Conformance target
The target for rivers.plasticbank.com is Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, level AA. The site was audited against every level A and AA success criterion in August 2026 by code inspection and automated checks. The criteria that can only be verified by hand, such as a full screen reader pass, are scheduled for manual testing; until that pass is complete we describe the site as partially conformant. The full audit, with per-criterion results and evidence, is kept in the project repository.
What the site does
- Keyboard access. Every control works with a keyboard: the navigation, the map filters and mode switch, the ocean basin tabs, the accordions, and the river detail panel. The map itself pans with the arrow keys and zooms with plus and minus when focused.
- An alternative to the map. All river data shown on the interactive map is also published as regular pages: river profiles, statistics tables, and key facts. Nothing is only available inside the map.
- Screen reader support. Pages use semantic landmarks, one main heading per page, labelled dialogs that are inert while closed, and visually hidden instructions where a widget needs them.
- A skip link to the main content on every page.
- Contrast. Text and interface colours come from a fixed palette whose combinations are contrast-checked, and an automated check fails the build if a colour drifts off that palette.
- Reduced motion. Scroll animations, the animated statistics, and the wave dividers are disabled when the operating system asks for reduced motion.
- Visible focus. Interactive elements show a focus outline on keyboard focus.
Known limitations
- The interactive map is rendered by MapLibre GL on a canvas. Its internals cannot be fully restyled, and individual map markers are not reachable by keyboard; the river profile pages and statistics tables are the accessible route to the same information.
- Map base tiles come from third parties (OpenFreeMap, OpenMapTiles, OpenStreetMap, Esri) and their content is outside our control.
- A full assistive technology pass (NVDA and VoiceOver) is scheduled but has not been completed yet.
Report a barrier
If something on this site does not work for you, we want to know. Contact Plastic Bank through plasticbank.com and mention the page address and the technology you were using. Accessibility reports are treated as defects, not requests.
About this statement
Prepared on August 21, 2026, based on a code-level audit of the site against WCAG 2.2 AA. It will be updated when the manual assistive technology pass is complete and after any change that affects conformance.