# ADA Level AA Accessibility Assessment Report
## Vision Leadership Organization (visionleadership.org)

**Assessment Date:** October 3, 2025  
**Assessment Standard:** WCAG 2.1 Level AA  
**Testing Tools:** Chromium with cremotemcp MCP tools, axe-core v4.8.0  
**Assessor:** AI Agent using enhanced_chromium_ada_checklist.md methodology

---

## Executive Summary

This comprehensive accessibility assessment of visionleadership.org reveals **CRITICAL and SERIOUS violations** of WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards across all tested pages. The site has significant accessibility barriers that prevent users with disabilities from accessing content and functionality.

### Overall Compliance Status: ❌ **NON-COMPLIANT**

**Critical Issues Found:**
- 1 CRITICAL violation (affects all pages)
- 4 SERIOUS violations (repeated across pages)
- 31 HIGH SEVERITY keyboard navigation issues
- 85+ color contrast failures

**Legal Risk Assessment:** **HIGH** - Multiple violations of high-lawsuit-risk criteria including:
- Disabled zoom/scaling (WCAG 1.4.4 - CRITICAL)
- Insufficient color contrast (WCAG 1.4.3 - SERIOUS)
- Missing accessible names for links (WCAG 2.4.4, 4.1.2 - SERIOUS)
- Missing focus indicators (WCAG 2.4.7 - HIGH)

---

## Site-Wide Issues (All Pages)

### 1. CRITICAL: Viewport Zoom Disabled (WCAG 1.4.4)
**Impact:** CRITICAL  
**WCAG:** 1.4.4 Resize Text (Level AA)  
**Status:** ❌ FAIL

**Issue:**
```html
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=0">
```

The viewport meta tag explicitly disables user scaling with `user-scalable=0` and `maximum-scale=1.0`. This prevents users with low vision from zooming the page on mobile devices.

**Affected Users:** Users with low vision, elderly users  
**Remediation:** Remove `user-scalable=0` and `maximum-scale=1.0` from viewport meta tag:
```html
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
```

---

### 2. SERIOUS: Color Contrast Failures (WCAG 1.4.3)
**Impact:** SERIOUS  
**WCAG:** 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) - Level AA  
**Status:** ❌ FAIL

**Violations Found:**

#### Footer Text (All Pages)
- **Contrast Ratio:** 2.70:1 (requires 4.5:1)
- **Colors:** #666666 on #242424
- **Location:** Footer paragraph text
- **Affected Elements:** 31+ instances

#### Submit Button (Contact Page)
- **Contrast Ratio:** 2.71:1 (requires 4.5:1)
- **Colors:** #ffffff on #17a8e3
- **Location:** Contact form submit button
- **Text:** "Send Message"

#### Navigation Links
- **Contrast Ratio:** 2.75:1 (requires 4.5:1)
- **Colors:** #2ea3f2 on #ffffff
- **Location:** "About" and other navigation links

**Remediation:**
- Footer text: Change to #999999 or lighter for 4.5:1 ratio
- Submit button: Use darker blue (#0d7db8) or add text shadow
- Links: Use darker blue (#1a7db8) for sufficient contrast

---

### 3. SERIOUS: Links Without Accessible Names (WCAG 2.4.4, 4.1.2)
**Impact:** SERIOUS  
**WCAG:** 2.4.4 Link Purpose, 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value  
**Status:** ❌ FAIL

**Homepage Violations:**
- 2 carousel navigation arrows lack accessible names (Previous/Next buttons)
- Hidden text not properly exposed to screen readers

**Contact Page Violations:**
- 3 image lightbox links have empty title attributes
- Links to images lack descriptive text for screen readers

**Remediation:**
```html
<!-- Before -->
<a href="image.jpg" class="et_pb_lightbox_image" title=""></a>

<!-- After -->
<a href="image.jpg" class="et_pb_lightbox_image" title="View larger image of contact information" aria-label="View larger image of contact information"></a>
```

---

### 4. SERIOUS: Links Not Distinguished from Text (WCAG 1.4.1)
**Impact:** SERIOUS  
**WCAG:** 1.4.1 Use of Color (Level A)  
**Status:** ❌ FAIL

**Issue:** Footer link to "Shortcut Solutions St. Louis" lacks sufficient contrast AND no underline
- **Link contrast with surrounding text:** 1.87:1 (requires 3:1)
- **Colors:** #2ea3f2 link on #d5d5d5 surrounding text
- **Missing:** No underline or other non-color distinction

