Handshake takes accessibility seriously. Our team dedicates time regularly to reviewing and improving accessibility for our users, with details of changes included in this resource.
Past Updates
- Avoid unnecessary use of heading elements
- Ensure heading level matches the heading’s visual importance/level
- Avoid the use of implicit headings
- Provide visual or instructions for user input
- Provide alternative text for images
- Provide visual labels or instructions for user input
- Provide alternative text for images
- Ensure text and images of text provide sufficient contrast
- Provide error prevention for legal commitments, financial transactions, test responses, and data changes
- Ensure that instructive text is placed at the beginning of a form
- Ensure implicit row header cells use elements with row scope
- Ensure alternative text for image links is informative
- Ensure CSS background images that convey meaning have textual and visible equivalents
- Ensure charts and graphs provide an informative and visible alternative description
- Ensure keyboard focus returns properly when menus are closed
- Ensure link text is meaningful within context
- Ensure Javascript functionality is accessible from the keyboard
- Ensure markup documents contain well-formed elements
- Ensure related links are grouped
- Ensure headings and labels are descriptive and unique
- Ensure text can be resized
- Avoid use of placeholder values or explain input
- Ensure content is visible to assistive technologies
- Ensure error messages are explicitly indicated at the beginning of a form after submit
- Provide a clear indication of fields in error for information that is submitted
- Complete work for: Ensure page tabs provide state and role
- Ensure custom controls are keyboard accessible
- Ensure page tabs provide state and role
- Inform assistive technologies of changes in content
- Ensure custom controls provide proper textual name, role, and state information
- Provide fieldsets for groups of form controls
- Ensure that keyboard focus remains within modal dialogs
- Avoid inappropriate use of ARIA roles, states, and properties
- Ensure color is not used as the sole method of indicating selection
- Ensure dialogs use proper structure
- Ensure ARIA roles, states, and properties are valid
- Provide fieldsets for groups of form controls - all of our common form components, specifically RadioButtonList, CheckboxList, MonthYearSelect, and Pills, are properly grouped within fieldsets. This will allow us to keep our form components accessible moving forward.
- Apply aria-live regions for favorite buttons (falls within Ensure custom controls provide proper textual name in the accessibility audit)
- If a job shows up multiple times on a page, and the job is favorited in one area, an announcement will now be made to users with screen readers that the other parts of the UI are updated.
- Along with this change, we were able to standardize how announcements are being made, which should make it easier to avoid this violation moving forward
- Provide fieldsets for groups of form controls
- Postings
- Profile
- Reviews
- First destination response
- Ensure form field constraints and errors are associated with their corresponding field
- Profile
- Appointments
- First destination
- Inform assistive technologies of changes in content
- Documents
- Employers
- Appointments
- Peer messaging
- Ensure color is not the sole means of indicating error messages
- Appointments
- First Destination Surveys
- Ensure custom controls are keyboard accessible
- Documents
- Employers
- Job roles
- Notifications
- Interview Schedules
- Ensure the reading order of content and elements are correct when viewed without style sheets
- Employers
- Ensure page tabs provide state and role
- Postings
- Employers
- Career fairs
- Q&A
- Search
- Experiences
- Provide an informative, context-sensitive page title - 60% of our page titles did not have accurate titles. Highly used workflows below:
- Login
- Register
- Homepage
- Job search
- Employers
- Q&A
- Review
- Appointments
- Messages
- Notifications
- Articles
- Surveys
- Provide a valid label for form fields - 27% occurrence rate
- Login
- Profile
- Job search
- Reviews
- Surveys
- Ensure custom controls provide proper textual name, role, and state information - 33% occurrence rate
- Homepage
- Profile
- Employers
- Jobs
- Interests
- Reviews
- Notifications
- Ensure containing elements allow text resize without loss of functionality. 23% occurrence rate.
- Jobs
- First Destination Surveys
- Appointments
- Messages
- Provide an accessible alert method for content changes that occur without explicit user knowledge. 10% occurrence rate.
- Interests
- Articles
- Surveys
In Progress Updates
- Ensure calendar components are keyboard accessible
- Ensure that non-modal calendars are rendered inline with the controls that activate them
- Ensure that calendar components do not use color alone to convey selection/meaning
Handshake Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and VPAT
Mobile versions (iOS and Android) updated October 2022
Web version updated June 2022