Accessibility

• Finding an event works without JavaScript. The home page search box, the results, the filter panel, the sort control, paging through results, every event, series and venue page, the city and theme pages and the newsletter sign-up are all plain links and plain forms that the server answers.
• Four things do need JavaScript: saved events, submitting an event, claiming a listing, and the organiser dashboard. Each of those pages says so when scripting is off, rather than sitting there broken.
• The footer is a full navigation, so nothing is reachable only through a menu that needs a script.
• There is a “Skip to content” link on every page.
• The map is optional and never required to find or understand an event. The result list is the same list whether the map is open or closed, and map tiles are only fetched after you press “Show map”.
• Page zoom works throughout. Changing your browser’s default text size does not, which is a fault we have not fixed yet. It is in the list below.

We intend to meet WCAG 2.2 level AA. There has been no independent audit of this site, so we make no conformance claim. An audit is planned. When it happens, the result and its date go on this page whatever it says, and the list below is rewritten from it.

What has been checked: our own code, read through against the practices above. That is how the problems below were found, and it is also why the list is limited to things a person can see in the code.

What has not been checked: nothing on this site has been tested with a screen reader, with speech input, with a switch device, or by a disabled person we asked. There is no automated accessibility test in our build either. So if something is hard to use and it is not on the list below, the likely reason is that nobody has looked, not that it is fine.

These are the problems we already know about. The list is reviewed when this statement is, and the review date is at the foot of the page. We would rather publish a list that reflects badly on us than leave you to find these on your own.

• Four pages do not work at all without JavaScript: saved events, submitting an event, claiming a listing, and the organiser dashboard. Each page tells you so, but there is no other way to do those things on the site. If that blocks you, email hello@othernights.com and say what you were trying to do.
• With JavaScript off, three buttons on the search results still appear, still take keyboard focus, and do nothing when pressed: “Show map”, “Use my location”, and the “Save” button on each result. There is no message explaining why. Someone using a keyboard or a screen reader reaches a dead control and gets no answer. Everything those buttons stand in for can be done another way: the results, filters and sorting work without them, and the city pages let you browse by place instead of by location lookup.
• Event titles in other languages are not marked as being in that language, so a screen reader reads a German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian or Catalan title in an English voice. It can come out as nonsense. The original description quoted lower down an event page is marked correctly; the title and the card are not. This fails WCAG 3.1.2, Language of Parts, at level AA.
• Every text size on the site is fixed in pixels, so raising the default text size in your browser settings changes nothing. Page zoom is the only way to make the text bigger at the moment. We have not tested how the layout holds up at high zoom.
• The outline around text fields, filter chips and filter cards is too faint. It measures under 1.5 to 1 against the background behind it, where WCAG 1.4.11 asks for 3 to 1, so the edge of a field can be hard to find if you have low vision. The labels and the text inside those fields meet the contrast rules; it is the box around them that does not.
• Navigation does not mark which page you are on, so a screen reader announces the link to the page you are already reading exactly like any other link. Breadcrumbs on the pages that have them do mark the current page.
• On a narrow screen, event and series pages have no navigation until the footer, because the top bar links are hidden and the menu button that should replace them never appears. The footer is a full navigation, so scrolling to the bottom gets you anywhere on the site.
• The newsletter fields are shorter than every other field on the site and do not share their focus and border treatment, which makes them a smaller target than the 48 pixels we use elsewhere. After you sign up without JavaScript the page reloads and the reply is put on screen, but it is unlikely to be read out by a screen reader. The page does jump to the newsletter heading, and the reply sits directly under it.
• There is no search box on the results page. Changing the words you searched for means going back to the home page, which is more work for anyone navigating by keyboard. The filters and the sort control on the results page do work on their own.

If something on this site is hard to use, tell us at hello@othernights.com. Say what you were trying to do and what got in the way. It helps to know your browser and whether you use any assistive software, but tell us in whatever way suits you. We aim to reply within 10 working days.

If you are not happy with our response, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service.