**Remediation:**
- Add underline to links: `text-decoration: underline;`
- OR increase contrast to 3:1 minimum
- OR add bold weight to links

---

### 5. HIGH: Missing Focus Indicators (WCAG 2.4.7)
**Impact:** HIGH  
**WCAG:** 2.4.7 Focus Visible (Level AA)  
**Status:** ❌ FAIL

**Statistics:**
- **Homepage:** 31 of 31 focusable elements lack visible focus indicators
- **About Page:** 19 of 19 focusable elements lack visible focus indicators
- **Contact Page:** Similar pattern observed

**Affected Elements:**
- All navigation links
- All social media links
- All footer links
- Form fields (Contact page)

**Remediation:**
Add visible focus styles to all interactive elements:
```css
a:focus, button:focus, input:focus, select:focus, textarea:focus {
    outline: 2px solid #0066cc;
    outline-offset: 2px;
}
```

---

## Page-Specific Findings

### Homepage (https://visionleadership.org/)

**Axe-Core Results:**
- ❌ 4 violations
- ✅ 28 passes
- ⚠️ 2 incomplete (manual review needed)

**Additional Issues:**

#### Zoom Testing (WCAG 1.4.4, 1.4.10)
- **100% zoom:** 2 elements overflow viewport
- **200% zoom:** 2 elements overflow viewport
- **Status:** ⚠️ MODERATE - Content remains readable but layout issues present

#### Responsive Design (WCAG 1.4.10)
- **320px width:** 3 elements overflow (mobile)
- **1280px width:** 2 elements overflow (desktop)
- **Status:** ⚠️ MODERATE - Responsive layout functions but has overflow issues

#### Enhanced Accessibility Analysis
- **15 ARIA violations** detected
- **4 links missing accessible names**
- **2 interactive elements with aria-hidden** (select dropdown, reCAPTCHA)
- **9 hidden inputs missing accessible names**

**Contrast Check Results:**
- **Total elements checked:** 310
- **Passed WCAG AA:** 225 (72.6%)
- **Failed WCAG AA:** 85 (27.4%)

**Major contrast failures:**
- White text on white backgrounds (1.00:1) in slider content
- Form elements with insufficient contrast
- Social media "Follow" buttons: 2.49:1 to 2.75:1

---

### About Page (https://visionleadership.org/about/)

**Axe-Core Results:**
- ❌ 3 violations
- ✅ 13 passes
- ⚠️ 1 incomplete

**Contrast Check Results:**
- **Total elements checked:** 213
- **Passed WCAG AA:** 182 (85.4%)
- **Failed WCAG AA:** 31 (14.6%)

**Keyboard Navigation:**
- **Total interactive elements:** 65
- **Keyboard focusable:** 19
- **Missing focus indicators:** 19 (100%)
- **Keyboard traps:** 0 ✅

**Issues Specific to About Page:**
- Same footer contrast issues as homepage
- Same viewport zoom disabled issue
- Same link distinction issues

---

### Contact Page (https://visionleadership.org/contact-us/)

**Axe-Core Results:**
- ❌ 4 violations
- ✅ 29 passes
- ⚠️ 1 incomplete

**Form Analysis:**
- **Method:** POST
- **Total fields:** 16 (including hidden fields)
- **Visible fields:** 6 (name, email, phone, subject dropdown, message, reCAPTCHA)
- **Submit button:** Present but has contrast issue

**Form-Specific Issues:**

1. **Submit Button Contrast**
   - Ratio: 2.71:1 (requires 4.5:1)
   - Colors: white on light blue (#17a8e3)

2. **Image Lightbox Links**
   - 3 links to contact images have empty title attributes
   - No accessible names for screen readers

3. **Form Field Labels**
   - Fields use placeholder text instead of visible labels
   - ARIA attributes present but visual labels missing
   - Placeholders disappear when user types

**Remediation for Form:**
```html
<!-- Add visible labels -->
<label for="forminator-field-name-1">Your Name *</label>
<input type="text" id="forminator-field-name-1" name="name-1" 
       placeholder="Enter your full name" aria-required="true">
```

---

## Testing Methodology

### Tools Used
1. **Chromium Browser** with Chrome DevTools Protocol
2. **cremotemcp MCP Tools** (63 tools available)
3. **axe-core v4.8.0** - Industry-standard accessibility testing
4. **Chrome Accessibility Tree** - Depth 3 analysis with contrast data
5. **Manual keyboard navigation testing**
6. **Responsive design testing** (320px, 1280px)
7. **Zoom level testing** (100%, 200%, 400%)

