AtoM Heratio — Accessibility Statement

Version: 2.8.2 Date: 16 March 2026 Standard: WCAG 2.1 Level AA Author: The Archive and Heritage Group (Pty) Ltd

Our Commitment

AtoM Heratio is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We continually improve the user experience for everyone and apply the relevant accessibility standards.

Conformance Status

AtoM Heratio aims to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible to people with a wide range of disabilities.

Accessibility Features

Structural Accessibility

Skip navigation link to bypass repetitive content
ARIA landmarks for screen reader navigation: banner, main, navigation, complementary, contentinfo
Language and text direction set on the <html> element (supports RTL languages)
Semantic headings with correct hierarchy (h1 > h2 > h3)
Table headers with scope attributes (auto-injected)

Keyboard Accessibility

All interactive elements reachable via Tab navigation
Visible focus indicators (3px blue outline) on all interactive elements
Escape key closes open modals and dropdowns
Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+Shift+V (toggle voice), Ctrl+Shift+H (voice help)

Dynamic Content

ARIA live region for announcing dynamic content changes to screen readers
ahgAnnounce() function for programmatic screen reader announcements
ahgFocusTo() function for programmatic focus management
Collapsible facets with aria-expanded and aria-controls attributes
Form validation linked to error messages via aria-describedby
aria-invalid automatically synchronized with Bootstrap .is-invalid class

Visual Accessibility

Colour contrast meets AA minimum (4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text)
Respects prefers-reduced-motion for users sensitive to animation
High contrast mode support via forced-colors media query
Responsive design — works across desktop, tablet, and mobile

Assistive Technology

Voice commands (optional) — navigate, search, dictate, and describe images by voice
Text-to-speech (optional) — hover-read buttons and links
AI image description (optional) — generate image descriptions via local LLM (LLaVA)
Screen reader compatible — tested with NVDA and VoiceOver

Known Limitations

Some legacy pages rendered by the base AtoM (Symfony) system may not fully meet all AA criteria, particularly the admin panel and some search box ARIA attributes.
Third-party embedded content (e.g., IIIF viewers, Google Translate widget) may have their own accessibility limitations.
PDF documents generated by the system may not be fully accessible; alternative formats are available on request.
Some colour contrast issues exist in the heritage landing page and base AtoM dropdown menus.

Automated Testing

Accessibility is continuously verified using:

axe-core via Playwright — automated WCAG 2.1 AA checks on key pages
10 test cases covering: homepage, browse, search results, admin, facet ARIA, sidebar roles, footer roles, live regions, table scopes, reduced-motion CSS
Test suite: testing/playwright/tests/accessibility.spec.ts

Browser Support

Browser	Voice Commands	Screen Reader	Keyboard
Chrome 90+	Full	Full	Full
Edge 90+	Full	Full	Full
Safari 15+	Partial (no voice)	Full	Full
Firefox 90+	Partial (no voice)	Full	Full

Feedback

We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of AtoM Heratio. If you encounter accessibility barriers, please contact us:

Email: johan@theahg.co.za
Organization: The Archive and Heritage Group (Pty) Ltd

Technical Standards

Accessibility relies on the following technologies:

HTML5 with ARIA 1.1
CSS3 with media queries (prefers-reduced-motion, forced-colors)
JavaScript (Web Speech API, MutationObserver)
Bootstrap 5.3
WAI-ARIA landmarks and roles

This statement was last updated on 16 March 2026.

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