About this site

Accessibility

A village website is for every resident, including the ones using a screen reader, a keyboard, or a phone in bright sun. This site treats that as a design constraint, not a checklist.

Built to WCAG 2.1 AA

Keyboard first. Every menu, search box, calendar control, and filter works without a mouse, with a visible focus ring throughout.
Screen-reader structure. Landmarks, one h1 per page, labeled controls, and live regions that announce search and filter results.
Contrast that holds up. Text meets AA ratios on every background, including the dark “kiln” bands.
Touch targets. Buttons, chips, and links stay at least 24 pixels tall, comfortable on a phone.
Motion restraint. Animations respect prefers-reduced-motion.
No surprise downloads. Pages are plain HTML, fast on rural connections, and printable when you need paper.

Automated checks (axe-core) run on every page of this prototype with zero violations, alongside manual keyboard and screen-reader passes. Accessibility statements get stale; testing on every change doesn't.

Spot a barrier?

If anything on this prototype is hard to use with assistive technology, tell us and it gets fixed: stephen@stoa.works. The production site will carry the Village's own accessibility contact.

Guardrails for new content

A site is only as accessible as its newest page. The CMS behind the production build checks staff content as it's written:

Images won't publish without meaningful alt text.
Headings must stay in order. No skipping from h1 to h4.
Low-contrast text combinations are flagged before save.
“Click here” link text gets a nudge toward something descriptive.
Uploaded PDFs run an accessibility check, with OCR for scans.

That's RFP item 2.2.8, working. Staff keep their speed, and residents keep their access.

Photo & type credits

This prototype uses openly licensed photography as stand-ins for the Village's own photo library:

St. Mary's Church of Gilberts, Teemu008, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Gilberts' first jail house (1918 build), Tony the Marine, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Autumn prairie at Gray Willows Farm preserve, Joseph Gage, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Nachusa Grasslands in spring, cassi saari, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Union Pacific freight, Elmhurst IL, GP_FullFrame, Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Splash pad, Garey Park TX, Larry D. Moore, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Ferris wheel at night, Ohio State Fair, David E. Lucas / Ohio History Connection via DPLA, Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Kane County brick farmhouse, Jim Roberts, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Brick texture, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Picnic pavilion, Cabin John Park MD, G. Edward Johnson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Summer park pavilion, Olney Park, Wildflowers00, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Municipal snow plow, Famartin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Deck staining, Yortw, Flickr, CC BY 2.0
Village Hall, public buildings, gazebo, playground, Community Days, and sunset photos from the Village of Gilberts current website carousel, used here for this Village-specific redesign prototype.

Type: Hepta Slab and Karla, both SIL Open Font License and self-hosted. No font CDNs, no trackers.