### Pages Tested
1. ✅ Homepage (/)
2. ✅ About (/about/)
3. ✅ Contact (/contact-us/)

### Tests Performed Per Page
- Automated axe-core WCAG 2.1 AA testing
- Color contrast analysis (all text elements)
- Keyboard navigation and focus indicator testing
- Accessibility tree structure analysis
- Enhanced ARIA validation
- Form field analysis (Contact page)
- Zoom and reflow testing
- Media validation (no video/audio found)
- Responsive design testing

---

## Screenshots Captured

All screenshots saved to: `/home/squash/go/src/git.teamworkapps.com/shortcut/cremote/screenshots/`

1. `homepage-initial.png` - Full-page screenshot of homepage
2. `about-page.png` - Full-page screenshot of About page
3. `contact-page.png` - Full-page screenshot of Contact page with form

---

## Recommendations by Priority

### CRITICAL Priority (Fix Immediately)

1. **Enable Viewport Zooming**
   - Remove `user-scalable=0` from viewport meta tag
   - Estimated effort: 5 minutes
   - Impact: Affects all mobile users with low vision

### HIGH Priority (Fix Within 1 Week)

2. **Fix Color Contrast Issues**
   - Update footer text color from #666666 to #999999 or lighter
   - Update submit button background to darker blue
   - Update navigation link colors
   - Estimated effort: 2-4 hours
   - Impact: Affects users with low vision, color blindness

3. **Add Focus Indicators**
   - Add visible focus styles to all interactive elements
   - Estimated effort: 2-3 hours
   - Impact: Affects keyboard-only users, motor disability users

4. **Fix Link Accessible Names**
   - Add aria-label or title attributes to all links
   - Add descriptive text for image lightbox links
   - Estimated effort: 3-4 hours
   - Impact: Affects screen reader users

### MEDIUM Priority (Fix Within 1 Month)

5. **Add Visible Form Labels**
   - Replace placeholder-only labels with visible labels
   - Keep placeholders as additional help text
   - Estimated effort: 4-6 hours
   - Impact: Affects users with cognitive disabilities, screen reader users

6. **Fix Link Text Distinction**
   - Add underlines to footer links
   - Increase contrast between links and surrounding text
   - Estimated effort: 1-2 hours
   - Impact: Affects users with color blindness

7. **Fix ARIA Issues**
   - Remove aria-hidden from interactive elements
   - Add accessible names to hidden inputs (or hide from accessibility tree)
   - Estimated effort: 3-4 hours
   - Impact: Affects screen reader users

---

## Legal Risk Assessment

**Overall Risk Level:** **HIGH**

### High-Lawsuit-Risk Violations Present:
1. ✅ Disabled zoom/scaling (WCAG 1.4.4)
2. ✅ Insufficient color contrast (WCAG 1.4.3)
3. ✅ Missing link accessible names (WCAG 2.4.4, 4.1.2)
4. ✅ Missing focus indicators (WCAG 2.4.7)
5. ✅ Form accessibility issues (WCAG 3.3.2, 4.1.2)

### Compliance Status by WCAG Level:
- **Level A:** ❌ FAIL (multiple violations)
- **Level AA:** ❌ FAIL (multiple violations)
- **Level AAA:** Not assessed (not required)

---

## Conclusion

The Vision Leadership Organization website (visionleadership.org) has **significant accessibility barriers** that prevent users with disabilities from accessing content and functionality. The site is currently **NON-COMPLIANT** with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards.

**Immediate action is required** to address the CRITICAL viewport zoom issue and HIGH priority color contrast and keyboard navigation issues. These violations present a **HIGH legal risk** and affect a substantial portion of users with disabilities.

With focused remediation efforts (estimated 20-30 hours total), the site can achieve WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance and provide equal access to all users.

---

## Appendix: Technical Details

### Axe-Core Test Configuration
- **Rules:** wcag2a, wcag2aa, wcag21aa
- **Version:** 4.8.0
- **Timeout:** 30 seconds per page

### Browser Configuration
- **Browser:** Chromium (Chrome-compatible)
- **Viewport:** 1280x800 (desktop), 320x800 (mobile)
- **User Agent:** Standard Chromium user agent

### Assessment Compliance
- Followed enhanced_chromium_ada_checklist.md methodology
- Used KISS philosophy (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
- Comprehensive testing with all available cremotemcp tools
- Professional documentation standards maintained

---

**Report Generated:** October 3, 2025  
**Assessment Tool:** AI Agent with cremotemcp MCP tools  
**Contact:** For questions about this assessment, refer to the testing methodology section.

