Accessibility (ADA) Policy

Wood Work Science is committed to making our woodworking science resources, material data, and guides usable by all visitors, including people with disabilities.

As a site dedicated to wood behavior, material science, and practical answers about wood, we continuously work to enhance the experience for everyone and apply recognized accessibility standards to our content, tools, and navigation.

Our Commitment

Our goal is to provide access to our content for the broadest audience regardless of technology, context, or ability. We incorporate accessibility considerations into design, development, and content production, and we align our practices with established guidelines wherever feasible.

Conformance Status

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) describe how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities and set three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA.

Wood Work Science is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Partial conformance indicates that some parts of the site may not fully meet the standard. We actively review, test, and improve our site to progress toward greater conformance.

Measures to Support Accessibility

Wood Work Science supports accessibility through the following measures:

  • Built-in accessibility practices: Accessibility is considered at planning, design, content creation, development, and maintenance stages.
  • Quality assurance and testing: We use automated tools and manual reviews, including keyboard-only checks and screen reader spot testing, to identify and address barriers.
  • Accessible content workflows: We provide text alternatives for images (e.g., wood species, grain patterns, joinery diagrams), captions or transcripts for multimedia where provided, and semantic headings for data tables (such as density or moisture content charts).
  • Training and guidance: Team members receive ongoing guidance on creating and maintaining accessible pages, documents, and code.
  • Governance and oversight: Dedicated personnel monitor issues, prioritize fixes, and coordinate accessibility improvements across the site.
  • Color and contrast standards: We aim to maintain sufficient contrast, especially for images of wood samples and finish comparisons, and avoid relying on color alone to convey meaning.

Technical Specifications

The accessibility of Wood Work Science relies on the following technologies to function with a combination of browsers and assistive technologies or plugins you may use:

  • HTML
  • WAI-ARIA
  • CSS
  • JavaScript

These technologies are relied upon to meet applicable accessibility standards and to support assistive tools.

Compatibility with Browsers and Assistive Technology

Wood Work Science is designed to support a range of assistive technologies and input methods, including:

  • Screen readers (for example, JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver)
  • Screen magnification tools
  • Voice recognition software
  • Keyboard-only navigation

We aim for compatibility with current and recent versions of major browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.

Limitations and Alternatives

While we work hard to make every part of Wood Work Science accessible, some limitations may occur. If you encounter a barrier, please contact us. Known areas include:

  • Third-party content: Certain features or embeds (such as externally hosted videos, tools, maps, or social media feeds) are not under our full control. We encourage providers to follow accessibility best practices and will explore alternatives when feasible.
  • Legacy or archived files: Older PDFs or scans (for example, historical wood property charts) may lack text alternatives. When possible, we will remediate or offer an accessible format on request.
  • Continuous improvements: As we update content and features, temporary issues may arise. If you experience difficulty using any part of the Wood Work Science website, please contact us so we can help and address the problem.

Feedback

Your input helps us improve. If you find an accessibility issue on Wood Work Science, we welcome your feedback and will respond as promptly as we can.

  • Please include the page URL, the problem you observed, the assistive technology or browser you used, and any steps to reproduce the issue.
  • For all inquiries, use our contact form at https://woodworkscience.com/contact-us/.

When contacting us, please provide as much detail as possible about the issue and where it occurred so we can investigate and assist.

Formal Complaints

We take accessibility concerns seriously and aim to resolve them fairly and transparently. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may pursue a formal complaint under the Americans with Disabilities Act or other applicable laws. To begin, please reach out through our contact page.

Assessment Approach

Wood Work Science evaluates accessibility through self-assessments, automated scans, manual testing (including keyboard and screen reader checks), and review of user feedback gathered via our contact form.