Equity includes accessAccessibility
A coalition working for the students the system underserves should never publish a website some of those families cannot use. Every page of this prototype is built to WCAG 2.2 AA and machine-checked with axe-core before publication.
The commitment
- WCAG 2.2 AA conformance, verified by automated checks on every page and manual keyboard and screen-reader passes
- Semantic landmarks, a skip link, and a single logical heading outline on every page
- Color contrast at or above 4.5:1 for body text; the brand orange appears only at large display sizes where it meets the 3:1 large-text threshold
- Every interactive control at least 24 pixels of hit area, labeled, and reachable by keyboard
- All meaningful imagery as real
<img>elements with descriptive alternative text
Report a barrier
If anything on the production site is hard to use with assistive technology, the coalition wants to know. Email info@transformeducationnm.org and describe the page and the barrier; fixes are prioritized like any other accountability issue.
Beyond the checklistBuilt for real use
WCAG conformance is the floor, not the ceiling. This prototype includes the accessibility details visitors actually notice:
- Every interactive control gets a visible focus ring, not a default outline suppressed by CSS.
- The curriculum hub's search box is a full ARIA combobox: arrow-key navigation, and screen readers announce result counts and suggestions as you type.
- Form confirmations and status messages use live regions, so assistive technology hears them the moment they appear.
- Decorative images are marked so screen readers skip them instead of reading meaningless file names.
Reaching rural and tribal New MexicoLow-bandwidth optimization
Families and educators across New Mexico's tribal lands and rural areas often face limited broadband. This prototype is built light:
- Pages load fast on slow connections: all fonts and images are self-hosted and optimized; no tracking pixels, ads, or third-party scripts slow the site down.
- Images use semantic
<img>elements scaled for mobile, not heavy CSS backgrounds; photography is compressed without loss of detail. - Core content is text-first and works instantly; search and interactive features enhance but don't block reading.
- The site works on older devices and browsers, not just modern ones.
One community, many languagesBilingual by default
New Mexico is bilingual, so this prototype is too. Every page ships a complete, hand-translated Spanish version you can switch to with one button in the header:
- A single toggle in the header switches the whole page between English and New Mexico Spanish, no page reload.
- Every sentence is hand-translated, not machine-translated, using the usted register and correct diacritics and punctuation.
- The language choice persists as you move between pages, so you never have to re-select it.
- The page's declared language updates when you switch, so screen readers announce the correct pronunciation in either language.