Urban Art Core is a magazine archive. Its job is to let anyone read the posts and see the photographs, whatever device, browser or assistive technology they use. This page says what the site does for that, what is checked, where it falls short and how to get in touch.

What the site does

  • Every page works without JavaScript. Reading, browsing by artist, place, year and collection, and the recent-posts fallback on the search page need no script. Search filters and the photo viewer are enhancements.
  • The site follows your system theme and has a light/dark switch in the header that announces its state. It also respects reduced-motion and forced-colors settings.
  • Text uses relative sizes and reflows when you zoom. Nothing is locked to a fixed width.
  • Headings, landmarks, lists and breadcrumbs are real HTML, so screen readers can jump between regions and sections. Every page has a “Skip to content” link as its first focusable element.
  • Controls are at least 44 by 44 pixels, focus is always visible, and the photo viewer traps focus while open, returns it on close, and can be driven with the arrow and Escape keys.
  • Photographs carry alternative text taken from the original captions, and captions and credits are shown with the image where they exist. Cards that repeat a post’s title treat the photo as decorative so the title is not read twice.
  • Third-party video players load only after you ask for them with a labelled button.

How this is checked

Every change runs an automated audit before it is published: a pinned axe-core pass over the home page, a post with a photo gallery, the year and month archive and a set of search result pages, in light and dark theme, at phone and desktop widths. Serious or critical findings block the release. The same run checks the search and archive flows with scripts disabled.

Automated tools find only part of what matters. A manual review with VoiceOver and NVDA is planned; anything it finds will be fixed or listed here.

Known issues

  • Alternative text. The posts were written between 2009 and 2012 and the alternative text comes from their original captions, so some descriptions are shorter or less precise than they should be. Around 130 cover photographs and 40 photographs inside posts have no alternative text at all yet. They are being improved post by post.
  • Embedded video. YouTube and Vimeo players are outside this site’s control. Their captions and keyboard behaviour are whatever the provider offers.
  • Links to lost pages. A few posts link to pages or sites that no longer exist. These links are marked in the publication checks and are being replaced over time.

Target

The site aims to meet WCAG 2.2 at level AA. It is not formally certified; the checks above and this page are the current state of the work.

Report a barrier

If something on this site is hard or impossible for you to use, please say so. Email urbanartcore@janbrennenstuhl.eu with the page address and what went wrong. You will get an answer, and the issue goes on this page until it is fixed.