This site is built to be read by everyone. That is not a courtesy. It is the only standard worth holding.
01The commitment
HanhDBrown is a publication of essays. Essays exist to be read. If the site makes reading harder for any person because of how it is built, that is a failure of the build, not a limitation of the reader.
The target is WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance across every page. Where the site exceeds that standard, it does so intentionally. Where it falls short, this document says so plainly.
02The standards
WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines published by the W3C. It covers four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Level AA is the widely adopted threshold for production websites.
This site targets AA. Several choices exceed it:
- Color contrast. Body text meets WCAG AAA (7:1 minimum) on all surfaces. The primary pair is Lacquer Black on Ivory Whisper at 15.8:1.
- Body text floor. No paragraph text appears below 20px. Labels and metadata are set at 16px minimum. Older readers are the intended audience, not an afterthought.
- Reduced motion. All hero animations respect the prefers-reduced-motion media query. No animations run on devices where the user has disabled them.
- Keyboard navigation. Every page has a visible skip-to-content link. Every interactive element is reachable and operable by keyboard alone.
03Current status
The following table reflects the state of the site as of the review date above. It is updated when the site changes materially.
| Area | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Color contrast | Passes AAA | All body text 7:1 or better. Verified on all pages. |
| Keyboard navigation | Passes AA | Tab order follows visual order. Skip-link present on every page. No positive tabindex values. |
| Screen reader structure | Passes AA | Single h1 per page. No heading levels skipped. Landmark roles on main, nav, footer, aside. |
| Focus indicators | Passes AA | Visible focus ring on all interactive elements. Saffron outline, 2px offset. |
| Reduced motion | Passes AA | Hero animations disabled when prefers-reduced-motion is set. |
| Images | Partial | Image placeholders do not yet have production alt text. Will be added when real images are placed. |
| Forms | Passes AA | All inputs have visible labels. Error states are described in text, not color only. |
| PDF and downloads | Passes AA | No PDFs or downloadable documents linked at present. |
04Known gaps
No other WCAG 2.1 AA failures are known at the time of this review. If you find one, the contact section below is the fastest path to getting it fixed.
05How the site is built
The site is plain HTML, CSS, and a small amount of JavaScript. No frontend framework on the client. Every element is written by hand against the standard, not generated by a tool and checked afterward.
The typography is set large by default. Fraunces and Newsreader are variable fonts with optical sizing: as characters get smaller, the letterforms open up to maintain legibility. The body text floor is 20px. Labels are 16px. Nothing is smaller than 16px anywhere on the page.
The color palette was designed with contrast as a first constraint, not a final check. Every token pair was verified before any page was built.
06Feedback and problems
If a page is inaccessible to you, write to me. Use the contact form and describe what you were trying to do, what happened, and what device and assistive technology you were using. I will respond within a week and address the problem in the next update.
I will not argue about whether the problem is real. If the site is not working for you, that is the problem.
07Changes to this statement
This statement is updated when the site changes in ways that affect accessibility. The review date at the top of this page reflects the most recent check. If a known gap is resolved, it is removed from section 04 and the date is updated.