Overview
The Institutes is committed to providing an equal and quality experience for everyone. We're constantly working towards improving the accessibility of our website to ensure we provide equal access to individuals with disabilities including those with visual, hearing, cognitive, and motor impairments.
Wherever possible, we strive to conform to level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. These guidelines provide a foundation for how to make web content more accessible for people with various disabilities. We believe not only in conformance with these guidelines but that optimization around them will help make the web more user-friendly for everyone.
Known Exceptions
While we put our best effort into meeting the success criteria outlined in the WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines, we recognize that at this time, there are sections of our site that are not accessible or may be difficult to navigate, particularly for screen reader users. Some of these sections are powered by third-party plugins that we recognize are not at the level of accessibility for which we strive. These sections include:
- Access to Homepage “Featured” Cards - On the Homepage, visitors using a keyboard or similar device to navigate are currently unable to navigate to a group of three Cards below the Hero/Banner section. A future update will make this section accessible to visitors using a keyboard or other assistive device to navigate. At this time, the links in this missed section include:
- Account Profile Content Hierarchy - On the Account Profile Page, when a visitor navigates into the main content region, their focus currently is set to the supporting “Preference” links instead of to the main content of the page. A future update will place a visitor's focus on the main content region first, then to the list of other preferences they can manage.
- Tabbed Content Order - Within certain tabbed content sections, it’s not visually apparent which section a visitor is focused on and there is the potential for content to be read out of order. This issue is currently present on the “Associate in Claims” Designation page under the “Associate in Claims (AIC) at a Glance” section. A future update will correct the flow of this tabbed content so that a visitor is able to navigate the tab list before making their selection and there will be clear visual indication of which tab is active.
- Page Heading Order - Throughout the site, there are pages that don’t reflect an ideal Heading order which can present challenges for screen reader users to move sequentially through the content. There are also instances where Headers have been left empty which doesn’t provide context to a visitor about the section of the Page they are viewing. These headers are being reviewed and updated to ensure Pages include a single top-level Heading, an improved Heading outline, and appropriate content where missing.
We are actively working on improving the experience in these and other impacted areas, either by working directly with vendors or seeking out more accessible alternatives. Please be aware that our efforts to remediate any issues with these sections are ongoing
Have Feedback or Need Help?
We continue to strive not only to meet a high level of accessibility support but also to provide a polished experience for all visitors. In the meantime, we welcome your questions and comments on how to improve our website’s accessibility, or, if you need assistance using specific features, please contact us:
- Email: webmaster@theinstitutes.org