is a defect rather than an edge case, and it belongs in the same log as any factual error. Our corrections policy covers how issues are recorded and fixed.