Accessibility statement
Otto the Watchdog is independent journalism. The point of publishing is to be read — by everyone. We work to keep this site usable with assistive tech, keyboards, screen magnifiers, and reduced bandwidth.
Standard we aim for
Our target is WCAG 2.2 Level AA. This is the same bar most U.S. state and federal sites use under Section 508 / ADA Title II.
What we've built in
- Keyboard-only navigation. Every link, form, and button works without a mouse. A "Skip to main content" link appears as the first focusable item on every page.
- Visible focus rings. A high-contrast yellow outline appears on the element you're currently focused on, so you always know where you are on the page.
- Screen-reader landmarks. Every page exposes
banner,navigation,main, andcontentinfolandmarks. The active nav link is marked witharia-current="page". - Form labels. Every input has an associated
<label>and required fields are marked with therequiredattribute. Status messages on the snitch line use a polite live region so screen readers announce upload progress. - Reduced motion. If your OS is set to "reduce motion", the site honors that preference and disables non-essential animation.
- Image alternatives. Every meaningful image has alt
text; decorative images are marked
aria-hidden="true"so screen readers skip them. - External links. Links that leave Otto's site open in a
new tab and are tagged
rel="noopener noreferrer". - Plain HTML fallback. Every page is fully readable without JavaScript. JS only enhances the snitch-line uploader and the local-clock display.
Themes
The site ships with seven visual themes. Each theme is built from the same underlying semantic HTML, so a screen reader sees the same structure regardless of which theme you pick. If a particular theme is harder to read for you, the theme picker lets you switch at any time. The default Subway theme is the highest-contrast option.
What we're still working on
- Color-contrast ratios on the more decorative themes (Receipt, Almanac, Zine) are being verified per element. If anything is hard to read, please let us know which theme + which element.
- Captions and transcripts for embedded YouTube content live on YouTube itself — we don't yet host transcripts on this site.
Let us know
If something on this site is keeping you from reading, contacting us, or filing a tip, tell us how to fix it. The snitch line works the same as for any other report — describe the page, the browser or assistive tech you're using, and what's failing. We will respond.
Last reviewed: 2026-05-09.