Legal · Accessibility

Accessibility.

Last updated · July 2026

This site should be readable by everyone, on whatever terms your body and your setup ask of it.

The commitment

lonnierae.com aims to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AA. That is an intention held seriously, not a certification — the site is reviewed against it as it evolves, and shortfalls are treated as bugs.

What is in place

If your system asks for reduced motion, the site listens: background videos stop, animations and smooth scrolling switch off, and every page reads as a still. All navigation works from the keyboard, headings and landmarks are structured for screen readers, and meaningful imagery carries text alternatives.

Text over video sits behind darkened veils and shadows so contrast holds no matter which frame is playing. The decorative custom cursor never replaces the native one's function — it steps aside entirely for touch devices, keyboards, and reduced-motion settings. The ambient sound is off until you ask for it, and its toggle is a labeled, keyboard-reachable button.

Design choices that help

The type is set large and unjustified, with generous line spacing and measured line lengths. Color is never the only signal — links carry underlines, states carry labels, and the gold accents are reinforced by shape and position. Motion is layered so that nothing essential lives inside it: every animation is decoration over a page that reads perfectly still, which is exactly how the site is served when your settings request stillness.

Known limitations

Honesty over polish: the atmospheric video backgrounds are inherently visual, and while the text never depends on them, they are part of the experience some visitors will not receive. A few archival documents in the library — older talks and papers — predate current accessibility standards and may not be fully tagged for screen readers. Improving these is ongoing work.

How this is checked

Reviews happen the unglamorous way: keyboard-only passes through every page, contrast sampling against the darkest and brightest frames of each background video, reduced-motion audits with the system setting switched on, and screen-reader spot checks. New pages go through the same pass before they ship, and this statement is revisited whenever the site meaningfully changes.

Found a barrier?

If any part of this site is hard to read, hear, navigate, or operate, please say so: lonnie.r.kurlander@gmail.com. Reports go straight to the person who designed and built the site, and they get fixed, not filed.