Accessibility statement

• Contrast. Every text and background pair used on the site clears the 4.5:1 AA floor, including each of the 51 state accent colours against the tinted panel they sit on. The build fails if a colour is added that does not.
• Automated audit. Lighthouse reports 100 for accessibility on the homepage, a state page and an article page, with zero contrast or alt-text findings.
• Structure. One h1 per page, headings in order, landmarks, and a skip link that reaches the calculator without tabbing the header.
• Forms. Every input has a visible label. Money fields use a text input with a numeric keypad hint rather than a number spinner, which is dictatable and does not change value on a stray scroll.
• Live results. The take-home figure updates as you type and is announced to a screen reader once typing pauses, through a polite live region present from page load.
• No layout traps. Zero horizontal overflow from 320px to 1440px. Motion honours prefers-reduced-motion. The sticky mobile result bar cannot obscure a focused field.
• Images. All generated charts carry alt text stating the figures they show, so the numbers are available without seeing the image.

• No audit by a person using a screen reader daily has been done. Automated tools catch perhaps half of real barriers, so this is the largest gap on the page.
• Some inline links inside sentences are shorter than the 24 by 24 pixel target size. WCAG 2.2 exempts links within a block of text, so this passes, but on a small screen they are still fiddly.
• Wide comparison tables scroll sideways within their container on a narrow screen. Nothing is cut off, but reading a long row means scrolling.
• The state comparison charts convey their meaning through colour and a written legend. The same figures are always in a table on the same page, so no information exists only in colour.

If something here is unusable with the assistive technology you rely on, please write to [email protected] and describe what you were trying to do and what happened. Reports about the calculator itself are treated as bugs, not feature requests, and go to the front of the queue.

Last reviewed 2026-09-03.